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1. Migrant Death and Disappearability at Sea: Mediterranean Necropolitics as a European Strategy of Migration Deterrence

Author:
Bertille Motte
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
The Mediterranean Sea has become the deadliest passage in the world over the past decade, as thousands of migrants lose their lives at sea each year. It has become a key actant of European border violence perpetrated against migrants, as European national and supranational migration institutions instrumentalize the Mediterranean’s natural properties through necropolitical strategies of deterrence. The sea must be understood as a wet ontology and a fluid hybrid border. It is shaped by dynamic and complex interactions between human actors and more-than-human elements through which European violence is passed onto non-European migrants’ bodies. It conceals migrants’ deaths and disappearances, as they become ‘inevitable accidents’ caused by natural and untamable elements. The Mediterranean Sea therefore invisibilizes European structural violence occurring at the border zone and acts as an archive and witness to this violence.
Topic:
Migration, Border Control, Refugees, Violence, Deterrence, Asylum, Necropolitics, and Refugee Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and Mediterranean

2. What Role Could Digital Technologies Play in the New EU Pact on Migration and Asylum?

Author:
Lucía Salgado and Hanne Beirens
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Pressure on EU migration and asylum systems has grown considerably in recent years, with rising arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants and the level of asylum applications approaching those that threw the European Union into disarray in 2015–16. The arrival of more than 4 million displaced Ukrainians, meanwhile, has challenged already strained reception and integration systems. And across Europe, migration has become a flashpoint for political tensions and dominated electoral debates. Many policymakers and other stakeholders have pinned their hopes on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum to help Europe address these challenges. The pact, which was announced by the European Commission in 2020 and has recently entered the final stages of negotiation, is a series of legislative proposals aimed at revamping EU migration and asylum systems. Yet even if the pact is finalized, it has to pass another test before policymakers can claim victory: translating a complex legal construct into something that works in practice and can withstand spikes in arrivals and other challenges. This policy brief explores how digital technologies—already increasingly being used in European migration and asylum systems—could be leveraged to support the implementation of the pact and where caution is merited. It examines the role new digital tools could play in three key areas: decision-making at the border, relocation of asylum seekers/refugees among Member States, and return and reintegration. It also discusses the broader implications of digitalization in migration and asylum systems and reflects on how policymakers can set appropriate governance models and safeguards to ensure responsible use of new technologies.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Governance, Border Control, European Union, Refugees, Resettlement, Asylum, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
Europe

3. Migration restrictions in the West: Some ethical concerns

Author:
Emmanuel Comte
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
Abstract:
Migration policies have divided the world in two groups: the walled world of Western countries and the rest. The EU system of migration control is the most extensive, given that Europe is surrounded by a series of regions with high migration potential. Migration restrictions do not enhance and may serve to reduce the opportunities of the worse-off and, as such, are at odds with international fairness. Negative externalities from richer to poorer countries, triggered by migration policies themselves or monetary or climate policies, make migration restrictions even more unfair. The growth of the migration control system ends up threatening human rights within Western countries. It is necessary to explore all possible ways to reverse migration restrictions and promote more open migration policies.
Topic:
Human Rights, Migration, Border Control, European Union, and Refugees
Political Geography:
Europe

4. Explaining immigration restrictions using a sequential path dependency model

Author:
Emmanuel Comte
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
Abstract:
This paper, by Emmanuel Comte, Senior Research Fellow, Ariane Condellis European Programme, analyses immigration restrictions by discussing major recent debates of historical political economy and proposing a new explanatory model. The conclusions in recent research on the subject of immigration restrictions converge in highlighting the natives’ fear of economic costs as a potent factor in immigration restrictions, despite evidence proving that actual costs are small and circumscribed, while the aggregate impact of immigration is generally positive. This paper develops existing scholarship to explain the magnitude of current immigration restrictions in Europe and North America by proposing a sequential path dependency model based on both historical insights and the insights of institutionalist theories of path dependence. In this model, the fears of adverse economic effects held by specific segments of the national workforce interact with a power structure dominated by the state and with the agency of union leaders and policymakers initiating a series of policy cycles that lead to complete restrictions on low-skilled immigration.
Topic:
Political Economy, Immigration, and Border Control
Political Geography:
Europe and North America

5. Putting Migrant Reintegration Programs to the Test: A Road Map to a Monitoring System

Author:
Lucía Salgado, Radu-Mihai Triculescu, Camille Le Coz, and Hanne Beirens
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
European policymakers have renewed their commitment to increase returns of migrants determined not to have a right to stay in the European Union, and to cooperate with returnees’ countries of origin to support their reintegration. And as investments in assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) initiatives have grown, so too has pressure to demonstrate that these programs are living up to the high expectations for them. Yet there is little clarity, let alone consensus, on what “successful” reintegration is or how best to achieve it. This MPI Europe report examines what is and is not known about returnees' economic, psychosocial, and social reintegration. It also discusses the need to build and strengthen monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to help address pressing knowledge gaps, track the impact of AVRR investments, and inform program decision-making. To do so, it lays out a set of guiding principles and explores key questions about the design, ownership, funding, and impact of M&E efforts.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Governance, Border Control, European Union, Immigrants, Deportation, Immigration Policy, and Illegal Immigration
Political Geography:
Europe

