ABSTRACT
The European history of migration policy since the middle of the twentieth century has been characterized by the continuous decline of the 'humanist/asylum supporting' faction and the corresponding strengthening of national-securitarian ideological forces. The metamorphosis of the right to asylum against exiles appears to reflect a phenomenon of governmental xenophobia understood as a combination of discourses and acts made by public authorities that tend to designate foreigners as a problem, risk or threat. Xenophobia is not just the psychological phenomenon of hostility towards foreigners, but also the social phenomenon of stigmatization of foreigners. The ideology of derogative asylum that has been developed over half a century by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which was created to draft the Convention and which is responsible for its implementation, alongside the totality of actors from individual governments and non-governmental actors that come into play.
