<p>The thesis examines the international refugee protection system in order to discover whether or not the system constitutes an international regime, as defined by international relations literature. To do so, it formulates a theoretical framework combining neoliberal and constructivist approaches to regime theory. It closely examines the legal documents that provide the normative and procedural framework of the protection system (such as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, various regional agreements, as well as certain human rights documents) and discusses the legal, political, and moral obligation that these documents instill upon the member states of the protection system. It evaluates the principles, norms, rules, and decision- making procedures provided by the system, and compares them to the necessary criteria of an international regime in neoliberal theory. The purpose of trying to discover whether the refugee system constitutes an international regime is to show that if it is a regime, states are no longer afforded the full freedom of action and decision-making under the doctrine of sovereignty and that they have a certain level of obligation to abide by regime rules and help in the upkeep of the regime. After showing that the system constitutes a ‘strong promotional’ international regime, it discusses the importance of the regime within the international state system. It evaluates how it brings about cooperation and increasedstability within the regime, and lowers the costs of bargaining in order to bring about mutual gains for regime members. The thesis then examines the pre- and post-entry restrictive measures used by countries and attempts to prove whether or not the use of the measures constitutes a change in, or of, the regime, or a potential weakening of the regime. The thesis concludes that while the refugee regime itself is not changing, there is increasing incoherence between the proscribed behaviour of the regime and state action, which translates into a weakening of the regime. The regime analysis discusses the role the refugee protection regime plays within the international system as a whole and how this role is evolving through the use of restrictive measures.</p>

The thesis examines the international refugee protection system in order to discover whether or not the system constitutes an international regime, as defined by international relations literature. To do so, it formulates a theoretical framework combining neoliberal and constructivist approaches to regime theory. It closely examines the legal documents that provide the normative and procedural framework of the protection system (such as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, various regional agreements, as well as certain human rights documents) and discusses the legal, political, and moral obligation that these documents instill upon the member states of the protection system. It evaluates the principles, norms, rules, and decision- making procedures provided by the system, and compares them to the necessary criteria of an international regime in neoliberal theory. The purpose of trying to discover whether the refugee system constitutes an international regime is to show that if it is a regime, states are no longer afforded the full freedom of action and decision-making under the doctrine of sovereignty and that they have a certain level of obligation to abide by regime rules and help in the upkeep of the regime. After showing that the system constitutes a ‘strong promotional’ international regime, it discusses the importance of the regime within the international state system. It evaluates how it brings about cooperation and increasedstability within the regime, and lowers the costs of bargaining in order to bring about mutual gains for regime members. The thesis then examines the pre- and post-entry restrictive measures used by countries and attempts to prove whether or not the use of the measures constitutes a change in, or of, the regime, or a potential weakening of the regime. The thesis concludes that while the refugee regime itself is not changing, there is increasing incoherence between the proscribed behaviour of the regime and state action, which translates into a weakening of the regime. The regime analysis discusses the role the refugee protection regime plays within the international system as a whole and how this role is evolving through the use of restrictive measures.

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The increase in right wing populist parties in Europe combined with the sudden influx of asylum applicants has given rise to the debate regarding immigration both politically and within research. This paper sets out to examine the relation between asylum seeker group size and people’s attitudes towards immigration. Based on group threat theory and ethnic competition theory we hypothesize that countries´ increases in asylum seekers is correlated with decreases in attitudinal support for immigration. We test this hypothesis using cross- national time series survey data from the Eurobarometer from 2014 to 2017 and conducting a multilevel analysis. Despite the extensive theoretical arguments that strengthen the hypothesis, we find no evidence that the group size of asylum seekers is related to attitudes towards immigration from outside EU.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

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This study aims to contribute to an understanding of how the credibility of asylum-seekers is being assessed in the UK; how narratives are valued by decision-makers and tribunal judges, how applicants’ credibility is determined, and what issues may be found with this process. I conducted interviews with seven lawyers who represent asylum-seekers, one decision-maker and one retired tribunal judge to establish their perspectives on the assessment of credibility in the UK. I then analysed these results through the theoretical framework of the sociology of law, focusing on the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. I firstly examined specific problematic areas in the practice of credibility assessment, before going on to explore broader contextual factors which may help to explain such issues. This study found that the greatest problems with credibility assessment in practice were demanding expectations of asylum-seekers and misapplication of the government guidelines on credibility, miscommunications and mistranslations, and a lack of considered reasoning in decision-making. These issues were shown to be driven by five main factors: a culture of disbelief, a lack of resources, information and communication issues, ineffective guidelines and the inherently subjective nature of credibility. The results of this study bring into question the neutrality and efficacy of the current system of credibility assessment in practice and its capacity to protect those fleeing persecution under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how people with a temporary residence permit are motivated to integrate into a society, though, among other things, language learning, work and studies. On July 20, 2016, a new temporary law was introduced, where instead of a permanent residence permit, a temporary residence permit is granted with requirements to fulfill for extension. The empirical evidence for the study has been collected through semistructured interviews with eight people who, at the time of the interview, had a temporary residence permit. Previous research describes topics related to integration in general ,temporary residence and lastly motivation, and contributes with knowledge to the research topic, where a knowledge gap is their own descriptions of motivation to integrate, as well as motivation to learn the language, work and study with a temporary residence permit. The theoretical framework for the study includes theories about the concepts of integration and motivation, but also Georg Simmel's contribution about the ‘Stranger’ in combination with temporality and mobility. The results show motivation for integration in the form of language learning, studies and work, despite high demands and an uncertain future. A permanent residence permit is for many a purpose for establishing themselves and realizing long-termgoals. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur personer med ett tillfälligt uppehållstillstånd motiveras till att integrera sig i ett samhälle, genom bland annat språklärande, arbete ochstudier. Den 20 juli 2016 infördes en ny tillfällig lag, där istället för ett permanent uppehållstillstånd ges ett tillfälligt uppehållstillstånd med krav att uppfylla för förlängning. Empirin för studien har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta personer som vid tiden intervjun ägde rum, hade tillfälligt uppehållstillstånd. Tidigare forskning redogör ämnen som berör integration i allmänhet, tillfälliga uppehållstillståndet och sist motivation, och bidrar med kunskap till eget forskningsämne, där en kunskapslucka är egna beskrivningar av motivation till att integrera sig, samt motivation till att lära sig språket, arbeta och studera med ett tillfälligt uppehållstillstånd. Den teoretiska ramen för studien innefattar teorier om begreppen integration och motivation, men även Georg Simmels bidrag om ‘Främlingen’ i kombination med temporalitet och mobilitet. Resultatet visar på motivation till integration i form av språklärande, studier och arbete, trots höga krav och en osäker framtid. Ett permanent uppehållstillstånd är för flera ett ändamål till att etablera sig och förverkliga långsiktiga mål.