Matching humanitarian norms with cold,hard interests: the making of refugee policies in Mexico and Honduras, 1980-89

Humanitarian norms and institutions should be considered when analyzing the development and state of national policy. Mexico and Honduras, for example, have provided physical security, health care, and education to most Guatemalans and Salvadorans seeking asylum. In neither case, however, are Mexico's and Honduras' economic and political interests being best served. National interest initially forced the deportation or massacre of these refugees, in the case of Honduras, in the early 1980s. In the absence of change in neither national interests nor attitude, these refugees owe their current treatment to the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. These cases support this paper's argument that national policy is shaped over time by interaction with international norm-promoting institutions. In the interest of minimizing costs and risk, policymakers and governments tend to adapt institutionally developed and internationally accepted policies to suit their needs. National policy is not developed solely on the basis of calculations of national interest outside of internationally accepted norms. This paper demonstrates the ability to empirically test the nature of forces guiding the development of national policy.