Millions of people around the world seek asylum from war, extreme poverty, persecution for their religion, sexuality or political views and many other reasons. These refugees want to rebuild their lives in a new country, often with the help of relatives or friends already there.
To win asylum, individuals must either have suffered past persecution on account of a protected ground, or they must demonstrate that they have a well-founded fear of future persecution in their home countries, based on the same grounds. An individual’s own testimony is critical to the determination of asylum status, and can be supplemented with other evidence such as documents, affidavits, letters or news reports.
The government is also obligated to notify people seeking asylum that they have one year to submit their applications, and to set up a uniform process for filing these applications. Nevertheless, class-action lawsuits document that individuals who have demonstrated a credible fear of persecution can be held in immigration detention for years while they await the outcome of their case.
The decision-making processes governing asylum are complex, and a range of factors influence policy preferences for welcoming or rejecting refugees. For example, survey research suggests that a combination of sociotropic evaluations and humanitarian concerns about refugees’ accuracy of their claims influences policy preferences in many Western countries (Bansak et al., 2016). Other factors that can impact policy preferences for refugees include a perception that they are not contributing to society or that their culture is incompatible with the host society (Alesina and Bansak, 2018). The size of the refugee population in a municipality and the level of treatment intensity can also influence support for refugees.