Conceptual framework

Abstract

Abstract Admitting refugees implies opening the boundaries of a nation’s “imagined community” and sharing resources with those who claim to need protection. In Chapter 2, we outline our theoretical framework. We argue that a country’s refugee policy and the differences between political parties within countries can be better understood by analyzing how they frame national identity (who are “we”?) and the refugees (who are “they”?). We distinguish six ways to frame the “we” and the refugees: in economic, cultural, moral, legal, security, and international terms. In filling these frames, politicians are constrained by “cultural repertories,” that is, a shared set of ideologies and narratives specific to a country’s political culture. Finally, we draw on the theory of cleavage structures to explain differences between political parties within countries. We argue that conflicts over admitting refugees do not necessarily reflect a universal cleavage between “cosmopolitans” and “communitarians,” as the contemporary literature suggests.