Asylum Policy Research Articles

Temporary Protection Status Practices in the Context of Human Rights in Türkiye and European Union

Migration and refugees are among the most important and complex problems of today's world, deeply affecting the international community. Civil unrest and violence, especially in the Middle East, have led to the displacement of millions of people. Most of these displaced people have sought refuge in neighboring countries and Europe. However, this situation has led to many legal status debates and human rights violations. Türkiye stands out with the number of asylum seekers it has hosted and the policies it has pursued in this process. Syrians who have sought refuge in Türkiye since 2011 are under "Temporary Protection Status". However, while temporary protection status should be temporary in duration, when it evolves into a permanent temporary status, various uncertainties arise regarding the social cohesion of the protected persons and the standard of living befitting human dignity. Although temporary protection status was historically developed in European Union (EU) law, the Temporary Protection Directive adopted in 2001 was never activated until the Ukrainian crisis in 2022. In this context, the attitudes and practices of the EU towards asylum-seekers from different countries, such as Syrian and Ukrainian asylum-seekers, are also compared in terms of temporary protection status. Temporary protection status is recognized as an important mechanism in the human rights context and the international community needs to do more to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of protected persons. The compliance of temporary protection policies with human rights standards and their effective implementation are considered as critical steps to protect the dignity of protected persons and guarantee their human rights. In this study, a review article was conducted from a legal perspective by analyzing the current situation of temporary protection status implemented in Türkiye and the EU through a literature review. The examination of temporary protection status only in the context of Türkiye and the EU constitutes the limitation of the study. This study aims to contribute to theoretical debates by evaluating temporary protection status in international law, its implementation in Türkiye, and EU asylum policies from a human rights perspective.

The externalities of immigration policies on migration flows: the case of an asylum policy

Abstract We analyze the externalities arising from a bilateral asylum policy—the list of safe origin countries—relying on a tractable model. Using self-collected monthly data, we estimate that including one origin country on the safe list of a given destination decreases asylum applications from that origin to that destination by 29 per cent. We use a counterfactual policy simulation to quantify the spillover effects occurring across origin and destination countries. Individuals from targeted origin countries move to alternative destinations. Individuals from untargeted origins divert from alternative destinations. The magnitude of the externalities depends on the size of the affected flows.

The 2015 Refugee Crisis and Institutional Trust in European Countries

Exogenous events have the potential to affect citizens’ risk-perceptions, (in)security sentiments, electoral choices, policy preferences and institutional trust levels. It has been shown that migrant and refugee flows also affect citizens’ trust and policy preferences. The 2015 refugee crisis as it has come to be known, shook Europe’s cohesion and tested the existing immigration and asylum policies as well as acted as a further stimulus to populist/right wing Eurosceptic parties with an agenda of anti-immigrant restrictive policies. Expectedly, it has attracted considerable attention in the relevant literature. Building on existing studies that examine various aspects associated with the 2015 refugee crisis, the present paper examines its effect on institutional trust levels in Europe. Specifically, it focuses on trust towards the national government, the EU and the two state security services the police and the armed forces. To this effect, the study draws data from successive Eurobarometer surveys before and after the crisis. Employing segmented-type regression models as well as Oaxaca decomposition models it probes into the 2015 refugee crisis’ impact on the levels of institutional trust using over 400,000 responses to the relevant Eurobarometer questions. The results reported herein suggest the presence of “a rally around the flag effect”. Nonetheless, macroeconomic factors such as GDP growth and unemployment as well as differences in behavioural responses also explain a large part of the observed gap in trust before and after the 2015 refugee crisis.

Dancing around gender expression and sex talk: LGBTQ+ asylum policy in the United States

In this article, I argue that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services’ current guidelines for LGBTQ+ asylum adjudication are both underinclusive and improperly restrictive. They are underinclusive because they are insufficiently attentive to LGBTQ+ applicants’ right to protection from persecution on the basis of gender expression. They also flatten the concept of gender identity by conflating it with transgender identity, thus reconsolidating a transgender/cisgender binary that impedes asylum officers’ ability to find cognizable those gender identities that exceed these two terms. The guidelines are also improperly restrictive because they forbid specific discussions of sex acts during the asylum interview. To be sure, this proscription is a response to widespread recent reports of abuse of applicants around the world. Nevertheless, it overcorrects for the problem and, in turn, hinders asylum officers’ ability to elicit detailed testimonies as well as impedes, in all likelihood, the ability of some applicants to furnish credible testimonials.

