The EU Migration Policyby Ekaterina Leonenkova

World Migration. An issue on the agenda of the United Nations

Migration data is analysed by The Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations;

Reports on International Migration Policies include 196 countries, including all 193 Member States of the United Nations, one Observer State (the Holy See) and two non-member States (Niue and Cook Islands);

According to the UN statistics, between 1990 and 2013 the number of migrants rose by 154 million, reaching 232 million people, 59% of whom settled in developed regions.

Main reasons for migrationThe reasons are usually classified as economic, social, political or environmental. Other reasons include reuniting of families and educational purposes. Push factors (those in a migrant’s country of origin)

lack of services lack of safety; high crime; war crop failure: drought; flooding poverty

Pull factors (those in the country of destination) higher employment better services good climate; more fertile land; lower risk from

natural hazards safer, less crime; political stability

Immigration flow to the EU states in the first years of its operation

1998 1999 2000528 000 people 720 000 people 816 000 people

Germany France Switzerland7,5 million immigrants 3,8 million immigrants 1,2 million immigrants

EU immigration/ emigration processes in 2010-2013 (source: Eurostat 10/6/2015) Non-EU nationals

2010 2011 2012 2013

immigrants 1 455 953 1 391 147 1 352 027 1 372 789emigrants 707 927 697 487 753 675 833 730

Germany: number of immigrants in 2013 – 692700, emigration 3 times lower; The UK: number of immigrants - 526000, emigration twice as low;France: number of immigrants - 332600, emigration – 300800;Spain: number of immigrants - 280800, the highest number of emigrants reported in 2013 – 532300.A total of 16 of the EU Member States reported more immigration than emigration in 2013, but in Bulgaria, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland, Portugal, Romania emigrants outnumbered immigrants.

The policy itself. The main pillars The 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention and the 1967

Prolocol; The 1999 Tampere European Council (Finland); The Dublin Regulation (February, 18th 2003) – each Member

state is responsible for examining an asylum application; The multiannual Hague Programme, adopted at the

European Council of 4 and 5 November 2004; The European Pact on immigration and asylum (2008, N.

Sarkozy) – shaping a unified approach to both legal ad illegal migration;

A common immigration policy for Europe 2008 (10 principles, including integrated boarder management, partnership with non-EU countries, clear rules, for example, visa policy and “blue card” network);

The Stockholm Programme 2009-2014 (combating human trafficking and smuggling; cooperating with migrants’ home counties; controlling the EU external boarders)

The main routes Central Mediterranean Route (Italy and Malta): More than 120,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe via the Central Mediterranean between January and September.

Eastern Mediterranean Route (Greece/Aegean Sea): The Eastern Mediterranean has become the primary maritime route in 2015. More than 350,000 individuals have crossed from Turkey to Greece (the vast majority to Greek islands like Lesbos and Kos near the Turkish coast) in the first nine months of 2015. Afghan and Pakistani nationals also arrive via the Eastern Mediterranean.

Western Balkans (Hungary): More than 155,000 people crossed from Serbia into Hungary between January and August. Two primary groups travel this route: Western Balkan nationals—especially from Kosovo and Albania—and migrants and refugees traveling onward from Greece to reach the rest of the European Union.

The current situationMore than 487,000 people have arrived at Europe’s Mediterranean shores in the first nine months of 2015, double all of 2014 and the highest number since record keeping began. Nearly 3,000 people died crossing the Mediterranean this year alone, not counting those who lost their lives en route.The largest number of applications for asylum in the UK alone came from nationals of Eritrea (3,568), followed by Pakistan (2,302) and Syria (2,204). A total of 11,600 people were granted asylum or an alternative form of protection.

The main migrant groups:

1) individuals whose protection claims are likely to be recognized by European authorities, such as Syrians and Eritreans; 2) individuals fleeing instability or violence in their home countries who may not qualify for refugee status but are still at risk for other reasons including Somalis and some Syrians; 3) migrants who feel compelled to leave their countries for largely economic reasons—Western Balkans and sub-Saharan nationals, for example. 

The main obstacles on the way of solving the problem

The failure to integrate past migrants effectively; European countries have differing views on both

the goals of integration and the most appropriate strategies to achieve it;

Public resentment of migrants and fear of difference leads to discrimination, community tensions, and occasional violence;

The fear of public resistance to migrants, and to EU involvement in their conditions of stay;

The key levers for integration (such as employment policy and family reunification) fall under the authority of different directorates-general at the European Commission, different committees in the European Parliament, and different ministries at the national level—with the usual barriers thus created to developing a coordinated strategy.

Main policy areas

Reducing the incentives for irregular migration: investigating and prosecuting smugglers networks partly by strengthening Frontex and build stronger partnerships with key countries outside the EU;

Saving lives and securing external borders: financing initiatives in North Africa to help the region become stronger in search and rescue activities, seeing if a European border guard system should be established.

A strong common asylum policy: ensuring a full implementation of the common European asylum system. This would be achieved by promoting identification and fingerprinting, seeing how a single asylum decision process would ensure equal treatment of asylum seekers in Europe, and evaluating the Dublin system by mid-2016.

A new policy on legal migration: keeping Europe an attractive destination for migrants in a time of demographic decline, through actions such as reviewing the Blue Card scheme, re-prioritising integration policies.

The distribution of refugees among EU member states