Asylum Policies and International Tensions

This article examines how international relation dynamics shape asylum policies. Using data on asylum applications in the European Union (EU) and international events from 1999 to 2017, we document that EU Member States admit relatively more refugees when diplomatic relations with the country of origin deteriorate. This result holds after controlling for push and pull factors as well as bilateral determinants of refugee migration. Our results highlight the importance of non-humanitarian factors in the grant of political asylum