ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Britain and Germany are compared, enabling us to see more clearly the impact and significance of certain factors for asylum policy-making. The very obvious dissimilarities between the two states serve to mask the growing parallels in policy and law that are explained by common features. The argument presented here is that it is those characteristics that Britain and Germany have in common that are most important for asylum policy-that they are states, that they are liberal representative democracies, that they are welfare states and that they are nation-states. Comparing Britain and Germany also allows us to attempt a ranking of these different factors.