6. The Challenge of Coordinating Border Management Assistance between Europe and the Maghreb

Author:
Matt Herbert
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Europe’s border security needs and interests do not stop at its frontiers. Over the last 25 years, the European Union and its Member States have increasingly partnered with and relied on neighboring countries to mitigate cross-border challenges, ranging from irregular migration to drug trafficking and terrorism. Within this transnational architecture, the states of the Maghreb—Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia—have come to play a critical role. Cultivating cooperation with these countries and building their border security capacity have become vital concerns for European policymakers. This Transatlantic Council on Migration report examines the border security situation within the Maghreb, including Maghrebi states’ cross-border priorities and the structural factors impeding the development of better border security. It then takes stock of efforts by the European Union and its Member States to work with partners in the region to address border security challenges and offers lessons learned from experiences to date. “While they have little choice but to engage,” the report’s author writes, “European states have great latitude in deciding how they engage with Maghrebi states.” To be effective, this cooperation must be shaped not only around European policy aims but also the needs and interests of governments and citizens in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Science and Technology, Infrastructure, Governance, Border Control, European Union, Trafficking, Smuggling, and Illegal Immigration
Political Geography:
Europe and North Africa

7. The EU Settlement Scheme

Author:
Catherine Barnard and Fiona Costello
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
UK in a Changing Europe, King's College London
Abstract:
The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) allows EU nationals who arrived by 31 December 2020 (and some others) to protect their rights to live and work in the UK. The aim of this report is to explain the scheme, its background, how it works, who has applied, who may not have, and the lessons we have learned so far.
Topic:
Border Control, European Union, Citizenship, and Immigration Policy
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

8. Why Europe Should Build Legal Migration Pathways with Nigeria

Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The youth population within Nigeria is rapidly increasing, but despite their high levels of education and skills, many are struggling to find meaningful work opportunities at home. At the same time, Europe’s working-age population is declining, resulting in employers in these countries facing large and persistent skill shortages within a range of mid-skill professions. Despite the large benefits that facilitating migration between Nigeria and Europe could bring, and despite the overtures of both European governments and the European Union, few mutually beneficial migration partnerships exist. Over the last year, CGD has been working with the World Bank to understand how our Global Skill Partnership migration model could be implemented between Nigeria and Europe. The full results of this work have now been published in a new report, Expanding Legal Migration Pathways from Nigeria to Europe: From Brain Drain to Brain Gain. The report explores both why Nigeria and Europe should implement migration partnerships and develops a framework as to how they can do so. This framework is then applied to three sectors and partner countries: a healthcare partnership between Nigeria and the United Kingdom (UK), a construction partnership between Nigeria and Germany, and an ICT partnership with various European states. This brief focuses on the first part of this equation, the why: understanding the opportunity that lies before us to better link the labor markets of Nigeria and Europe and the innovation that could do just that.
Topic:
Migration, Immigration, Border Control, and Immigration Policy
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and Nigeria

9. Migration Management and Border Security: Lessons Learned

Author:
Alan D. Bersin
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Two decades into the 21st century, both the European Union and the United States have faced considerable challenges in managing migration and borders. Globally, the number of international migrants has grown considerably, reaching 281 million as of 2020. And large-scale irregular migration has strained the infrastructure, legal systems, and often the social and political fabric of the nations encountering it. This personal reflection, written by a former high-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, examines the strategic lessons that can be learned from recent migration events that have severely stressed border authorities in North America and Europe. Among the topics it explores are: the changing nature of borders and how nation states enforce them; the value of networks and cooperation within government, internationally, and with nongovernmental partners; the challenges of migrant smuggling and trafficking; and the importance of messaging and advanced preparation.
Topic:
Development, Migration, Law Enforcement, Border Control, European Union, Refugees, and Smuggling
Political Geography:
Europe and United States of America

10. European migration and border management: Future reforms reassert symbolic solidarity

Author:
Saila Heinikoski
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
Abstract:
In 2021, major symbolic changes are expected to be made to European migration and border policies, as Frontex standing corps is established in January and regulations for the New Pact on Migration and Asylum should be adopted by June. The Migration Pact proposed by the Commission in September 2020 would obligate member states to help each other in the event of migratory pressure, disembarkations or situations of crisis. Despite “mandatory solidarity” in the New Pact, there is no common migration policy, but the recognition rates continue to vary from country to country. Whereas common solutions to migration and asylum policy have not been found since 2015, countries were quick to adopt a Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard 2019/1896, which stipulates the progressive deployment of Frontex’s own 10,000 European border guards from 2021 onwards. Both migration and border management reforms are symbolically important for European integration, but member states retain their sovereign competence to decide who can stay and who should return.
Topic:
Migration, Border Control, Asylum, and Integration
Political Geography:
Europe

