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The Invention of Safe Countries
Visiting Fellows Panel Trinity Term 2026 Dr Frowin Rausis The Invention of Safe Countries Abstract: Since the 1960s, the notion of safety has become a central tool of asylum governance in European states. Decisions to process asylum applications through accelerated procedures, attempts to transfer asylum seekers to countries with which they have a personal connection, and proposals to outsource the processing, protection, or return of people to countries with which no such link exists are all based on different types of (un)safe country policies. Drawing on archival research, expert interviews, and policy documents, this book retraces the emergence and spread of (un)safe country policies through the lens of policy diffusion theory. Based on global datasets and historical research, it first maps the spread of constitutional asylum provisions, national asylum frameworks, and safe country policies. In doing so, it highlights both the liberal expansion of asylum frameworks and the subsequent illiberal legislative shift that contributed to the diffusion of (un)safe country policies. In a second part, the book examines case studies from Denmark, Switzerland, and South Africa to trace the motives underpinning the emergence of safe country policies. The data show that (un)safe country policies have not only spread widely across states in the Global North but have also become increasingly popular in states of the Global South. This development risks creating new patterns of injustice between states in regions that host the majority of people seeking protection.
