International trends and national differences in asylum policymaking : Australia, Italy and Ireland compared, 1989-2008

Abstract

The primary purpose of this interdisciplinary study is to show the value of history in investigating asylum policymaking from 1989 to 2008. Chapter 1 provides a short summary of asylum before 1989. It focuses especially on the power, influence and composition of actors who advocated for generous asylum policies and actors who proposed restrictive asylum policies at crucial times throughout the twentieth century. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 analyse the case studies of Australia, Italy and Ireland. By setting traditional emigration countries against a traditional immigration country, EU countries against a non-EU country, Catholic countries against a multidenominational country, islands against a peninsula, common law states against a civil law state, as well as countries where boat people drove asylum debates against one that lacked boat people, many divergences and convergences emerged. Every country had, to a certain degree, a unique asylum system based on its own history, identity and geography. The comparative Chapter 5 reveals that despite inherent national differences, noticeable international asylum trends also appeared during this period. In contrast to people who applied for asylum during the Cold War, asylum applicants in the 1990s provided limited political and economic returns for receiver states. Accordingly, governing political parties inclined towards the formation of more restrictive asylum policies. But secular and religious NGOs, INGOs and certain opposition political parties loudly protested by referencing humanitarian ideals, national commitments to human rights and the rule of law. Acknowledging the challenges posed by actors sympathetic to asylum seekers, governments in the 2000s attempted to securitize and externalise asylum, reduce the influence of the courts, and expedite the deportation of rejected asylum seekers. The conclusion suggests that governments in Europe, North America and Australasia are likely to build on advances made through the 2000s to restrict asylum even further in the next decade, especially in the wake of the economic crisis of 2008- 09.