Risk preferences and refugee migration to Europe: An experimental analysis

Although the large majority of Syrians fleeing the civil war remain in neighbouring or nearby countries, others embark on hazardous land or sea crossings in pursuit of the uncertain prospect of obtaining refugee status in Europe. Understanding in what ways Syrian migrants who stay in nearby countries differ from those who seek asylum in Europe can help to better target European asylum policies. We address this issue by combining two experimental databases of refugees in Egypt and Luxembourg. First, we measure original risk preferences on the Egypt sample and show that Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT) is better suited for modelling refugee behaviour under risk than Expected Utility Theory (EUT). Second, we compare the risk preference parameters of the two samples under the CPT framework and find that, on average, refugees in Egypt are more loss averse and overweight low probabilities more than their counterparts who migrated to Luxembourg. These results suggest a possible self-selection process among refugees migrating to Europe based on their risk preferences, which challenges current policy schemes.

The Shengen Agreement and European Integration

Since the conclusion of the Schengen Agreement, the importance of asylum and migration policy for the EU has increased significantly. "Schengen" constitutes an essential element of the freedom of movement formulated by the European Union as the central objective of its policy, i.e. the unrestricted movement of all citizens between EU member states and the freedom of establishment granted therein. Cooperation of EU member states is mainly based on the development of restrictive rules for a common border and visa policy, as well as cooperation to limit asylum immigration. Since the 1990s, tools to improve border controls have mainly consisted of regulations declaring other states “safe third countries” and “safe countries of origin and transit,” making them responsible for asylum procedures. Such regulations have often been supported by treaties with countries of origin or transit, which have not always been willing or able to guarantee human rights. Member states in their domestic policies have extensive debates and disagreements on the direction of asylum policy. While some states want to protect the rights of those seeking protection, others prioritize controlling and limiting immigration. In the early 2000s, the EU decided on minimum standards for national asylum legislation and asylum procedures, not in the interests of those seeking protection, but mainly to prevent those seeking protection from moving to find better conditions in other countries according to very different standards. . However, minimum standards have remained limited by national discretion, so differences in procedures and benefits afforded to recognized asylum seekers and refugees remain extremely wide. Received: 25 December 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 23 April 2024

The Role of Frontex and Easo in the Field of Asylum Policies and the Guarantee of Respecting People's Rights and Integrity

In the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in CHAPTER V titled "Area of freedom, security and justice" it has recognized the competence of the topic of immigration which has gone through an important process of agentization, as has happened with many policies of other EU countries. The role of the European Union in answering the questions and problems posed by migratory flows, affecting the countries that are part of it, has been for many months one of the elements of the major debate within the European institutions, between the states and, obviously. , within them, with significant consequences on the political level. Despite the inevitable and many difficulties - the basic and inalienable rights of those who come to a certain country and those of those who have lived there for a long time and have a good reason to wait, the Stockholm Program of adopted by the European Council aims precisely to face the challenge of "guaranteeing respect for fundamental rights and freedoms and the integrity of people, while at the same time guaranteeing security in Europe". This should be supported, among others, by the development and implementation of policies to control and combat irregular and clandestine immigration, improving cooperation with third countries (of origin and transit of migrants), the objective of reaching a system of common asylum applying the principle of solidarity between member states in accordance with the article. 67, par. 2, which should lead to "the further analysis and development of mechanisms for the voluntary and coordinated sharing of responsibilities between Member States". European agencies represent an important part of the Union's institutional mechanism. FRONTEX and EASO were presented as tools to facilitate or strengthen cooperation operational between the authorities of the Member States. However, the activities they perform go beyond simple coordination, as they have acquired characteristics that can have negative consequences for others. Received: 25 December 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 23 April 2024

Temporary turn in the asylum regime and the deportable refugee: The case of Syrians in Türkiye

Abstract Within the context of forced repatriation, this study investigates the conditions under which Syrian refugees face the spectacle of detention and deportation in Türkiye. As the largest group of Temporary Protection holders within a single country (currently 3.7 million), this case provides a unique lens to examine how asylum policies’ increased emphasis on the temporariness of protection and the eventual return leads to the production of illegality, and consequently of the deportable refugee. Based on qualitative data collected between September and December 2019 in Istanbul, Türkiye, this paper argues that the escalating fear of deportability is built on three pillars: (1) exploitation in the informal labour market, (2) quotidian police surveillance and factory raids, and (3) discrimination in public life. The study contributes to the discussion of temporality and deportability in refugee studies.

