Beyond refugee protection: The strategic use of refugee resettlement

In this article, we develop a theoretical framework to understand refugee resettlement as a strategic act by states that allows them to pursue political objectives beyond refugee protection. We argue that states may pursue four different strategies, two of which follow a regulatory objective and two which follow a communicative objective. States can use resettlement as a tool with a regulatory policy objective that strives to control migration flows by 1) incentivizing third countries to cooperate on migration control or by 2) disincentivizing refugees from secondary movement. Alternatively, states can use resettlement as a tool with a communicative policy objective that serves to signal virtue to an audience by 3) restoring a country’s reputation in the international community or 4) rebutting domestic critique of a state’s otherwise restrictive migration policy. We conduct an empirical analysis to assess the plausibility of strategic resettlement in the case of the European Union that introduced its own resettlement policy. Why did the EU adopt a resettlement programme at the height of an unprecedented refugee crisis and its efforts to stem the arrival of asylum-seekers? We find evidence that the strategic rationale of migration control has been a main driver for the EU resettlement policy. The findings have implications for the policy rationale in refugee governance as well as the prospects and limits of instrumentalizing resettlement for more effective migration control and a reputation as a humanitarian actor.