Refugees,not Economic Migrants ‐ Why do Asylum‐Seekers Register in Hungary?

The article analyses why asylum‐seekers choose Hungary as an entry point to the European Union. Among the Central and Eastern European countries Hungary has been by far the most popular choice for asylum‐seekers between 2002 and 2016, yet surprisingly, it has been neglected by the literature. Using a panel dataset and fixed effects regressions, the article finds that beyond being ‘conveniently’ located on the Balkans migration route, variables related to Hungary's immigration policy are the most significant determinants of asylum‐seeker choices. The article finds no evidence to support recent claims by the Hungarian government that arrivals to the country are actually economic migrants and not asylum‐seekers; quite the contrary, the results indicate that on average asylum‐seekers entering Hungary are fleeing violent conflict in their countries of origin.     

The Push and Pull Factors Contributing Towards Asylum Migration from Developing Countries to Developed Countries Since 2000

In the early 2000s, asylum seekers went primarily to destinations their countries had historical relationships, including former colonial ties, common languages and ethnic networks. Since the mid-2000s, there has been a shift towards asylum seekers arriving in destinations without such relationships. In this study, we apply spatial interaction models to understand the factors contributing to recent asylum migration from developing countries to developed countries from 2001 to 2015. We find that the push factors of political terror, civil rights violation and poverty do not result in increased asylum migration to developed countries. Instead, they act to reduce the number of asylum seekers. We also find that interactions between a range of push factors are important for understanding the movements and that immigration policies can have considerable effects on the destination choices of asylum seekers.     

Conversion as a Migration Strategy in a Transit Country: Iranian Shiites Becoming Christians in Turkey

The role of religion during migration processes has been overlooked by scholars in the past although the relationship between religion and migration has a long history. Normally, religion is considered as an integrating agent, but for some Iranian asylum seekers in Turkey, religion and especially religious conversion is used as a tool for migration. This article draws on the migration histories of Iranian asylum seekers in Turkey who initially intended to go further west only to have stayed in Turkey either because of the long procedures of asylum application in Turkey or because they were rejected and have become “illegal aliens” who do not want to return to Iran. Turkey still preserves geographic limitation of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees. Therefore it does not accept non‐European asylum seekers to settle on Turkish soil. Ironically, however, most asylum applications were made by people from the Middle East, mainly from Iran. Based on the extensive fieldwork carried out in various cities in Turkey where the Iranian migrants are heavily concentrated, this article demonstrates how conversion from Shi’a Islam to Christianity is used as a migration strategy and how and to what extent these asylum seekers use religion and their newly acquired social and religious networks within churches of the transit country to reach ultimately the West as refugees. As conversion is sustained through social networks as well as churches and missionaries, this unique situation can be explained by employing the social capital theory within the context of an institutional component.     

ACCOUNTING FOR STATE APPROACHES TO ASYLUM SEEKERS IN AUSTRALIA AND MALAYSIA: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF “NATIONAL” IDENTITY AND “EXCLUSIVE” CITIZENSHIP IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST “IRREGULAR” MOBILITY

This article uses the case studies of Australia and Malaysia to examine how diverse states in the Asia-Pacific region approach asylum seekers in practice and in discourse. Using a social constructionist approach to identity, the article highlights how governments in each country have grappled with “irregular” migration and the challenges it poses for national identity through processes of “othering” and “exclusion.” This comparison shows that the process of excluding asylum seekers on the basis of identity is not a Western phenomenon, but one extending to countries across the region. It is maintained that state discourses around asylum seekers within the two countries are framed in similar arguments centred around the concepts of “irregular” mobility, “national” identity, and “exclusive” citizenship. More specifically, it is demonstrated that both the Malaysian and Australian governments have projected asylum seekers in the public realm primarily as “illegal” through their undocumented mobility, and within this discourse as “threats” to national identity and security and therefore “unworthy” of citizenship privileges through resettlement or local integration. It is argued that each government has used trajectories specific to their own nation-building process to make their arguments more relevant and appealing to their constituents. A key premise of this article holds that an understanding of the rationale underpinning each government's asylum approach will contribute to establishing more open and constructive regional dialogue around the asylum issue.     

Between Control and Assistance: The Problem of European Accommodation Centres for Asylum Seekers

Accommodation centres are much more than means of securing asylum seekers’ housing needs. They are an embodiment of asylum and immigration policies. To understand these policies and their effects on asylum seekers, we need to ask what interests different institutional actors have in keeping asylum seekers in the centres. Based on the study of accommodation centres in the Czech Republic, in this paper I argue that the centres serve as tools of migration control. The prolonged confinement of a highly diverse group of people produced by the interconnectedness between asylum and immigration policies leads to asylum seekers’ disillusionment about the asylum procedure and nourishes various illicit activities. The centres enable state institutions to determine the nature of assistance available to asylum seekers, including legal aid provided by non-governmental organizations. By actively promoting the image of accommodation centres as benign places, the state also controls the dominant representation of refugee reception. In everyday practices in the centres, control and assistance are closely intertwined and produce an oppressive environment that engenders asylum seekers’ dependency.     

