A Need for Control? Political Trust and Public Preferences for Asylum and Refugee Policy

The protection of asylum seekers and refugees has become one of the most politically divisive issues in the European Union, yet there has been no research on public preferences for asylum and refugee policies. This paper analyses which policies Europeans prefer and why. We advance a theoretical framework that explains how preferences for policies that use limits and conditions enable individuals to resolve conflicting humanitarian and national interest logics. Using an original conjoint experiment in eight countries, we demonstrate that public support for asylum and refugee protection tends to be contingent upon the presence of policy features which impose control through limits or conditions. In contrast to the divisive political debates between EU member states, we find consistent public preferences across European countries.