Different narratives,one area without internal frontiers: why EU institutions cannot agree on the refugee crisis

ABSTRACT

This article contextualizes contemporary institutional responses of the European Union (EU) to the refugee crisis within the historical setting in which EU migration and asylum policies emerged – namely during the implementation of the border-free Schengen Area (1984–1995). Using the analytical framework of ‘policy narratives’, it argues that EU institutions have used the creation of the ‘area without internal frontiers’ to build coherent narratives about the nature and scope of EU action and of their own role in it. Such narratives became locked into the institutional discourse and influenced the subsequent evolution of EU politics on the topic.     

From diversity to conviviality: intra-EU mobility and international migration to Denmark in times of economic recession

ABSTRACT

This article explores differences among EU and non-EU migrants in accommodating to the Danish flexicurity labour and welfare regime during times of economic crisis. We build our findings on a quantitative survey followed by semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with EU and non-EU migrants who moved to Denmark during the recession period (2008–2013). We argue that the lack of multicultural policies triggers individualised strategies of accommodation rather than ethnic or national group base integration, favouring a more homogenous group of high-skilled and educated group of workers and students of postgraduate/higher education, whom we describe as a ‘flexicurity diversity group’. Through patterns of conviviality, individual socialisation is based here on common interests, needs and lifestyles and not on pre-defined ethnic and/or cultural traits. The transition from diversity to conviviality that is initiated by this group remains however incomplete in light of the unequal opportunities and the differentiated scheme of rights that apply to EU and non-EU immigrants. Danish flexicurity has thus not had the desired inclusive effects but discriminates in terms of facilitating easy access to the labour market for all, and ‘securing’ social benefits and offering rights and protection only to the privileged group of EU migrants.     

The renationalisation of migration policies in times of crisis: the case of Norway*

Securing collective action in the field of asylum regulation is high on the European political agenda. In this article, we look at one country's partial pullback from the regional cooperation during the high influx of asylum seekers in 2015. We use Norway as a case to analyse the challenges to common European asylum regulations and the drivers of a region-wide tendency of what we call renationalisation. Against this background, we seek to contribute to the discussion on the dynamics of Europeanisation and the future of the Common European Asylum System. While the Europeanisation of migration policies has been well covered in the literature, tendencies of renationalisation have been less so. To contribute to the knowledge base, we create a typology of the drivers of renationalisation. These drivers include necessary political and institutional preconditions, resource limitations, triggers, expectations and aspects of time.     

Multilevel governance from below: how Dutch cities respond to intra-EU mobility

ABSTRACT

‘Intra-EU mobility’ from new member states provides a governance challenge to European countries like the Netherlands. Freedom of movement within the EU enables mobility but also has important social consequences at the urban level in particular. This article discusses to what extent local, national and European governments have interacted in the governance of ‘intra-EU movement’ and how this has affected their policies regarding migrants from Central and Eastern Europe in particular. Focusing on the Dutch case, including the cities of The Hague and Rotterdam, this article shows a development from a decoupled relationship, to localist governance and only recently evidence of emerging ‘multilevel governance’. Speaking to the broader literature on multilevel governance, this article firstly shows that in spite of its broad theoretical application, multilevel governance should be seen as one of the varied types of governance in a multilevel setting. And secondly, it shows how and why local governments can play a key role in the bottom-up development of governance in a multilevel setting.     

Onward migration from Spain to London in times of crisis: the importance of life-course junctures in secondary migrations

This study examines one response of migrants to the challenging economic conditions caused by the 2008 financial crisis in Spain: onward migration. Focusing on Colombians and Ecuadorians who mobilise their newly acquired Spanish citizenship to migrate to London, I argue that their new migration is part of their migratory careers and that this process is different from that of Spain-born emigrants because it is marked by the first socioeconomic incorporation. Acknowledging that the crisis is the main driver of this new move, I draw a typology based on life-course junctures to show the differences in how onward migrants understand this new move and what their expectations are. There are three broad types of onward migrants: (1) mature, reluctant migrants, (2) mid-life, career advancement migrants and (3) young, independence-seeking migrants. What they do have in common is that, through their first migration, they have acquired a certain migratory knowledge of the process that shapes their paths and expectations.     

