The Impact of Asylum on Receiving Countries

Abstract

Whereas asylum seekers and the systems for adjudicating their claims to refugee status in developed countries have garnished considerable attention and, often, have been at the centre of political controversy, there has been relatively little research on their actual impact on receiving countries. This article discusses the factors that determine the impact of asylum, as distinct from other forms of migration, concluding that the number of asylum seekers, government policies and socioeconomic characteristics all determine the impact of asylum. Hence, the impacts of asylum can differ significantly from country to country. Even within the same country, one could expect to see varied impacts depending on the age, education and skill level of individual asylum seekers. The paper then examines the fiscal, economic, and social impacts of asylum, as well as its impact on foreign policy and national security. It concludes with an examination of the impact of developed countries' asylum policies on the protection of refugees in developing countries. When refugee protection has been weakened in economically strong states and asylum restrictions are perceived as burden shifting, international protection in the developing world where most refugees try to survive has been undercut.

Learning the Language of a New Country: A Ten‐year Study of English Acquisition by South‐East Asian Refugees in Canada

“…Most of the literature on resettlement (Blos et al, 1997;Martin et al, 2003) portrays immigrants as more likely than refugees to achieve economic success. The usual interpretation offered is that Canada's point system for selecting immigrants relies heavily on human capital criteria that predict success.…”

Refugees from Ukraine in Poland—Differentiation of spatial distribution and impact on demographic structures

“…However, rather than seeking to determine the impact itself (or more specifically, the potential impact, since it cannot yet be assessed what proportion of refugees will remain in their current places of residence and for how long), we aim to identify the spatial patterns of this | 3 of 22 phenomenon, that is, why the potential impact may be greater in some places than in others. Bloom et al (2003) and Martin et al (2003) claim that, to date, the debate on regional development in the context of migration has been conducted within too narrow a framework. The main focus has been on population size and growth rate, with little attention paid to the demographic structure of the population, particularly in territorial terms.…”

The provenance of émigrés: the validity of measuring knowledge of places

“…Failing to identify illegitimate asylum seekers may place a burden on the receiving society (e.g. Bond, 2012;Martin, Schoenholtz, & Fisher, 2005), but may also negatively affect genuine refugees. For example, the perception that many asylum seekers with economic motives gain access to the country could lead to distrust among the public about the deservingness of refugees (Verkuyten, 2004).…”