Love thy neighbor: Explaining asylum seeking and hosting, 1982–2008

Abstract

Using a Tobit analysis, this article examines factors influencing asylum seekers’ filing of asylum applications and host countries’ recognition of convention refugees. From the views that stress socio-politico-economic conditions, we find that welfare-provisional and geographically close countries often become targets of asylum seekers, whereas politically secured and geographically remote countries have higher propensity to recognize legal status of asylum seekers. From a world polity perspective, we note that asylum seekers prefer the countries that have national refugee legislation, ratify more human rights treaties, and have greater international nongovernmental organizations membership, yet host countries – despite their linkage to the world polity – abstain from granting legal protection to asylum seekers, suggesting the possibility of a decoupling. This study contributes to both a more systematic understanding of global refugee movements and the ongoing debate on whether individuals and countries act strategically or are influenced by world cultural principles.