Excluded by crisis management? Legislative hyperactivity in post-2015 Germany

This article examines the legislative measures taken by Germany since 2014 to manage the “refugee crisis” and analyses the potential effects on the rights and the well-being of asylum seekers and persons with protection needs at large. By taking a closer look at the reasoning given in the respective legislative documents we will show the link between the recent changes in the national asylum and migration law and the underlying migration management framework. The article concludes that Germany has seen a shift from a management to a securitization approach, the latter entailing a special emphasis on deportation (“return turn”) rather than focusing on accommodation and integration of those seeking protection. Acting in a mere “crisis mode”, the German legislator has implemented an exclusion paradigm that incrementally substituted the prior inclusive policies over time.     

Imagination,Hope and the Migrant Journey: Iraqi Asylum Seekers Looking for a Future in Europe

Europe received an unprecedented number of asylum seekers in 2015. This article examines Iraqi asylum seekers who journeyed through Europe in search of an idealized version of Finland, which they had imagined based on word-of-mouth and social media information. Through cognitive migration, the act of pre-experiencing futures in different locations, Finland was seen to offer both subjective hope of personal growth and advancement and objective hope of safety and physical security. This hope motivated them to embark on a journey of 6,000 kilometers to the European North. Based on interview data and relevant studies, the article concludes that hope of a better, imagined future abroad acts as a powerful magnet for persons with poor prospects in their countries of origin. Hope is a kind of critical emotion strongly shaped by beliefs and real-time opportunities; and as such, beliefs are notoriously difficult to change. Imagination, therefore, should not be overlooked when planning and implementing migration policies.     

Asylum Policies, Trafficking and Vulnerability

This article is located at the intersection of three recent debates on asylum in Europe: the efficacy of asylum policies; the trafficking of asylum seekers, and their growing vulnerability. Most commentators agree that there are relationships between these three debates, but the nature of those relationships remain unclear. Yet the need properly to understand the nature of these links has become especially pressing in the context of a raft of new policy initiatives on both asylum and trafficking, and concerns for their consequences for asylum seekers. At least part of the reason for this lack of clear understanding is significant gaps in empirical research. This article begins to fill some of these gaps, and in so doing to unpick some of the relationships between asylum policies, trafficking and vulnerability. It focuses on the experiences of asylum seekers in Europe, thus presenting a "bottom up" perspective on trafficking and asylum policies. The findings are derived from research among Iranian asylum seekers in the Netherlands, conducted between 1994 and 1996. The article discusses some of the reservations that surround this approach, including methodological issues such as trust, and the difficulties of applying more widely a narrow case study. Within the context of these reservations, it draws three main conclusions. First, empirical evidence to support the view that increasing proportions of asylum seekers are being forced to turn to traffickers in order to negotiate restrictive asylum policies. Second, the ways in which trafficking is exposing asylum seekers – including at least some "genuine" refugees – to new forms of vulnerability. Third, that direct links exist between asylum policies, trafficking and vulnerability, and that the blame for growing vulnerability lies more with asylum policies than with traffickers or with asylum seekers themselves. Finally, these empirical conclusions are targeted on a series of policy implications.     

Interrogating the Relationship between Remigration and Sustainable Return

Assisted voluntary return is a central component of many countries managed migration policies. Within these programmes achieving a sustainable return is a common policy goal, which is often measured through remigration. In this paper, it is argued that remigration is not a valid indicator to measure sustainable return. A new definition and approach to defining and measuring sustainable return is presented based on a multidimensional return and reintegration index, which is tested with a sample of 118 returnees in six countries. Due to small sample size a chi‐square test is used to examine the correlation between the return and reintegration index and remigration intentions. The results demonstrate the relationship between having a concrete remigration plan and the return and reintegration index is insignificant. This relationship between remigration and sustainable return is further interrogated throughout the paper.     

Organized International Asylum‐Seeker Networks: Formation and Utilization by Chinese Students1

This article examines the formation and role of international networks formed by Chinese students living in the West in the late 1980s and early 1990s as part of their efforts to obtain the right to remain in Western countries in the immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen Square violence of June 4, 1989. Various forms of migrant social networks have been a research focus in international refugee and migration studies, but international networks formed by asylum seekers themselves, and their role in asylum‐seeking processes, have been largely ignored. This article is based on a multi‐method comparative study of Chinese students living in Australia and the United States at the time. Their experience provides data for examining and conceptualizing the role of organized international asylum‐seeker networks in the asylum‐seeking process. The analysis focuses on Chinese student lobbying in 1989, led by an independent Chinese student union, which helped “the Pelosi Bill” to be passed by the U.S. Congress. The main strategies adopted by Chinese students in the United States and Australia, as well as their internationally coordinated actions, are compared. Also examined is the role of two politicized international Chinese student organizations, the Chinese Alliance for Democracy and the Federation for Democratic China, in assisting students with obtaining residence.     