Unpacking State Production of Temporal Dispossession: The Intersections of Labour, Asylum and Informalization in Sweden

Using the analytical frame of ‘temporal dispossession’, in the present article, I examine lived experiences of navigating the state production of informalization. This is connected to the increasingly blurred lines between migration regimes and labour market politics in Sweden. With temporary residence permits having become the new norm for asylum policies in Sweden, time and labour market productivity are central to the distribution of vulnerability and life chances, as labour market participation functions as the only means of qualifying for permanent residence. Theoretically engaging with ‘temporal dispossession’ and racial capitalism, I highlight how dispossession operates in and through the border regime, specifically through temporal governance, and how the latter is weaponized to dispossess people of their life chances. Empirically, I focus on how the interlocutors inhabit, negotiate, and defy the precarization of asylum through their labour market participation. Their work, however, is marked by super-exploitation, as they are pushed to the margins of the labour market, often in informalized, underpaid, or unpaid positions with the promise of future employment and stability. The analysis focuses on the strategies of defiance enacted by the interlocutors and their different ways of interrogating contemporary capitalist formation through their experiences of devaluation at the intersection of asylum and labour.

Immigration and Asylum Policy after Brexit: An Introduction

AbstractThis special collection examines how immigration and asylum policies have evolved since Britain left the European Union. The referendum was won on the promise of ‘taking back control’, yet, since Brexit, immigration has increased to record levels and the nationalities of people coming to the UK have become more diverse. The increase in immigration was driven by a liberalisation of work and study visas and the creation of new humanitarian schemes. Although some aspects of immigration policy have evolved in a liberal direction, others have become increasingly restrictive. The Conservative government has pursued a draconian agenda on asylum, borders and irregular migration, including a scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, and legislation that effectively abolishes the right to seek asylum in the UK. This introduction argues that recent immigration and asylum policies reflect the ambivalent, unstable and unresolved meanings of Brexit itself.

“Countries you go, asylum adjudication you find.” Asylum appeals implementation arrangements, actors' discretion, and organizational practices

AbstractThe article investigates the implementation of a crucial area of the EU asylum policy, which is asylum adjudication at the appeal stage. According to the Common European Asylum System, Member States must guarantee asylum seekers an effective remedy against first‐instance decisions. However, the EU policy framework leaves space for each country to choose its implementation model. Filling a gap in the literature on asylum policy implementation, the article explores the implementation arrangements (IAs) for asylum appeals in three countries, Italy, France, and Greece, which adopt different models. More precisely, relying on Strategic Analysis of Organizations and the Street‐Level Bureaucracy approach, the article addresses how specific elements of the IA influence organizational autonomy, implementing actors' routines and perceptions, as well as the degree of discretion. Moreover, it investigates the influence of de facto organizational practices on policy performance. The analysis of qualitative data suggests that different IAs, such as the nature of the body, the appointment system, and mechanisms of vertical accountability, shape de facto individual and organizational practices and actors' spaces for discretion. This process seems to impact policy performance, particularly in terms of uniformity, which is a core objective within the broader European policy framework for asylum adjudication.

