ABSTRACT
This research aims to increase understanding of the role that destination country policies play in the migration decision-making process. Based on in-depth interviews with more than 50 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers who recently arrived in four European cities (Berlin, London, Madrid and Manchester), it examines the capacity of such policies to influence people’s choices and movements, both before their journey begins and along the way. The findings primarily speak to the limited regulating effects of deterrence policies – that is, policies designed to discourage people from either coming to a particular country or leaving ‘home’ in the first place. They relate to the perceived credibility of information conveyed through deterrence messaging, the offsetting effects of social norms (i.e. the ‘normality’ of cross-border movement) and the equally offsetting effects of a (potential) destination country’s ‘non-migration’ policies. Yet while not preventive in an absolute sense, the evidence does suggest that deterrence can shape the dynamics of migration or refugee movements in other ways, either by geographically displacing flows or by affecting their timing.
