The role of migration-specific and migration-relevant policies in migrant decision-making in transit
Katherine Kuschminder & Khalid Koser
#2017-022
This paper examines the role of migration-specific and
migration-relevant policies in migrant decision-making factors for
onwards migration or stay in Greece and Turkey. In this paper we
distinguish migration-specific policies from migration-relevant policies
in transit and destination countries, and in each case distinguish
favourable policies from adverse policies. We test this categorisation
through an original survey of 1,056 migrants in Greece and Turkey from
Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria collected in 2015. The
results indicate that, in transit countries, the policies that most
strongly influence migrants' decision-making are adverse
migration-specific and migration-relevant policies. By contrast, in
destination countries favourable migration-specific policies appear to
be more important than migration-relevant policies there in determining
the choice of destination.
Keywords: migration policies, transit migration, irregular migration,
Greece, Turkey
JEL Classification: D01, F22, F66