Reform of the EU Sugar Regime: Impacts on Sugar Production in Ireland

Does Policy Matter?

On Governments’ Attempts to Control Unwanted Migration

Eiko R. Thielemann

Department of Government/European Institute

London School of Economics

[email protected]

http://www.lse.ac.uk/people/[email protected]/

Keywords: public policy effectiveness, asylum, migration pull factors, deterrence, burden
sharing, collective action problems, international co-operation, European Union

Abstract:

Public policy making on asylum takes place in an environment of intense public scrutiny,
strong institutional constraints and international collective action problems. By assessing the
relative importance of key pull factors of international migration, this article explains why,
even when controlling for their differences in size, some states receive a much larger number
of asylum seekers than others. The analysis of 20 OECD countries for the period 1985-1999
further shows that some of the most high profile public policy measures—safe third country
provisions, dispersal and voucher schemes—aimed, at least in part, at deterring unwanted
migration and at addressing the highly unequal distribution of asylum burdens have often
been ineffective. This is because the key determinants of an asylum seeker’s choice of host
country are historical, economic and reputational factors that largely lie beyond the reach of
asylum policy makers. Finally, the paper argues that the effectiveness of unilateral policy
measures will be further undermined by multilateral attempts to harmonise restrictive policies
and that current efforts such as those by the European Union will consolidate, rather than
effectively address, existing disparities in the distribution of asylum burdens.

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