State Control of Territorial Access. Visa Policies in the USA and Austria

While the immigration policies of OECD states have been rather well researched, there are hardly any analyses that focus on the development of visa policies over time. This article contributes to overcoming this deficit. We analyse the visa policies of the USA and Austria with regard to short-term travel. By virtue of Austria's accession to the Schengen agreements and the EU in 1995, our research reflects the development of the EU policy, too. We thus focus not only on two popular tourist destinations but from 1995 onwards also on the two most important economic regions within the OECD. We show that citizens from wealthy democracies have always been treated favourably with regard to visa-free travel, while those from other countries have not. Over time, this correlation has increased and lead to an ever greater selectivity. In addition, there has been an increasing convergence between the visa-regimes of the USA and Austria/the EU.