Anticipating the citizenship premium: before and after effects of immigrant naturalisation on employment

Can citizenship improve the economic integration of immigrants, and if so, how? Scholars traditionally understand a citizenship premium in the labour market, besides access to restricted jobs, as the result of a positive signal of naturalisation towards employers. While we do not discard these mechanisms, we argue that explanations should also take into account that migrants anticipate rewards and opportunities of naturalisation by investing in their human capital development. We thus expect to observe improved employment outcomes already before the acquisition of citizenship. We use micro-level register data from Statistics Netherlands from 1999 until 2011 (N?=?94,320) to test this expectation. Results show a one-time boost in the probability of having employment after naturalisation, consistent with the prevalent notion of positive signalling. However, we find that the employment probability of naturalising migrants already develops faster during the years leading up to citizenship acquisition, even when controlling for endogeneity of naturalisation. We conclude that it is not just the positive signal of citizenship that improves employment opportunities, but also migrants’ human capital investment in anticipation of naturalisation.     

The ecology of immigrant naturalisation: a life course approach in the context of institutional conditions

Traditionally, immigrants’ propensity to naturalize is attributed to individual characteristics and the origin country. Recently scholars increasingly recognise that naturalisation decisions do not take place in a vacuum: they are conditioned both by the individual life course of immigrants, such as the age at migration and family situation, as well as the opportunity structure set by citizenship policies of the destination country. Yet it is less clear what impact specific policy changes have, and to whom these changes matter most. In this paper we address these questions by analysing citizenship acquisition among first generation immigrants in the Netherlands in light of a restriction in citizenship policy in 2003. We employ unique micro-level longitudinal data from Dutch municipal population registers between 1995 until 2012, which allow us to track naturalisation among different immigration cohorts. We find evidence that indeed naturalisation is part of a larger life course trajectory: immigrants who arrive at a younger age in the Netherlands naturalise more often and so do immigrants with a native partner, or a foreign-born partner who also naturalises. Policy also matters: migrants naturalise later and less often under more restrictive institutional conditions, especially migrants from less developed and politically unstable countries of origin.     

The Janus-faced court of naturalisation: marriage and kinship in naturalisation litigation in South Korea

Migration scholars have noted the growing role of the courts in expanding migrants’ rights. Drawing from naturalisation litigation in South Korea for case studies, this article investigates the role of the court in determining national membership. Three main findings are presented based upon an analysis of 105 marriage-based and 36 kinship-based litigations filed against the Ministry of Justice in the Seoul Administrative Court. First, the Court adopts a more liberal interpretation of ‘true intention to marry’ than the Ministry, granting citizenship to those who convincingly perform their roles as dutiful wives. Second, the Court plays a more active role in kinship-based than marriage-based naturalisation, challenging the Ministry's too-narrow interpretation of the requirements. Overall, however, the Court shows strong judicial deference to the Ministry and plays a passive role in advocating for the rights of migrants. The Korean case highlights the need to revisit the tendency to view immigration and citizenship as special classes of public laws, over which administrative and legislative bodies of a government can exercise a significant degree of discretion. As citizenship is becoming an important dimension of social stratification, the judicial branch should serve as a check on the executive branch in issuing visas and granting citizenship.     

