An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Walter Bartl (Visiting Research Fellow, 2024) with Dr Philipp Lutz
Responsibility-sharing within States. Mapping and Explaining Refugee Dispersal Policies in European Democracies
Many European democracies are concerned about the asymmetric distribution of refugees within their territory. In response, they have developed sophisticated policies aiming to disperse refugees. These policies not only determine the settlement rights of refugees but may also shape the subnational geography of immigration politics. So far, we lack a comprehensive understanding of such refugee dispersal policies. To address this shortcoming, this paper makes three main contributions. First, we develop a conceptualization of refugee dispersal policies as systems of sub-national responsibility-sharing in asylum governance based on five policy attributes. Dispersal policies alter the ‘natural’ spatial distribution of asylum seekers and refugees by organizing their physical allocation to particular places within the national territory. Second, we collect data on the dispersal policies of 30 European states. Third, we test different possibilities of aggregating this data such as an additive index and typological approaches. The preliminary results show that all studied countries engage in some elements of refugee dispersal. Finally, we discuss possible explanations for the cross-sectional variation in refugee dispersal policies.
Please join in-person, or click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81857401179
Passcode: 6aSe7GF7