Caring and building friendships in the UK’s asylum system

To care and feel cared for are considered fundamental to what makes us human, and what enables us to live and thrive in this world. Yet for the UK’s asylum-seeking population who is living with uncertainties for the future, care appears absent. In such contexts, it is imperative to understand how care is enacted, experienced, and valued amongst spaces and people often considered to be care-less. Drawing on data collected in four collaborative photographic workshops and photo elicitation interviews with asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs) (N: 7), this study aims to gain insight into how ASRs in the UK care and feel cared for and their relative ability to forge friendships during their migration journey. We show how their relationship to caregiving and care-receiving changes over time and is deeply influenced by asylum policies and the refugee experience more generally. Responding to feminist scholars’ calls to disrupt the normative assumptions about how and between whom care is exchanged, this article highlights the diversity of friendships forged while on the move and seeking asylum as well as the caring practices emerging in situations of precarity, the pervasive impacts of the hostile environment on disrupting and distorting such caring relationships, and cautious but agentic and caring ways that ASRs seek to navigate the ambiguities of friendships in hostility. In doing so, the article provides an important counter-narrative to the dominant portrayal of ASRs as passive recipients of care, by highlighting how their way to approach care and friendship varies across time and circumstances.

Enhancing the Rights of Protection-Seeking Migrants through the Global Compact for Migration: The Case of EU Asylum Policy

Abstract This article argues that the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is not only a breakthrough for a rights-based approach in international migration governance but also an asset to the international protection system. By way of example, three key issues of the European Union’s (EU) Common European Asylum System are discussed: access to protection, reception conditions, and detention. These examples illustrate that faithfully implementing the Migration Compact would require the EU and its Member States to make significant changes in their asylum policy. The parallel emergence of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) may suggest otherwise – namely, that the GCM is not relevant for refugees and other protection-seeking migrants. However, the legal construction that best serves the object and purpose of both documents is the assumption that the two Compacts have an overlapping scope of application. The GCM addresses specific protection needs of protection-seeking migrants who are not covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention, and it serves as an umbrella, strengthening the core human rights of migrants regardless of their status, including protection-seeking migrants. Hence, the GCM improves the international protection system as a whole and should be acknowledged as such.

Did Merkel's 2015 decision attract more migration to Germany?

AbstractIn 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to allow over a million asylum seekers to cross the border into Germany. One key concern was that her decision would signal an open‐door policy to aspiring migrants worldwide – thus further increasing migration to Germany and making the country permanently more attractive to irregular and humanitarian migrants. This ‘pull‐effect’ hypothesis has been a mainstay of policy discussions ever since. With the continued global rise in forced displacement, not appearing welcoming to migrants has become a guiding principle for the asylum policy of many large receiving countries. In this article, we exploit the unique case study that Merkel's 2015 decision provides for answering the fundamental question of whether welcoming migration policies have sustained effects on migration towards destination countries. We analyze an extensive range of data on migration inflows, migration aspirations and online search interest between 2000 and 2020. The results reject the ‘pull effect’ hypothesis while reaffirming states’ capacity to adapt to changing contexts and regulate migration.

The Enforced Destitution of Asylum Seekers in the UK

Asylum seekers are often destitute upon their arrival in the UK and, thus, they depend primarily on the UK government to support them. Yet, the UK government has been enforcing the destitution of asylum seekers through socio-political and economic mechanisms. Socio-political mechanisms of destitution relate to repressive asylum policies inhibiting asylum seekers’ access to mainstream benefits, employment and their ability to do meaningful activities, while economic mechanisms of destitution relate to an insufficient asylum allowance that leaves asylum seekers destitute. This article uses 50 interviews conducted with asylum seekers, refugees and staff from various organisations to explore asylum seekers’ experiences of enforced destitution in Glasgow. Findings indicate that socio-political mechanisms of destitution underpin experiences of destitution and are the precursor to the economic mechanism of destitution. Findings also show that economic mechanisms of destitution challenge asylum seekers’ ability to meet their subsistence needs. Furthermore, the UK government’s enforced destitution of asylum seekers has caused asylum seekers to depend upon the third sector to fill the gaps in meeting their basic needs.

