Policy and Complex Systems
The immigration policy P reflects how the state treats the acceptance process . Immigration policy is a balance between economic and humanitarian elements . If P is an “ economic ” -focused policy , the state seeks to maximize its economic benefit to the country . This could imply a protectionist posture with a minimization of migrant access to labor markets or the admittance of migrants who fill a specific economic need . For this research , we assume that an economic policy implies the state will accept all migrants with skill level k i
=" High " until the quota is met . If P is a “ humanitarian ” -focused policy , the state seeks to provide safe haven to those in need . For the purposes of this research , we assume that a humanitarian policy implies the state will accept all migrants with motive v i
=" Fleeing " until the quota has been met .
The victim-centered approach variable , VCA , denotes whether the state agent will first give preference to migrants of high vulnerability — we assume that seeded victims are migrants of high vulnerability . State Agent Behaviors
A state agent ’ s only behavior rule relates to its interaction with migrant agents . This interaction is limited to one migrant at a time and is driven by the state ’ s immigration policy , number of migrants allowed entry against the quota , and the individual attributes of the migrant agents . The interaction logic is shown in Figure 3 .
Figure 3 also highlights the possible migrant acceptance outcomes . The key success metric we are tracking for our research is when a seeded victim is successfully identified under a victim-centered approach by the state agent . Another valuable metric is when victims are willing to cooperate but the quota has been filled , and thus they are rejected . We intend to use this metric as a proxy for estimating the persistence of cooperation through the migrant population over time .
Figure 3 . Behavior logic for how the state agent interacts with migrant agents . This logic is used by the state agent for determining whether the migrant will be accepted or rejected .
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