Why comply? The politics of the international refugee regime in non-party Southeast Asian states

A majority of Southeast Asian states are not party to the international refugee regime, and thus have not formally consented to be bound by its normative obligations. This thesis examines changes in State refugee policies absent formal commitments to the regime, using process tracing and archival evidence in four case studies (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines) to inductively explain shifts in each statesâ compliance. It employs rationalist and constructivist lenses, contributing to the literature on compliance absent formalised international legal commitments, and that on forced migration.