ABSTRACT
This study has combined an analysis of asylum from a historical and conceptual perspective with a comparative study of British and German asylum and refugee policies. Part One explored conceptual distinctions between migrants and refugees, examined the different moral and political obligations that are owed to each, depending on one’s theoretical position, traced the historical development of asylum and finally outlined the international context within which national asylum and refugee policies are framed. Part Two looked at the asylum practice of two liberal democratic states in some detail. By exploring changing policy and practice in Britain and Germany we seek to explain the gap between the normative rhetoric of these states and their actual behaviour.
