Can Liberal States Control Unwanted Migration?

Abstract

The commonly held view that liberal democracies cannot effectively control unwanted migration is unwarranted despite the intensification of migration pressures in recent years. To develop a more accurate position built on less sweeping generalizations, I disaggregate migration policy into four parts: managing legal immigration, controlling illegal migration, administering temporary worker programs, and processing asylum seekers and refugees. A review of the experiences of the liberal democracies with each of these migration challenges indicates that although there are numerous instances of policy failure, there is also considerable capacity to regulate migration. I argue that this capacity is certainly growing, not declining, over time, that some states possess more capacity than others, that the control capacities of particular states vary substantially across the four areas, and that these capacities fluctuate periodically in conjunction with contingent cycles of salience and effort.