Migration crisis in the EU - Dissertation Social

Migration in various forms has existed since the very beginning of human history. Populations are constantly on the move, in search of a new place to live, to find better living conditions. Nowadays, Europe has become very attractive and many populations wish to go there by all means. Sometimes they use legal channels, but often they do not have the means and risk their lives to reach European lands. Migrants are prepared to spend a lot of money and take very dangerous routes to reach their goal. These people want at all costs to avoid and flee war, terrorism, political oppression or famine in their countries. They also want to be reunited with their families or find jobs in safer countries. They are often forced to embark on this long journey, at the cost of their lives.

Since 2015 the EU is facing an increasing number of migrants and refugees. In 2017, more than on million people arrived in Europe, although the number is complicated to verify due to “unofficial” immigration. These people fled war and terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria for example. This migration crisis has indeed left its mark on Europe, which, in my view, is struggling to find effective solutions to deal with it. The EU is really failing to deal with this crisis and I will now explain my point of view.

First, even if the European Parliament claims responsibility for taking a lot of measures concerning this crisis, we can observe huge divergences in national policies of the Member-states. According to the European institutions, over the last 20 years the Union has established common asylum standards. Recently, Europe implemented new migration policies such as the European Migration Agenda. Europe’s asylum system has many weaknesses and this crisis has served to highlight them. The European Parliament proposed in 2017 a reform of the Dublin system which determines which Member state is responsible for the asylum of migrants. However, European governments have been unable to reach a consensus.

For example, some European leaders such as Viktor Orban in Hungary decided to close its borders in the South2 to stop the arrival of migrants on its territory. Hungary had been very critical of the migrant distribution programme proposed by Brussels, and had decided to survey the population on the subject. In a referendum that ultimately failed, only 44% of Hungarians turned out to vote. On the other side, the German

policy concerning the welcoming of migrants was completely different. Even if this crisis created political conflicts within the German state, Angela Merkel decided to welcome a large number of migrants who came to Europe. It was considered as a real benefice for Germany which lacked a young and qualified workforce.

This examples illustrate very well how the European policy could diverge between the Member-states, even if the Dublin system still exists. As a result, Europe’s fundamental values have been called into question, following the rise of the crisis. Indeed, the massive arrival of migrants causes a withdrawal of some Eastern member states, and the ascent of far-right parties in national election such as the FPÖ in Austria. The lack of coherence and of consensus within the EU explains how it could be difficult to manage the crisis.

Also, to my mind, the EU is failing to manage this crisis, because it was not well prepared. The crisis was unprecedented and totally unforeseen. It was of extreme scale, which explains why states were unable to react properly to resolve the crisis. The situation in the summer of 2015 was unexpected: millions of refugees, Syrians in particular, were living in very bad conditions of life, in camps for example where it was no more possible to provide them food supplies because of the lack of funding. The wars in Syria had been going on for more than four years, with no hope of a rapid peace. For several years, the intelligence services had been warning that these conflicts could generate a huge crisis in Europe, and force some people to flee their home countries, because living there was no more possible. But this warning was not really considered by the EU. This crisis has therefore had a huge surprise effect on Europe, which has been unable to put in place the necessary measures beforehand to manage this crisis. To conclude, I agree that the EU is failing to manage the migrant’s crisis, even nowadays although the crisis began in 2015.

Accéder à l'échantillon complet