The Path to Asylum in the US and the Determinants for Who Gets In and Why*

The migration of political asylum seekers into the United States has long been a salient political topic; however, social scientists have yet to examine this process in its entirety and in the context of political changes since September 11, 2001. Previous research shows that humanitarian and strategic interests are important for decisions made by asylum officers but that research overlooks the decisions made by immigration judges. Here we examine decisions made by both asylum officers and immigration judges using data from a global set of countries, from 1999 to 2004. We find that the waning importance of human rights is more pronounced for asylum officers than for immigration judges after the attack on the World Trade Center. We also find that language heritage, specifically for asylum seekers from English‐, Spanish‐, and Arabic‐speaking countries, substantially affects acceptance rates made by both decision‐makers between the two time periods of our study.     

Missing the Boat: Australia and Asylum Seeker Deterrence Messaging

Many of Australia's border protection policies have focused on attempts to deter the arrival of asylum seekers by boat. These include government ‘messaging’ in the hope this will influence the decision‐making of would‐be boat arrivals. This article outlines the findings of an exploratory study on the sources of information accessed by asylum seekers, prior to and during their boat journeys to Australia, about their destination country. The findings suggest that government media and Internet strategies focused on deterring asylum seekers are adopted without full regard to how information is sourced before and during these boat journeys.     

Understanding Transit Asylum Migration: Evidence from Serbia

Due to its geographic location and borders along the European Union (EU), in recent years, the Republic of Serbia has faced an increased number of irregular migrants from third‐world countries claiming asylum on their way into a western EU member state. Some of these migrants stay for a while in asylum centres in Serbia to rest or renew contacts. In order to explore the main socio‐demographic features of the study population, their migration history and intentions, a questionnaire‐based research was conducted in Banja Kovilja?a asylum centre. The results also give insights into the underlying question “how” and the role of social networks in migration. Most of asylum seekers are unmarried males at peak working age, from countries affected by war and political turmoil. The results indicate this is a transit migration where, besides fleeing to safety, economic status and migration networks have a significant impact on migration flows.     

User involvement and empowerment among asylum seekers in Norwegian reception centres

A considerable amount of literature has been published on conditions in reception centres for asylum seekers. The previous studies show that the life of residents in the centres is characterised by uncertainty, passivity, powerlessness and gradual disqualification. Drawing from data collected from asylum seekers and service providers in Norwegian reception centres, this article examines the tools used to counteract these processes. The article maintains that organised activities, such as language courses and user involvement in the form of cooperative councils, have an impact on the empowerment of asylum seekers. However, user motivation for participation and involvement in these arrangements is undermined, due to residents' responses on factors which operate both at the structural and relational level. The findings and questions raised in the article have wider implications for social work with asylum seekers in other European countries, as well as for current efforts being made by EU countries to regulate reception conditions for asylum seekers. Among other things, the authors relate their findings to reception standards as defined in the EU Directive on Reception Conditions for asylum seekers.     

Protecting Women Asylum Seekers and Refugees: From International Norms to National Protection?

Little attention is paid in most national asylum policies and legislation to the specific position of female asylum seekers, and to gendered aspects of refugee and asylum situations. Further, even in those countries that have adopted asylum legislation to specifically address the question of women asylum seekers and victims of gender specific persecution, problems still remain in the implementation of these policies and in the full recognition of persecutions specific to women. Whilst the issue of protection of women victims of this type of violence have been put on the international agenda, at least to some extent, through directives on the defence of women’s human rights and on the protection of female refugees and asylum seekers, the international norms which have thus been created have been implemented unevenly and unequally in different national contexts. This article seeks to analyse the extent to which national asylum legislation and policies have integrated a concern with the protection of women victims of gender specific forms of persecution, and how effective this implementation has been. The article will engage critically with existing accounts of global norm creation to examine the uneven diffusion and implementation of norms on the protection of female refugees, pointing to the importance of discursive opportunity structures open to actors in mobilising around these issues at local and national levels. It will also argue that even where policies and legislation dealing specifically with women refugees and asylum seekers do exist, they may not actually address some of the important insecurities facing these women because of an approach that does not fully comprehend and act upon gendered structures and relations of power.     

