Publications / Papers / 2005 / 2005:102 Trends in Scandinavian asylum policies
Trends in Scandinavian asylum policies
The Scandinavian countries have traditionally had national asylum systems that are more generous than the majority of the European countries. This is particularly so as to the conditions offered after the submission of the application. A fairly high number (per capita) of asylum applicants have been accepted as residents – either as refugees according to the Geneva Convention or on a humanitarian basis (there has been internal variation within Scandinavia in this respect). The past ten years we have witnessed a more restrictive trend also in the Nordic part of Europe on these issues, although to different degrees. Denmark has recently revised its Foreign Law, and Norway is in the process of doing the same. Sweden has also made revisions, yet has so far been less inclined to roll back on rights and offers. Partly related to these policy developments, the number of asylum-seekers coming to Scandinavia has varied strongly over the last five years. In this paper we ask how these divergent paths should be interpreted. What is the relationship between the generous welfare state regimes in Scandinavia and the recent trend of adapting restrictive asylum policies? To answer these questions, we look at two different sides of the Scandinavian control regimes. First we describe and discuss the development of the three regimes over the last 5-10 years. This part is inspired by a recent study based on interviews with civil servants (Brekke 2004b). Secondly we look into the idiosyncratic situation of these countries caused by their extensive welfare provisions. Finally we briefly consider signs of convergence towards the European common asylum system (CEAS).