Why do civil society organisations working on international protection tend to have positive dispositions towards refugees? A macro-level opportunity structure model

Studies of civil society organisations (CSOs) working on international protection related issues have typically focused on those groups with positive dispositions towards refugees, without asking either whether this is the full range of dispositions in such groups or why negatively-disposed individuals appear not to mobilise in the same way. This article uses a novel survey of CSOs in Europe to confirm that the very large majority of groups have positive dispositions, explained by a cleavage model of attitudes towards international protection, which incentives using such organisational forms to optimise direct work with refugees and to avoid shortcomings of public bodies. By contrast, data from political parties points towards those with negative dispositions being incentivised to focus their efforts on the party political sphere, to regulate public policy to limit international protection, in service of a very different conceptualisation of refugees’ relationship to national communities. This differentiated opportunity structure explains much of the pattern and logic of mobilisation and has implications in similar areas, such as human rights.