The Asylum‐Integration Paradox: Comparing Asylum Support Systems and Refugee Integration in The Netherlands and the UK

This article explores the impact of asylum support systems on refugee integration focusing on the UK and the Netherlands. Both have adopted deterrent approaches to asylum support. The Dutch favour the use of asylum accommodation centres, segregating asylum seekers from the general population. The UK disperses asylum seekers to housing within deprived areas, embedding them within communities. Both countries have been criticized for these practices, which are viewed as potentially anti‐integrative: something of a paradox given that both promote the importance of refugee integration. We analyse national refugee integration surveys in both countries and provide original empirical evidence of negative associations between asylum support systems and refugees’ health, which differ in relation to mental and physical health. The integration and asylum policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Aid, Relief, and Containment: The First Asylum Country and Beyond

A fundamental problem that confronts the European Union today is how it can maintain its commitment to the institution of asylum while checking irregular migration and the abuse of its asylum system. In order to explore a response to this dilemma the paper addresses the following questions: what role can relief and aid policies play in influencing migration patterns? What should be the appropriate approach to the granting of relief and aid to developing countries of first asylum? Should it be viewed as a part of the larger problem of development or be treated as a distinct issue? What kind of a relief/aid model will help refugees return to post–conflict societies and stop the conflict from reproducing itself? The paper examines two different approaches to address these questions: the alliance–containment approach and the distributive–developmental approach. It also looks at some empirical evidence, which reveals that at present it is a conservative alliance–containment approach that informs EU relief and aid practices. This approach, however, does not help achieve the stated objective of checking abuse of asylum and migration procedures while sustaining a commitment to a liberal asylum regime. The paper goes on to identify the gaps in EU policy and the lessons that can be drawn. It concludes by looking at different policy alternatives and suggesting the adoption of a reformist distributive–developmental model. The implementation of this model holds out the hope of reverting to a more liberal asylum regime while controlling irregular migration and “bogus” asylum seekers, for the reformist distributive developmental model takes a more long–term view of migration trends and also seeks to address the growing North–South divide.     

Restricting asylum: Trends and prospects

The dramatic rise in asylum applications in industrialized countries during the last decade has resulted in the development of an increasingly restrictive asylum regime. The tools these countries have devised for containing and deterring asylum claims—the concepts of Safe Countries of Origin and Safe Third Countries, Manifestly Unfounded Applications, and numerous administrative measures which act as barriers to entry—are targeted specifically at nationals of countries most likely to produce refugees. Additional pre‐entry measures attempt to make the asylum route as difficult as possible through the use of visa requirements and carrier sanctions. For those asylum seekers who manage to make the journey despite these obstacles, the administrative evaluation of their claims is accelerated, the legal procedures shortened, and the opportunities for appeal reduced. In addition, governments are increasingly resorting to bilateral agreements to ensure the readmission of rejected asylum seekers into the countries from or through which they came. The implementation of these measures in many European countries—but also in North America and Australia—are already well on their way, and the trend toward harmonizing these restrictionist responses is likely to continue. Policy makers need to be reminded of the risks of their policies for the basic tenets of asylum and refugee protection.     

What Determines the Embeddedness of Forced‐Return Migrants? Rethinking the Role of Pre‐ and Post‐Return Assistance1

Return migration is not always a process of simply “going home.” Particularly when return is not fully voluntarily, returnees face severe obstacles. This study argues that such return can only become sustainable when returnees are provided with possibilities to become re‐embedded in terms of economic, social network, and psychosocial dimensions. We analyze the return migration experiences of 178 rejected asylum seekers and migrants who did not obtain residence permit to six different countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Togo and Vietnam. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis, we identify several key factors that influence prospects for embeddedness, such as individual and family characteristics, position in the migration cycle, and the role of pre‐ and post‐return assistance. We find that the possibilities for successful return are highly dependent on the living circumstances provided in the host country: returnees who were enabled to engage in work, had access to independent housing and freedom to develop social contacts proved to be better able to exercise agency and maintain self‐esteem. Post‐return assistance by non‐governmental organizations will be particularly helpful when financial support is combined with human guidance and practical information to enhance a more sustainable return process.     

DEPORTED: The Right to Asylum at EU’s External Border of Italy and Libya1

During the past year the temporary holding centre for irregular migrants in Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island, has been repeatedly denounced for instances of procedural irregularities and alleged human rights violations. This study presents an overview of events and policies implemented by the Italian and Libyan Governments, the European Union and the International Organization for Migration and outlines the contentions surrounding these policies. It argues that the implementation of the detention and return schemes, commonly discussed in terms of the externalization of asylum, does not actually relocate the asylum procedures outside the EU’s external borders but rather deprives asylum seekers of the possibility of accessing asylum determination procedure. It further suggests that policies geared towards deterring irregular migratory flows into Europe and combatting smuggling in migrants in Libya, might paradoxically result in ‘illegalizing’ the movement of migrants in northern Africa and increasing the involvement of smuggling networks. The study ends by raising the issue of the political responsibility of all actors involved and suggests the most affective ways to balance the rights and responsibilities on asylum at the EU’s southern border.