Supporting People Seeking Asylum in the Australian Community: A Service Provider Perspective

Deterrence of asylum seekers, including via restrictive refugee determination processes, is increasingly common in many countries. In Australia, people who sought asylum by sea between 13 August 2012 and 1 January 2014 (the ‘legacy caseload’), have been subject to increasing restrictions on their social and economic rights. As a result, these people rely on support from non-government organisations, whilst they progress through Australia’s refugee determination process. This research explored service providers’ role in mediating the impacts of asylum policy on the legacy caseload. Findings from 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, conducted between December 2018 and February 2020, highlight how service providers in both statutory and community sectors in Victoria challenge and subvert deterrence policies, even as the policy environment constrains their ability to support people seeking asylum. To redress these constraints, increased availability of social supports for people seeking asylum, continuing and additional funding for non-government organisations, and increased support for workers across sectors are recommended by this study. Service providers play a crucial role in enabling the effective engagement of people seeking asylum with the refugee determination process. These findings serve as a further warning from countries seeking to emulate the ‘Australian model’ of harm.

The reform of the Common European Asylum System in the context of the implementation the EU principle of solidarity

The polycrisis in the European Union has a great influence on the issue of solidarity. The events of recent years demonstrate a significant lack of solidarity within the EU. At the same time, solidarity is one of the principles of the Union’s immigration and asylum policy, as well as one of its key value. For a long time, it was assumed that all member states act in the spirit of mutual solidarity, which should flow from the very fact of a country’s membership in the EU. In other words, international solidarity within the Union is based on voluntariness, which does not require any special mechanism for its implementation. However, in recent years, this presumption has shown its inconsistency, and as a result, the idea has arisen to create a special solidarity mechanism. The migration crisis of 2015 forced the institutions of the Union to start reforming the Common European Asylum System, a key element of which is the creation of an effective solidarity mechanism within the Union. This article is devoted to the study of the transformation of the solidarity principle in the framework of the reform of the Common European Asylum System. The article highlights the main stages of the protracted reform of asylum legislation, reveals the key features of each stage from a solidarity perspective. The author comes to the conclusion that the proposed asylum system in the EU will not become fairer and will not ensure the implementation of the principle of solidarity. At the same time, the reform of the asylum policy could lead to an increase in the centralization of this policy and the expansion of the powers of the Union bodies, which will not make it possible to resolve the current problems and provide solidarity. Thus, solidarity will turn out to be only a tool in the hands of the institutions of the Union for carrying out planned reforms. According to the author, at the moment one can observe the transformation of solidarity within the EU into collectivism, when the interests of the Union are put above the interests of the member states, and the latter are forced to follow a common policy against their will.

Has the war in Ukraine changed Europeans’ preferences on refugee policy? Evidence from a panel experiment in Germany, Hungary and Poland

ABSTRACT The Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 resulted in the largest refugee crisis in Europe since WWII. Using a unique panel conjoint experiment on refugee policy preferences carried out in Germany, Poland and Hungary just before and after the onset of the war in Ukraine, we show a heterogenous response to the influx of refugees from Ukraine across the three countries: no change of policy preferences in Germany, moderate change in Hungary and a significant change in Poland. Our results have direct implications for the development of a common EU asylum policy, as even though the countries persistently diverge on the preferred mode of asylum seekers’ allocation, with Germans favouring relocation and Poland and Hungary the status quo, the results highlight the scope for consensus rooted in shared preference for the asylum seekers’ unrestricted access to the labour market. This dimension consistently emerges as the most important policy dimension in all three countries before and after the outbreak of war.

Expansion without mandates: Border and asylum agencies in European Union migration governance

AbstractThe European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) have experienced increases in available resources and have conducted joint operations with European Union (EU) Member States in recent years. They may be regarded as examples of agencification in border protection and asylum policy, but this paper argues that agencification has proceeded without an expansion in agency mandates. Using Frontex and EASO operations in two Southern European border countries, Cyprus and Greece, as comparative case studies, I show that the two agencies have employed their growing technical, performative, legal and moral resources to legitimize efficient processing of asylum applications in reception centers, and coordinated border protection and more/swifter returns. At the same time, the absence of mandates on final decision‐making has diluted policy accountability and weakened monitoring vis‐à‐vis Member States, with respect to fundamental rights violations and the implementation of EU law. This resource expansion without mandates has allowed EU agencies to resolve long‐standing tensions among Member States and the European Commission in a contested policy area. The analysis has broader implications for the role of agencies in multilevel migration governance.

The Externalities of Immigration Policies on Migration Flows: The Case of an Asylum Policy

The Externalities of Immigration Policies on Migration Flows: The Case of an Asylum Policy