8 - Refugee Protection as a Public Good

Summary

Differences in states’ refugee protection contributions are often attributed to the variation in countries’ structural pull-factors, such as networks or geographic location. However, policy choices, such as Germany’s decision to open its borders to Syrian refugees in 2015, can also have a significant impact on the number of arrivals and can constitute a puzzle that traditional approaches struggle to explain. This chapter demonstrates that viewing refugee responsibility-sharing through the lens of public goods theory can provide significant insights about refugee protection dynamics in the EU, in particular in the context of a sudden mass influx of migrants that threatens internal security. By highlighting how policy decisions of large states in particular can address collective actions problems during a refugee crisis, a public goods approach can advance our understanding of why countries sometimes accept disproportionate responsibilities for forced migrants and how the effectiveness of EU refugee solidarity instruments can, and should, be strengthened.