Immigration and asylum in EU today. A European challenge with national implications

Immigration – a European issue Since the 1970s immigration (and asylum) become from a purely national matter national competence in the 1960s 3 rd pillar during the 1990s a shared competence after the Lisbon Treaty To an increasingly European one

The development of migration flows to the EU : Legal, organized, national-centered, labor : repatriation, integration, national-centered : irregular, individual, mixed migration flows increasingly extra-European 2010 – the rise of refugees

The legal aspects of immigration in EU A shared competence Αn area of freedom, security and justice Α common policy on asylum, subsidiary protection and temporary protection a common immigration policy efficient management of migration flows fair treatment of third-country nationals residing legally prevention of illegal immigration

The legal aspects of immigration in EU The right of Member States to determine volumes of admission of third-country nationals coming from third countries to their territory in order to seek work, whether employed or self-employed The establishment of agencies EASO Frontex

The political context in the EU The increased role of the European Commission a more assertive Commission Specific policy priorities Qualified majority voting The sidestepping of national veto The variable geometry problems

The political context in the EU Ordinary legislative procedure The need to take into account the EP priorities The added element of the increased judicial involvement The role of the European Court of Justice

The context of immigration in the 21 st century The intensification of mixed migration flows after 2000 A rise of xenophobia and anti-immigrant positions In the public opinion (and, as a result, in public policies, too) The perception of asylum as a means to by-pass immigration procedures

The context of immigration in the 21 st century The impact of the economic crisis The drive to cut public spending, at national and EU level, affected and shall affect asylum and integration policies The failure of integration in the face of increasing Islamic radicaiization- and perception thereof The rising concern on benefits and rights

The gradual rise of the Mediterranean entry to the EU The shift of irregular entries Sea and land/not air South rather than center Victims of conflicts rather than economic migrants Mediterranean becomes the main point of entry of mixed migration flows The overburdening of the reception systems

The intra-EU tensions Irregular migration becomes trans-border Secondary movements within the EU The influence of the Dublin system The gradual dispute between center and periphery of Europe The institutional imbalances The diverging positions of MS and the EU institutions

The Dublin system: the crux of the intra-EU strife Dublin-III regulation: a mechanism to allocate responsibility for examining an asylum application The responsibility on the EU MS state of the first irregular entry

The effects of the Syrian civil war The world's largest humanitarian crisis since World War II The total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria has reached 12.2 million, approximately 7.6 million of whom are internally displaced The number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries is) over 3.9 million



The result being A significant increase in illegal entries of (potential) refugees and A heavier burden on states with relatively weak and new asylum systems, and recent tradition in protection of migrants’ rights As well as an increased divide between center and (especially Mediterranean) periphery in the EU

The way forward for a common EU policy on immigration and asylum The inability of the present system to cater for the emergencies Relocation of asylum seekers Joint processing of asylum applications The exhaustion of national policies Towards a common immigration status? A reversal of EU integration in the field of immigration? National quotas?

Some useful litterature Hollifield-Martin-Orrenius” Controlling immigration: a global perspective”, 3 rd ed. Stanford University Press, 2014 Ammar-Stern: “Human Rights Challenges in the Areas of Asylum and Immigration: EU Policies and Perspectives”. Austrian review of international and European law online, Vol. 16, issue, 1, pp, Carrera, Sergio and Gros, Daniel. (2015) What priorities for the new European agenda on migration? CEPS Commentary, 22 April [Policy Paper in H. Brady “Mare Europaeum – tackling Mediterranean Migration”. European Union Institute for Security Studies Brief, 2014 (in