A Study of Burden-Sharing on Asylum-Seeking Immigration : The Alliance of Germany and Poland in Safe Third Country Agreement

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Germany has been regarded as the representative country to accept a lot of asylum-seekers and refugees since the early 1990s. The ‘Safe Third Country Agreement’ appeared as a countermeasure to control the number of asylum-seekers to come into Germany and other European countries. According to ‘Safe Third Country Agreement’, asylum-seekers who apply for refugee status in Germany can be sent to so-called ‘safe countries’ which are expected to provide secure protection for asylum-seekers.
As a matter of fact, this agreement may reflect a German strategy to hand over the burden of protecting a number of asylum-seekers to other ‘safe’ countries. However, Poland has not only accepted the majority of ‘deported’ asylum-seekers from Germany, but also played a role as one of the most active German allies through several agreements and cooperation.
Olson’s joint product model and Boyer’s trade policy model can explain the major motivation of German-Polish cooperation based on their comparative advantages of burden-sharing in the context of asylum-seeking immigration. Germany has a comparative advantage in letting Poland control the number of asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants in advance by providing financial and institutional support. Poland has comparative advantage on intensifying border security and getting a financial and institutional compensation from Germany.
The German-Polish solidarity has developed as a form of alliance for the two countries’ collective good. Germany and Poland have satisfied each of their interests through several programmes, such as the Cross-Border Cooperation programme, EURODAC System and PHARE programme. The cooperation has progressed in the areas where both countries find advantages, namely the border security sector and economic institutional sector.