11. Managing the Pandemic and Its Aftermath: Economies, Jobs, and International Migration in the Age of COVID-19

Author:
Demetrios G. Papademetriou
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic’s immediate costs, measured in lives lost and damaged, have been appalling and continue to rise. In addition, its effects on individuals’ livelihoods and economies around the world have been deep and are likely to be long lasting. While saving lives was the near-exclusive focus during the first phase of the crisis, governments are now trying to strike a delicate balance between preventing further economic damage by reopening parts of their economies, while managing the obvious health risks of doing so. In the international mobility and migration arenas—policy areas enormously affected by the health and economic effects of the pandemic—this reflection considers both how these fields have fared thus far and the challenges that lay ahead. It first examines how measures put in place to stop the spread of the virus have affected family, labor, and humanitarian migration. It then highlights the thorny questions, as well as some opportunities, policymakers will face going forward. Among the critical questions: How will countries protect those most vulnerable to the disease and to economic precariousness? Will this become a moment in which governments seek to recalibrate the global trading system, aiming to increase economic self-reliance without falling into protectionism? And will the pandemic prompt countries to rethink aspects of their immigration systems, including how they screen arrivals, the number and types of foreign workers admitted, and the strategies for helping newcomers integrate into a new society?
Topic:
Migration, Border Control, Refugees, Economy, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Europe and United States of America

12. From legal to administrative subsidiarity: Diagnosing enforcement of EU border control

Author:
Adriaan Schout and Ingrid Blankesteijn
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations
Abstract:
Enforcement is a major challenge in the EU’s multilevel system. Solving the tensions between sovereignty and interdependencies requires internalisation of the core values and objectives embodied in EU legislation. Internalisation depends on strong involvement in all phases of policy-making through teamwork. States in the EU’s multilevel administrative system have to regard themselves as fully responsible for EU policies. High levels of interaction among experts in enforcement contribute to the required professional cultures. In organisational terms, a multilevel (subsidiarity-based) administrative system is based on cooperation in which the centre (the Commission and/or EU agencies) assumes essential managerial roles without eroding the integrity of the member countries. Subsidiarity is generally seen as a legal principle. This paper presents the practical governance consequences of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is well grounded in the EU treaties. Yet, the implications are little understood by policymakers when it comes to creating the conditions for effective EU policies at the shop floor of national administrations.
Topic:
International Relations, Law Enforcement, Border Control, and European Union
Political Geography:
Europe

13. All at sea: Europe’s crisis of solidarity on migration

Author:
Shoshana Fine
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
Abstract:
The European Union’s approach to migration has created a crisis of solidarity. While migrant arrivals in Europe have declined, so has cooperation and responsibility sharing within the EU. Member states’ reluctance to take sustained responsibility for search and rescue operations has exacerbated voters’ sense that the EU has lost control of the situation. The bloc seems to favour informal, ad hoc initiatives on migration governance that have little transparency, as seen in its disembarkation arrangements and the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. The EU threatens to undermine its credibility in driving reform in north Africa when it cherry-picks its commitments to international obligations, and when it legitimises and funds counterproductive migration practices. The bloc requires bold leadership in telling a story about migration as a normal and necessary phenomenon, and in promoting inclusive, sustainable policies among member states and with third countries.
Topic:
Migration, Foreign Aid, Border Control, and European Union
Political Geography:
Europe

14. Border games: Has Spain found an answer to the populist challenge on migration?

Author:
Shoshana Fine and José I. Torreblanca
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
Abstract:
Spain, and Europe, need a new story about migration – there is some recognition of this in Spain but it remains to be seen how the country will put this into practice. Spaniards are relatively open towards migration, but the policy challenge for their government should be to allay, and not provoke, fears of migrant invasion. The Spanish government has called for reform of the EU asylum system, favouring solidarity and shared responsibility as opposed to simply stopping ‘secondary movements’. Spain’s migration diplomacy aspires to work with origin and transit countries rather than acting in a coercive way towards them. The Spanish experience should inform EU member states’ efforts to seek to answers to the populist challenge: they should enact comprehensive, planned, and proactive policies that see migration as normal and necessary.
Topic:
Government, Migration, Border Control, European Union, and Asylum
Political Geography:
Europe and Spain

15. Maximizing the Shared Benefits of Legal Migration Pathways: Lessons from Germany’s Skills Partnerships

Author:
Michael Clemens, Helen Dempster, and Kate Gough
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The world is experiencing significant demographic shifts. By 2100, Europe’s working-age population will have declined, and sub-Saharan Africa’s working-age population will have greatly increased. Many of these new labor market entrants will seek opportunities in Europe, plugging skill gaps and contributing to economies in their countries of destination. Germany is one country piloting and implementing projects that can help alleviate such demographic pressures and maximize the potential mutual benefits of legal labor migration. We discuss these projects, and highlight differences in their potential impact on development in the country of origin. We recommend that European governments build on, adapt, and pilot-test one of Germany’s approaches, also known as the Global Skill Partnership model: training potential migrants in their countries of origin before migration, along with non-migrants. Ideally, governments should pursue such pilot-tests with those countries that exhibit rising future migration pressure to Europe, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Neither the conclusion nor the results of this analysis reflect the opinion of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) or Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Immigration, and Border Control
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Germany, and Sub-Saharan Africa