EU Legal Migration Policy: Are There Prospects for Progress or Is It at a Standstill?

The aim of the article is to attempt to identify the state of, and prospects for, the development of the common policy of the European Union regarding legal migration from third countries. The subject of interest is, above all, legal economic migration, which is crucial from the perspective of certain demographic processes taking place in the EU, the changes and needs of the Community’s labour market, and the challenges posed by the digital transformation. The adopted hypothesis assumes that, within the framework of EU migration and asylum policy, policy as regards legal economic migration is still an underdeveloped area and remains in the hands of individual Member States. Initiatives undertaken in this area remain overshadowed by the main focus of the common migration and asylum policy, namely the development of a common asylum system and the prevention of irregular migration. Policy regarding legal economic migration in the near future will mainly be created by Member States and play out on the domestic stage due to the lack of direct motivation for its development at the Community level. In this case, the strength of particular stakeholders’ interests is not balanced out by any direct and easily identifi able benefits to be gained from the adopted common solutions.

Forced Displacement and Asylum Policy in the Developing World

Little theoretical or empirical work examines migration policy in the developing world. We develop and test a theory that distinguishes the drivers of policy reform and factors influencing the direction of reform. We introduce an original data set of de jure asylum and refugee policies covering more than ninety developing countries that are presently excluded from existing indices of migration policy. Examining descriptive trends in the data, we find that unlike in the global North, forced displacement policies in the global South have become more liberal over time. Empirically, we test the determinants of asylum policymaking, bolstering our quantitative results with qualitative evidence from interviews in Uganda. A number of key findings emerge. Intense, proximate civil wars are the primary impetus for asylum policy change in the global South. Liberalizing changes are made by regimes led by political elites whose ethnic kin confront discrimination or violence in neighboring countries. There is no generalizable evidence that developing countries liberalize asylum policy in exchange for economic assistance from Western actors. Distinct frameworks are needed to understand migration policymaking in developing versus developed countries.

Current Challenges of European Integration - 12th Network Europe Conference, 9 – 10 November 2020

Crises are not a new phenomenon in the context of European integration. Additional integration steps could often only be achieved under the pressure of crises. At present, however, the EU is characterised by multiple crises, so that the integration process as a whole is sometimes being questioned. In 2015, the crisis in the eurozone had escalated to such an extent that for the first time a member state was threatened to leave the eurozone. Furthermore, the massive influx of refugees into the EU has revealed the shortcomings of the Schengen area and the common asylum policy. Finally, with the majority vote of the British in the referendum of 23 June 2016 in favour of the Brexit, the withdrawal of a member state became a reality for the first time. Even in the words of the European Commission, the EU has reached a crossroads. Against this background, the twelfth Network Europe conference included talks on the numerous challenges and future integration scenarios in Europe.

Populist Radical Right Parties and the Securitisation of Asylum Policy

This article examines the indirect impact of populist radical right parties on the securitisation of asylum policy. The theoretical foundation of the paper draws on classic theories of securitisation, expanding them to the field of (forced) migration and combining them with theories on indirect policy impact. In a two-step analysis, this article firstly investigates changes to asylum law in Austria and Germany from 2015 to 2016, using a policy analysis. The case studies include populist radical right parties with and without parliamentary representation. Thus, the resulting stage model also accounts for gradation of the influencing factor. In the first step of the analysis a securitisation of the policy field is revealed in both cases; however, it appears to a stronger degree in Austria. The results are then related to the strength of the populist radical right parties, operationalised as poll ratings, and to election dates to capture the behaviour of government parties under growing electoral competition. In Austria, the securitisation of asylum law could be attributed to the increasing strength of FPÖ, while the results for Germany are ambiguous. Accordingly, the results suggest that securitisation of asylum policy is more likely when populist radical right parties experience strong support from the electorate.

The future of the European Migration and Asylum Policy

Purpose: Migration is acomplex issue, with many facets that need to be weighed. Five years after the 2015 refugee crisis and the European Agenda on Migration, the EU still lacks a common migration and asylum policy. The aim of the chapter is to discuss the future of the migration and asylum policy in the European Union. Design/methodology/approach: The chapter analyzes the current migration situation in Europe, the impact of Covid-19 on migratory flows in Europe, challenges faced by the EU, and legislative initiatives proposed under the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. The text indicates key challenges related to migration faced by the European Union and provides an overview of the legislative proposals that seek to address the identified gaps. Findings: Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need for the EU to be prepared to address situations of force majeure and broader crises, which impact migration and asylum management systems. The Pact on Migration and Asylum sets out the Commission’s new approach to migration, addresses border management, and ensures more coherence to integrate the internal and external dimensions of migration policies. Originality and value: The chapter attempts to contribute to the literature on international migration by delivering analysis results of Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the migration flows in Europe and the analysis of EU’s new approach to migration and asylum policy.

European Asylum Policy and Procedures - Violating Human Rights?

Based on the human rights approach this study investigates the process of gaining asylum in the European Union (EU) from the first step which is access to the territory, up to the last point of deportation and/or the granting of refugee status. A qualitative study is used to examine two countries with the largest numbers of refugees around the world: Afghanistan and Syria. The method consists of a thematic analysis of six videos that cover the real life stories and narratives of eighteen asylum seekers from different countries of the EU. The findings and existing literature conclude that asylum seekers face many obstacles and challenges, and that EU asylum policy and procedures are violating human rights. These EU rights violations include closing the borders, putting asylum seekers in prison, forced deportation, homelessness, poverty and racial violence. Ultimately, this research concludes that even though all these European countries are signatories of the United Nations/Geneva Conventions, in reality they do not fulfill their obligations.