Refugees and Economic Migrants: Disentangling the Keywords of Displacement and Policy Consequences in Modern Europe

As we enter the third decade of the new millennium, the categorical distinction between refugees and migrants remains salient, yet problematic. Setting aside the question of its magnitude and causes, the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ unleashed in 2015 disclosed once more the persistent yet convoluted attempts on the part of modern states to determine who qualified as a ‘genuine’ refugee and who was deemed to be an ‘economic migrant’. Furthermore, it raised once more the question what obligations states thereby assumed towards those who sought and were granted asylum. The distinction has become part of the currency of public debate and media usage, as if it were straightforward and incontrovertible. It allows advocates of restricted immigration to claim that they nevertheless adhere to humanitarian principles because they support the rights of refugees who can establish a valid claim to have been persecuted. This short article traces the articulation of that distinction in international political debate and how it was affirmed at key moments in 20th-century European history.