Arguing about asylum: Interests, humanitarianism and refugee debates in Switzerland, Germany and Britain, 1970s-1990s

Abstract

To better understand international migration, I read the transcripts of the asylum debates in the Swiss, German and British parliaments and analyzed how arguments based on national interests, international norms and morality shaped recent asylum legislation. With a historically-based qualitative methodology, this work challenges much of the literature by revealing the subjective nature of national interests, the varying power of international norms and the dispute over moral obligations. It is the counter-intuitive aspects of asylum that point out the need for further research on international migration, identity and cultural norms.