The project addresses several important research gaps in comparative migration policy studies. Previous research has primarily focused on immigration policies in member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As a result, we know very little about how immigration policies developed across non-OECD countries. This also constrains our understanding of potential explanatory factors, as existing theories have been devised and tested solely on a restricted range of policy contexts. Expanding the country sample to the Global South allows us to reassess three key explanatory factors shaping immigration policy restrictiveness: migration flows, political parties and public opinion, and institutional structures. Examining non-OECD countries provides greater variation in these factors and thereby offers deeper insight into how they influence immigration policies. Beyond addressing these substantive research questions, our project contributes methodologically by developing a data infrastructure on immigration policies in selected non-OECD countries for the period 2000-2025.
