The Uneasy Troika in US Refugee Policy: Foreign Policy, Pressure Groups, and Resettlement Costs

Abstract

United States refugee policy is driven by coalitions of foreign policy considerations, interest group pressures, and cost factors. The result is often the debasement of refugee policy and the confusion of foreign and domestic policies. These three factors are explored in two paired and contrasting contemporary case studies: the first a study of competing pressures on asylum decisions; the second a study of those same pressures on refugee admissions.