IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iis/dispap/iiisdp09.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Policy Matter? On Governments’ Attempts to Control Unwanted Migration

Author

Listed:
  • Eiko R. Thielemann

Abstract

Public policy making on asylum takes place in an environment of intense public scrutiny, strong institutional constraints and international collective action problems. By assessing the relative importance of key pull factors of international migration, this article explains why, even when controlling for their differences in size, some states receive a much larger number of asylum seekers than others. The analysis of 20 OECD countries for the period 1985-1999 further shows that some of the most high profile public policy measures—safe third country provisions, dispersal and voucher schemes—aimed, at least in part, at deterring unwanted migration and at addressing the highly unequal distribution of asylum burdens have often been ineffective. This is because the key determinants of an asylum seeker’s choice of host country are historical, economic and reputational factors that largely lie beyond the reach of asylum policy makers. Finally, the paper argues that the effectiveness of unilateral policy measures will be further undermined by multilateral attempts to harmonise restrictive policies and that current efforts such as those by the European Union will consolidate, rather than effectively address, existing disparities in the distribution of asylum burdens.

Suggested Citation

  • Eiko R. Thielemann, 2003. "Does Policy Matter? On Governments’ Attempts to Control Unwanted Migration," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp09, IIIS.
  • Handle: RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp09
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.tcd.ie/triss/assets/PDFs/iiis/iiisdp09.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Todaro, Michael P, 1969. "A Model for Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less Developed Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 138-148, March.
    2. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    3. Pierson, Paul, 2000. "Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 94(2), pages 251-267, June.
    4. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Helbling, Marc & Bjerre, Liv & Römer, Friederike & Zobel, Malisa, 2017. "Measuring immigration policies: the IMPIC database," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 16(1), pages 79-98.
    2. Berger, Valentin & Bjerre, Liv & Breyer, Magdalena & Helbling, Marc & Römer, Friederike & Zobel, Malisa, 2024. "The Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) Dataset: Technical Report V2," Discussion Papers, various Research Units SP VI 2016-201r, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, revised 2024.
    3. Bjerre, Liv & Helbling, Marc & Römer, Friederike & Zobel, Malisa Zora, 2016. "The Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) Dataset: Technical Report," Discussion Papers, various Research Units SP VI 2016-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. Eric Neumayer, 2004. "Asylum Destination Choice," European Union Politics, , vol. 5(2), pages 155-180, June.
    5. Dimiter Doychinov Toshkov, 2014. "The dynamic relationship between asylum applications and recognition rates in Europe (1987–2010)," European Union Politics, , vol. 15(2), pages 192-214, June.
    6. Schmid, Samuel D. & Helbling, Marc, 2016. "Validating the Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) dataset," Discussion Papers, various Research Units SP VI 2016-202, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    7. Issifou,Ismael, 2020. "Understanding Decisions Made on Asylum Applications in Host Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9153, The World Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alan Matthews & Hannah Chaplin, 2005. "Reform of the EU Sugar Regime: Impacts on Sugar Production in Ireland," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp90, IIIS.
    2. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Tobias D. Ketterer, 2012. "Do Local Amenities Affect The Appeal Of Regions In Europe For Migrants?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 535-561, October.
    3. Jean-Louis Arcand & Linguère M'Baye, 2013. "Braving the waves: the role of time and risk preferences in illegal migration from Senegal," CERDI Working papers halshs-00855937, HAL.
    4. Mohamed Amara & Hatem Jemmali, 2018. "Deciphering the Relationship Between Internal Migration and Regional Disparities in Tunisia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 313-331, January.
    5. Ather Maqsood Ahmed & Ismail Sirageldin, 1993. "Socio-economic Determinants of Labour Mobility in Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 139-157.
    6. Albertini, Julien & Terriau, Anthony, 2019. "Informality over the life-cycle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 182-202.
    7. Fidrmuc, Jan, 2001. "Migration and adjustment to shocks in transition economies," ZEI Working Papers B 23-2001, University of Bonn, ZEI - Center for European Integration Studies.
    8. Atsede Desta Tegegne & Marianne Penker, 2016. "Determinants of rural out-migration in Ethiopia: Who stays and who goes?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(34), pages 1011-1044.
    9. Martin JANOTKA & Vladimir GAZDA, 2012. "Modelling Of Interregional Migration In Slovakia," Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Spiru Haret University, Faculty of Financial Management and Accounting Craiova, vol. 7(1(19)/ Sp), pages 48-55.
    10. Tineke Fokkema & Eralba Cela & Elena Ambrosetti, 2013. "Giving from the Heart or from the Ego? Motives behind Remittances of the Second Generation in Europe," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 539-572, September.
    11. Sergio Vergalli, 2011. "Entry and Exit Strategies in Migration Dynamics," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 362-389, December.
    12. repec:zbw:iamodp:109518 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Raymond Riezman & Ping Wang & Eric Bond, 2012. "Trade, Urbanization and Capital Accumulation in a Labor Surplus Economy," 2012 Meeting Papers 776, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Wei-Bin Zhang, 2008. "A Two-Sector Growth Model with Endogenous Human Capital and Amenities," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 6(2), pages 95-116.
    15. Oshiro, Jun & Sato, Yasuhiro, 2021. "Industrial structure in urban accounting," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Jean-Louis Arcand & Linguère M'Baye, 2011. "Braving the waves: The economics of clandestine migration from Africa," CERDI Working papers halshs-00575606, HAL.
    17. Danilo Bertoni & Daniele Cavicchioli & Franco Donzelli & Giovanni Ferrazzi & Dario G. Frisio & Roberto Pretolani & Elena Claire Ricci & Vera Ventura, 2018. "Recent Contributions of Agricultural Economics Research in the Field of Sustainable Development," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-20, December.
    18. Carlos Garriga & Aaron Hedlund & Yang Tang & Ping Wang, 2023. "Rural-Urban Migration, Structural Transformation, and Housing Markets in China," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 413-440, April.
    19. Tocco, Barbara & Davidova, Sophia & Bailey, Alastair, 2014. "Labour adjustments in agriculture: evidence from Romania," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 116(2), pages 1-7, August.
    20. Yamauchi, Futoshi, 2003. "Are experience and schooling complementary?," FCND briefs 166, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    21. Goldsmith, Peter D. & Gunjal, Kisan & Ndarishikanye, Barnabe, 2004. "Rural-urban migration and agricultural productivity: the case of Senegal," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 33-45, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp09. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Maeve (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cetcdie.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.