LAUSR

ABSTRACT Since the 1990s, 13 of the 15 states of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) have passed asylum policy reforms. Yet, while some of the reforms have resulted in an alignment with European asylum policies, others have not. To account for the scope and content of asylum policy reform in the ENP states, a wide array of possible explanatory factors has been advanced in the literature. However, current explanations remain on a case-specific level, and thus fall short of accounting for the broader variation in asylum policy reform in the EU's neighbourhood. This article seeks to identify the relevant drivers of alignment with European asylum policies, employing a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) across 13 ENP countries. The results show that ENP states align with European asylum policies in two cases: first, if they are electoral democracies and face moderate migratory pressures; second, if they are electoral democracies and hold EU membership aspirations.