IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp1230.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Policy in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Hatton, Timothy J.

    (University of Essex)

  • Williamson, Jeffrey G.

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

The number of refugees worldwide is now 12 million, up from 3 million in the early 1970s. And the number seeking asylum in the developed world increased tenfold, from about 50,000 per annum to half a million over the same period. Governments and international agencies have grappled with the twin problems of providing adequate humanitarian assistance in the Third World and avoiding floods of unwanted asylum seekers arriving on the doorsteps of the First World. This is an issue that is long on rhetoric, as newspaper reports testify, but surprisingly short on economic analysis. This paper draws on the recent literature, and ongoing research, to address a series of questions that are relevant to the debate. First, we examine the causes of refugee displacements and asylum flows, focusing on the effects of conflict, political upheaval and economic incentives to migrate. Second, we examine the evolution of policies towards asylum seekers and the effects of those policies, particularly in Europe. Finally, we ask whether greater international coordination could produce better outcomes for refugee-receiving countries and for the refugees themselves.

Suggested Citation

  • Hatton, Timothy J. & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2004. "Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Policy in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 1230, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1230
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp1230.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hatton, Tim & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2002. "What Fundamentals Drive World Migration?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3559, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. David Pottebaum & Ravi Kanbur, 2004. "Civil war, public goods and the social wealth of nations," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 459-484.
    3. Jean-Paul Azam & Anke Hoeffler, 2002. "Violence Against Civilians in Civil Wars: Looting or Terror?," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 39(4), pages 461-485, July.
    4. Ralph Rotte & Michael Vogler & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 1997. "South–North Refugee Migration: Lessons for Development Cooperation," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 99-115, February.
    5. Timothy J. Hatton & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2003. "Demographic and Economic Pressure on Emigration out of Africa," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 105(3), pages 465-486, September.
    6. Timothy J. Hatton, 2004. "Seeking asylum in Europe [‘Violence against citizens in civil wars: looting or terror?’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 19(38), pages 6-62.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hendrik Dalen & George Groenewold & Jeannette Schoorl, 2005. "Out of Africa: what drives the pressure to emigrate?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(4), pages 741-778, November.
    2. Thomas Ziesemer, 2011. "Growth with endogenous migration hump and the multiple, dynamically interacting effects of aid in poor developing countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(30), pages 4865-4878.
    3. Akee, Randall K. Q., 2007. "Who Leaves and Who Returns? Deciphering Immigrant Self-Selection from a Developing Country," IZA Discussion Papers 3268, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. A. Ncube & Yonas T. Bahta & A. J. Jordaan, 2020. "Job Market Perceptions of African Migrant Women in South Africa as an Initial and Long-Term Coping and Adaptation Mechanism," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1165-1185, December.
    5. Anna Mayda, 2010. "International migration: a panel data analysis of the determinants of bilateral flows," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(4), pages 1249-1274, September.
    6. N. Diez Guardia & K. Pichelmann, 2006. "Labour Migration Patterns in Europe: Recent Trends, Future Challenges," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 256, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    7. Murard, Elie, 2017. "Less Welfare or Fewer Foreigners? Immigrant Inflows and Public Opinion towards Redistribution and Migration Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 10805, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Tim Hatton & Audrey Lim, 2005. "The ‘Tampa Effect’ Australian Asylum Policy In International Perspective," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2005-457, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    9. Michel Beine & Christopher Parsons, 2015. "Climatic Factors as Determinants of International Migration," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(2), pages 723-767, April.
    10. Marina Murat, 2017. "Foreign aid and asylum immigration. Does development matter?," Department of Economics 0120, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    11. Clark, Ximena & Hatton, Timothy J. & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2004. "What Explains Emigration Out of Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 1871-1890, November.
    12. Zaiceva, A. & Zimmermann, K.F., 2016. "Migration and the Demographic Shift," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 119-177, Elsevier.
    13. Barthel, Fabian & Neumayer, Eric, 2015. "Spatial dependence in asylum migration," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64187, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Marina Murat, 2020. "Foreign aid, bilateral asylum immigration and development," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 79-114, January.
    15. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico & Francesco Lancia & Alessia Russo, 2017. "Youth Enfranchisement, Political Responsiveness, and Education Expenditure: Evidence from the U.S," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 130, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    16. Timothy J. Hatton, 2005. "European Asylum Policy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 194(1), pages 106-119, October.
    17. Di Maio, Michele & Leone Sciabolazza, Valerio & Molini, Vasco, 2023. "Migration in Libya: A spatial network analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    18. Letouzé, Emmanuel & Purser, Mark & Rodríguez, Francisco & Cummins, Matthew, 2009. "Revisiting the Migration-Development Nexus: A Gravity Model Approach," MPRA Paper 19227, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Abdeslam Marfouk, 2008. "The African brain drain: scope and determinants," DULBEA Working Papers 08-07.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    20. Marina Murat, 2017. "Foreign Aid and responsiveness of bilateral refugee inflows," Department of Economics 0113, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".

    More about this item

    Keywords

    international policy coordination; asylum policy; asylum seekers; refugees;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:iza:izadps:dp1230. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.