Reluctant Reception

Seeking to understand why host states treat migrants and refugees inclusively exclusively or without any direct engagement Kelsey P. Norman offers this original comparative analysis of the politics of asylum seeking and migration in the Middle East and North Africa. While current classifications of migrant and refugee engagement in the Global South mistake the absence of formal policy and law for neglect Reluctant Reception proposes the concept of strategic indifference where states proclaim to be indifferent toward migrants and refugees thereby inviting international organizations and local NGOs to step in and provide services on the states behalf. Using the cases of Egypt Morocco and Turkey to develop her theory of strategic indifference Norman demonstrates how by allowing migrants and refugees to integrate locally into large informal economies and by allowing organizations to provide basic services host countries receive international credibility while only exerting minimal state resources....See More