track record on issues such as adherence to human rights standards,
international humanitarian crises, community relations, reception and
integration of foreigners, naturalisation policies and the like, can be
expected to play a role in a migrant's consideration about the relative
attractiveness of countries of destination.
Geography
Ease of access, in particular geographic proximity, between a country of
origin and a country of destination can also be expected to be a pull factor
in migration patterns. Despite technological developments which have
made geographic distance less of an issue than it was in the past, most
migrants' resources are limited and smaller distances will often mean
lower costs of transport and hence easier access. In other words,
geographic distance can often be regarded as a proxy for the costs of
movement. Although other factors, such as length and relative openness of
countries' territorial borders, will also play a role as to how accessible a
country of destination is for migrants, geographic distance can be expected
to constitute an important consideration. We can also expect an
interaction with other pull factors already discussed. Although geographic
proximity does not guarantee the establishment of cross border ties,
geographic proximity can clearly facilitate the formation of such ties.
Deterrence Policy
States often regard asylum burdens as a 'zero sum' phenomenon, in which
a reduction of one country's burden will result in increasing burdens for
other countries. The assumption is that there is a certain number of
migrants each year who intend to claim asylum and that the role of
national asylum policy is to restrict the inflow into a particular country to
an acceptable proportion. This means that policy makers will try to use
migration policy instruments to make sure that their country will not be
seen as a 'soft touch', i.e. an overly attractive destination country that will
attract an unacceptable proportion of asylum seekers. Three sets of such
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