How do you determine whether someone is an economic migrant or a political refugee?

In general if a refugee applies for asylum in one country for political reasons, he or she has to prove being persecuted on political grounds in the country that this person is trying to leave permanently.

However in practice there are certain European countries where there are so many applications from refugees on political grounds that they could not be considered. In addition due to a priority of considering applications from the countries that account for most numbers of political refugees such as Syria, application from other countries could simply not be accepted or denied for everyone. At the same time if there is a law that entitles a potential refugee applicant to stay in a country as long as his or her asylum application is under consideration, that could motivate a person to stay in a country and look for work. Once such person finds work he or she might be able to apply for long-stay work permit and turn into economic migrant. Therefore oftentimes it is the procedures at the country of application that determine whether someone is an economic migrant or a political refugee.