became more and more wary about inward migration, which in turn
produced more pressure on politicians for "decisive" action in this area.
The important distinction between economic and forced migration often
threatened to be lost in the process. Although states are generally free to
decide on the number of economic migrants they are willing to accept, in
the area of forced migration international obligations such as the Geneva
Convention on the Status of Refugees impose important obligations on
states. However, this is not to dispute the fact that, with the door to legal
immigration shut in most states since the early 1970s, a significant
number of economic migrants have taken the 'asylum route' as it has often
constituted the only remaining avenue for third country nationals to
legally settle in one of the OECD countries. In the 1990s, asylum
applications therefore became a primary concern for policy makers in all
OECD states. Figure 1 shows that the number of asylum applications filed
in the developed world increased significantly in the late 1980s and early
1990.
Figure 1: Asylum Applications in Europe & North America, 1980-99
However, policy-makers are not just concerned about the growth in the
being swamped by a flood of fiddlers stretching our resources—and our patience—to
breaking point" (The Sun)'; "Hello Mr Sponger... Need Any Benefits?" (Daily Star,
26/04/2002). "Scandal of how it costs nearly as much to keep an asylum seeker as a room
at the Ritz" (The Mail); " . we resent the scroungers, beggars and crooks who are
prepared to cross every country in Europe to reach our generous benefits system" (The
Sun, 07/03/2001).