This book addresses the causes and incidences of refugee movements and the policy responses of Western asylum and aid-giving coun- tries. In particular, it is focused on the positive and normative aspects of asylum migration and its management by Western industrialized countries. Thereby, asylum policy and aid policy are the main instru- ments of interest in this work. The book focuses explicitly on the following research questions: What are the driving factors of forced migration movements? How can refugee burdens be assessed and compared across different types of host countries? Who are the actors in international refugee protection and management, and how do they act? Is cooperation among asylum countries necessary, and pos- sible? And finally, how does the phenomenon of international refu- gee movements, and specifically how do asylum seekers, influence the aid allocation politics of Western industrialized countries?
The remainder of this introductory chapter describes the back- ground of these research objectives and also provides an outline of the subsequent analytical parts.