Why Do States Admit Refugees? A Comparative Analysis of Resettlement Policies in OECD Countries

Across the Western world countries have restricted their refugee admission laws and stepped up their border control policies to prevent refugees reaching their territory. Wealthy democracies tend to perceive refugees seeking protection primarily as an economic burden and a cultural threat to be minimized. At the same time, the resettlement of refugees has become more popular. More states have introduced resettlement schemes, and many have increased the number of resettled refugees. Why do states decide to voluntarily admit refugees while raising their efforts to deter asylum seekers? Focusing on OECD countries, the paper explores this apparent paradox by investigating the determinants behind countries’ decisions to admit refugees by resettlement. We assess the explanatory power of state capacity, sociopolitical acceptance, humanitarian need and the wider policy setting. We find that resettlement choices are primarily driven by supply-side explanation such as state capacity and domestic politics and not by humanitarian needs. The study further confirms that the opening of resettlement channels is combined with the closure of borders to prevent irregular entries and that resettlement helps to legitimize a restrictive asylum regime.