This project into a domain of public management investigates the European post war refugee policy. It is a comparative political history which provides a synthesis of differences and similarities in the development of national refugee policies in Europe, at the border, in the country itself and in the asylum offices. It analyses how in this domain which expresses par excellence national sovereignty the nation states have agreed to pass this competence largely to the EU. This historical analysis of refugee policy is embedded in a larger socio-economic history of immigration and relates also to the broader political history, mainly domestic politics but evidently also international politics (Cold War, Europeanization and globalization). By focussing on national refugee policy throughout a long time period and covering all of Europe and also embedding this in a broad overview of change this research project aims to contribute to the insights how Europe (and the world) has changed since 1951.