Please join the Comparative Politics Workshop for our second session of 2017! Our very own Nick Micinski will be presenting his paper, “Refugee Policy as Foreign Policy: Comparing Iraqi and Afghan Refugee Resettlements to the United States.” We will meet on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 from 6:30-8:30pm. The abstract is below and the paper is attached. Come to support your peer, engage in a lively discussion, share free wine and snacks, and network with your department.

Please e-mail gccomparative@gmail.com if you would like a copy of the paper in advance.

Best,
CPW organizing committee

Abstract:

The recent debate on the security screening of Syrian refugees makes clear that American refugee policy is widely considered a national security issue but refugee policy can also be considered a foreign policy tool. States can deliberately offer asylum to citizens of rival states in order to undermine them or can resettle displaced people when military interventions go awry. States can also strategically use refugee policy as foreign policy within the politics of neighbors. This paper examines why the US prioritizes some groups for refugee resettlement and not others. The 1980 Refugee Act attempted to make asylum policy less ideologically motivated. The US Refugee Admission Program (USRAP) is based on both the international definition of refugee and US priorities related to national interests. But how does the United States use refugee resettlement to punish its enemies or
reward its allies? Specifically, I compare what factors influenced the State Department to classify Iraqis as “Priority 2 – Group Referrals” but never classified Afghans in the same category. I argue that American refugee policy must be understood within the politics of neighbors: adjacent countries to refugee producing states often bear the immediate burden of hosting refugees but their previous
experiences with other refugee populations influences how generous they are to newcomers. The United States resettlement policy reacts to US and their allies’ interests in the region.

Abstract:
The recent debate on the security screening of Syrian refugees makes clear that American refugee policy is widely considered a national security issue but refugee policy can also be considered a foreign policy tool. States can deliberately offer asylum to citizens of rival states in order to undermine them or can resettle displaced people when military interventions go awry. States can also strategically use refugee policy as foreign policy within the politics of neighbors. This paper examines why the US prioritizes some groups for refugee resettlement and not others. The 1980 Refugee Act attempted to make asylum policy less ideologically motivated. The US Refugee Admission Program (USRAP) is based on both the international definition of refugee and US priorities related to national interests. But how does the United States use refugee resettlement to punish its enemies or
reward its allies? Specifically, I compare what factors influenced the State Department to classify Iraqis as “Priority 2 – Group Referrals” but never classified Afghans in the same category. I argue that American refugee policy must be understood within the politics of neighbors: adjacent countries to refugee producing states often bear the immediate burden of hosting refugees but their previous
experiences with other refugee populations influences how generous they are to newcomers. The United States resettlement policy reacts to US and their allies’ interests in the region.