Refugees have been a recurring phenomena in international events as long as there have been political borders to cross. The refugee's first and paramount need is to fine a safe haven; he seeks refuge. Nowhere else, and at no other time, has the importance of first asylum been so evident as in the case of Indochinese refugees. Over a million refugees have already left Vietnam, and comparable numbers have left Cambodia and Laos. Tens of thousands more have perished in their attempts to flee. Refugees continue to escape from Indochina today.;The relationship between refugee policy and foreign policy has long been acknowledged. Yet domestic politics also play a crucial role in the policy choices of first asylum countries. If this is not the case initially, it becomes the case when refugee issues turn into public issues, when they are politicized domestically. Refugee definitions and refugee policies are adjusted in order to bring about the desired political outcome. Refugee status is determined by politics.;First asylum countries have played a particularly prominent role in the dynamics of this movement. The general concern of this study is with the political definition of a refugee as used by the countries of first asylum. The specific focus of this study is policy for Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. Although most countries had constant or slowly-evolving refugee policies (even along similar lines of development), Hong Kong made an abrupt change in its refugee policy in 1982. Both the nature of this change and the timing raise many questions which, when answered, shed some light on the problems faced by other first asylum countries in formulating their refugee policies.
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