Introduction

This chapter introduces and summarises the argument that will infold in the book. The starting point is to argue that a shift has taken place, since the 1990s, from politicians and policymakers construing migration for asylum as primarily a political and/or humanitarian phenomenon, to construing it as primarily an economic phenomenon. People who are seeking asylum, then, are often assumed to be economic migrants seeking to cheat their way into a given country. This shift then has significant consequences for people who are seeking asylum, but also for a range of other people in civil society and the state. As well as offering a synopsis of the context and theoretical framework the chapter discusses key terms, and the structure of the book.