#12006. Explaining the immigration policy mix: Countries relative openness to asylum and labour migration

October 2026publication date
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Journal’s subject area:
Sociology and Political Science;
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Abstract:
Western democracies have developed complex policies to manage migration flows. Much of the scholarly literature and political discourse assume that countries have become increasingly selective and that they prioritise economic intakes. Despite clear efforts by policymakers to distinguish between refugees and migrant workers, we know surprisingly little about how countries combine different policy dimensions and which factors shape their relative openness to different target groups. In this article, we shed light on how countries combine two of the main admission channels, asylum and labour migration, by introducing the concept of the ‘immigration policy mix’. A comparative analysis of 33 OECD countries between 1980 and 20XX examines the pattern and drivers behind their immigration policy mix: Does the policy mix follow a pattern of convergence, is it subject to political dynamics or is it path dependent? The results reveal that despite a shift in political sympathies from asylum to labour migration, countries immigration policy mixes have strongly converged into more liberal policies overall. These insights demonstrate that the immigration policy mix serves to enhance our understanding of countries’ complex regulation of immigration.
Keywords:
Asylum; immigration; labour; migration policy; policy mix

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