This book fills a significant lacuna in our understanding of the refugee crisis by analyzing the dynamics that lie behind fifteen years of asylum policies in the European Union. It sheds light on why cooperation has led to reinforced refugee protection on paper but has failed to provide it in practice. Offering innovative empirical, theoretical and methodological research on this crucial topic, it argues that the different asylum systems and priorities of the various Member States explain the EU's lack of initiative in responding to this humanitarian emergency. The author demonstrates that the strong regulators of North-Western Europe have used their powerful bargaining positions to shape EU asylum policies decisively, which has allowed them to impose their will on Member States in South-Eastern Europe. These latter countries, having barely made a mark on EU policies, are now facing significant difficulties in implementing them. The EU will only identify potential solutions to the crisis, the author concludes, when it takes these disparities into account and establishes a functioning common refugee policy. This novel work will appeal to students and scholars of politics, immigration and asylum in the EU.

This book, edited by Vincent Chetail, Philippe De Bruycker and Francesco Maiani, is aimed at analysing the recent changes of the Common European Asylum System, the progress achieved and the remaining flaws. The overall objective and key added value of this volume are to provide a comprehensive and critical account of the recast instruments governing asylum law and policy in the European Union. This book is the outcome of the 7th Congress of the Academic Network for Legal Studies on Immigration and Asylum in Europe held in Brussels in 2014. Contributors are: Hemme Battjes, Céline Bauloz, Ulrike Brandl, Vincent Chetail, Cathryn Costello, Philippe De Bruycker, Madeline Garlick, Elspeth Guild, Emily Hancox, Lyra Jakuleviciene, Francesco Maiani, Barbara Mikołajczyk, Géraldine Ruiz, Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi, Patricia Van De Peer and Jens Vedsted-Hansen.

Recently, global and European migration in the post-Cold War world have received much attention. This edited collection is a comprehensive, up-to-date account of the social policies of European welfare states towards refugees and asylum seekers. It also examines the contested boundaries between refugees and asylum seekers and citizenship within European nation states and the European Union.

The harmonization of the different European legal systems has reached the field of asylum and immigration policy. The Maastricht Treaty has established the legal basis for a common migration policy. Numerous resolutions, recommendations, joint positions and actions were adopted by the EU Council based on the `third pillar' in the Maastricht Treaty. Within the `first pillar' the European Community has enacted regulations on visa policy based on Art. 100c EC - Treaty. Additionally, several agreements with third countries on immigration issues were set into force. Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy of the European Union comprehensively describes the present state of the harmonization process concerning migration policy in the European Union. Particular emphasis is laid on the legal status of third-country nationals with regard to entry and residence. Furthermore, the gaps within EU regulations are evaluated in an attempt to search for a homogenous European migration policy.

This open access book describes how the numerous arrivals of asylum seekers since 2015 shaped reception and integration processes in Europe. It addresses the structuration of asylum and reception systems, and spaces and places of reception on European, national, regional and local level. It also analyses perceptions and discourses on asylum and refugees, their evolvement and the consequences for policy development. Furthermore, it examines practices and policy developments in the field of refugee reception and integration. The volume shows and explains a variety of refugee reception and integration strategies and practices as specific outcome of multilevel governance processes in Europe. By addressing and contextualizing those multiple experiences of asylum seeker reception, the book is a valuable contribution to the literature on migration and integration, societal development and political culture in Europe.

An unprecedented number of people is currently on the move seeking refuge in Europe. Large parts of European societies respond with anxiety and mistrust to the influx of people. Nationalist, anti-migrant parties from Slovakia over Germany to the UK have gained increasing support among the electorate and challenge the political mainstream. Europe is struggling how to respond. While the search for solutions is ongoing one pattern seems to be emerging: Fortress Europe is in the making. Unfortunately, few of these discussions and measures consider the structural root causes and dynamics of migration, the motives of migrants or societal challenges more thoroughly. This book seeks to address this deficit. Taking migration and asylum policies as a starting point, it analyses the various dimensions underpinning migration. In doing so, it identifies why receiving countries are in many ways part of the problem. To eschew an overtly Euro-centric perspective and stimulate a debate between science and politics, it contains contributions by academics and practitioners alike from both shores of the Mediterranean.

More than a decade has passed since the appearance of the first issue of the European Journal of Migration and Law, which was established to examine the intertwining of issues of law and migration in the EU. This volume has been compiled to celebrate that anniversary. The journal itself is the basis for the book: authors who have written the most significant contributions for the journal on the relevant issues to the Area of Freedom Security and Justice (AFSJ) have revised and updated their articles in light of current developments. These are supplemented with new chapters on issues which have turned out to be particularly important to the development of the field. The success of the journal has demonstrated the need for informed, independent academic research on the changing nature of immigration and asylum in Europe, and this volume too seeks to meet that need. It offers a unqiue and lively collection of essays covering the field of EU immigration and asylum law from a variety of perspectives.