The Rise and Fall of Asylum: What Happened and Why?

Timothy James Hatton ()

No 6752, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: In the last 20 years, developed countries have struggled with what seemed to be an ever-rising tide of asylum seekers, a trend that has now gone into reverse. This paper examines what happened and why. How have oppression, violence and economic conditions in origin countries shaped worldwide trends in asylum applications? And has the toughening of policy towards asylum seekers since 2001 reduced the numbers? What policies have been effective and which host countries have been most affected? This paper surveys the trends in asylum seeking since the 1980s and the literature that it has generated and it provides new regression estimates of the determinants of asylum applications up to the present. The key findings are first, that violence and terror can account for much of the variation across source countries and over time but it cannot fully explain the original surge in asylum applications during the 1980s. And second, while tougher policies did have a deterrent effect, they account for only about a third of the decline in applications since 2001.

Keywords: Asylum; Immigration Policy; Refugees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 I38 J15 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig
Date: 2008-03
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6752.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: The Rise and Fall of Asylum: What Happened and Why? (2008)
Journal Article: The Rise and Fall of Asylum: What Happened and Why? (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6752

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6752.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().