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This article outlines how a refugee policy took shape in the liberal countries bordering Nazi Germany during the first half of the 1930s. In Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland, immigration policy had become much more restrictive by 1933 when the refugees from Germany applied for asylum and the necessity for a 'side entrance' for asylum seekers to these countries became apparent. The focus here is on the role of the Communist aid organisation, the Red Aid, in this endeavour. In comparison to the social-democratic aid organisations, the Red Aid was deficient, but most importantly it was an outsider to the political regime, while the Social-Democrats were part of the political regime. Still the authorities in all countries conceded by 1935 that German Communist refugees were more deserving than other unwanted immigrants who were expelled without much ado. This article argues that the campaigns of the Red Aid in the rather limited liberalisation of policy towards Communist refugees by 1935 did have some effect since their denouncement of the inhumane treatment of Communist refugees led these liberal polities to restrain themselves in their treatment of these most 'undeserving' of refugees.

Résumé Cet article livre une étude comparée des politiques du refuge menées par les principaux États européens sur le long xx e siècle en croisant les transformations des régulations internationales et les politiques propres à chaque État, en s'attardant sur le cas de la Grande-Bretagne, des Pays-Bas, de la Belgique, de la France et de la Suisse. Il souligne les difficultés de l'élaboration d'une politique européenne du refuge et les formes qu'elle prend en les rapportant aux traditions nationales des États européens. Il montre que les trajectoires nationales de la politique du refuge, du milieu du xix e siècle à nos jours, peuvent être profondément différentes, voire contradictoires, et éclaire ainsi les enjeux contemporains liés à la mise en œuvre de la Convention de Genève.

The immigration policies adopted by Western European states during the interwar period were marked by increasing restriction, especially after 1933. One notable exception to this was the relatively generous treatment afforded to women who were prepared to take up employment as domestic servants. This article looks at the reasons behind this anomaly and compares the responses of three states that were in the front line of the refugee efflux from Germany and Eastern Europe in the years leading up to the Second World War.