Economic Migrant or Refugee? Externalizing American Refugee and Asylum Policy, 1975-2000

“Economic Migrant or Refugee?” traces how the economic migrant category became a catch-all classification used by the executive and legislative branches to prevent increasing numbers of individuals from accessing refuge and asylum. Covering the period 1975-2000, it explores a moment in which the US federal government simultaneously developed rights-sensitive standards and procedures for assessing refugee- and asylum-related protection claims and established border externalization mechanisms that prevented those same individuals from setting foot on their territories or otherwise prompting protection obligations. It argues that the executive and legislative branches’ usage of the economic migrant category justified the implementation of such mechanisms, which the US federal government used to target specifically poor, non-white border crossers. Beginning with an examination of how international organizations and the US federal government interpreted and used the economic migrant category from the early twentieth century to the present, the dissertation then examines the experiences of Southeast Asian, Haitian, and Central American border crossers within four case studies. Each case study analyzes a particular form of border externalization, from the shifting meaning of “economic” and interdiction and repatriation efforts to cooperative non-entrée agreements and expedited removal procedures. The case studies cumulatively show the evolution of the economic migrant category and how border externalization efforts – shaped by local contexts and implemented by many different state and non-state actors – established a complicated geographical web that trapped border crossers seeking entry into the United States from a variety of locations. The dissertation provides one of the first historical analyses of the US federal government’s border externalization efforts and usage of the economic migrant category to challenge the labels used to categorize border crossers.