Overcoming the crisis: the changing profile and trajectories of Latvian migrants

Taking mobility between Latvia and Western Europe as an empirical lens, this analysis explores the complex relationship between spatial disparities in earning potential and migration. The very dramatic shifts in the economic and political context against which migration from Latvia has occurred over the period 2004–2012 make it an especially apposite focus of research investigating the link between mobility and labour market circumstances. As an analytical starting point, conventional economic theory broadly explains the movement of workers from lower to higher wage regions. However, this investigation seeks to contribute to understandings of the economic drivers of migration through consideration of the effects of the Great Recession on not only the volume of flows from Latvia to higher wage economies elsewhere in Europe, but also on the characteristics of the migrants themselves and of the processes that produce their mobility. This is undertaken through analysis of a large-scale online survey of Latvian emigrants in five European countries. The findings point towards the Great Recession creating a distinctive cohort of reluctant ‘crisis migrants’. Analytically, the quantitative and qualitative attributes of this new phase of mobility raise a number of conceptually significant questions about understandings of the economy–migration nexus.     

Geopolitics as a migration governance strategy: European Union bilateral relations with Southern Mediterranean countries

ABSTRACT

The significance of regional consultative processes in the field of migration is well documented. Their popularity for states is typically explained by the opportunity they provide for largely non-binding discussions around sensitive, sovereignty-laden issues such as border control. Since the mid-1990s, a variety of intergovernmental meetings have been sponsored by the EU with the aim of discussing migration with neighbouring countries. European policy frameworks have specifically excluded the countries to the South from the possibility of membership, yet they are now absolutely crucial to the realisation of the EU's migration ambitions. Since the 1999 Tampere European Council relations with these states have been managed through a discourse of ‘partnership’, emphasising the regional ‘Euro-Mediterranean’ character of this relationship. This paper analyses EU relations with Southern Mediterranean states as a specific attempt to construct a geopolitical region—the Euro-Mediterranean area—from and through migration management strategies. It concludes that the development of policy in this area results from a huge number of poorly focused and sometimes contradictory initiatives that collectively make up a far more haphazard approach than the common externalisation critique suggests. This haphazard approach helps to explain the range of unintended consequences of this policy but may also lead to its limited successes.     

Scapegoat citizens in times of austerity: the impact of the crisis on the immigrant population in Spain

The economic crisis has not yet produced alarming cases of racism and social conflict in Spain. However, as we shall analyse, there are indications that ‘immigrants’ are considered one of the first populations to be disposed of in times of crisis. A preference for nationals is increasing among traditional parties, alongside the rise of political parties with anti-immigrant agendas. Unemployment rates among the foreign born population are disproportionate in comparison with those of the native population. Migration policies that link residence permits to the possession of an employment contract have resulted in disturbing rates of irregularity. Health regulations have been amended to prevent irregular immigrants from accessing ‘universal’ health care. Police raids occur in public places to detain and expel undocumented immigrants, and ‘hospitality’ towards irregular immigrants is considered a criminal offence by a new reform in the Penal Code. As a parallel trend that is repeated in other European countries in times of austerity, we shall identify a depletion of universal rights, detention, and deportation as alienating strategies and technologies that are used to redefine the relations between citizens and ‘others’ within the contemporary citizenship regime. Leaning on Engin Isin's critical perspective on citizenship, this article argues that under the circumstances of crisis and austerity that harry Spain, the ‘immigrant’ is constructed as a disposable category, not only to balance the labour market and welfare state, but also to reinforce the notion of the national citizen as a subject of rights.     

Transnational highly skilled Finnish migrants in Europe: Choosing one's identity

When transnational migration begins to resemble internal mobility, as is the case in the European Union, is there any need for integration into the country of destination, or do intra-European migrants adopt a European identity? This article is based on data collected about highly skilled Finns who have moved within the EU. Most of them continued to form their identity around their country of origin. Nearly 60% of the migrants of the study also identified with Europe, while only one-third identified with their country of residence. The article argues that, for such privileged migrants, the possibility of choice is central to identity formation. Neither the national identity of the new home country nor a European identity per se can substitute the former, more important identity received through socialization. However, moving abroad does have an impact on the ways these migrants ‘do identity’. Adding a dimension of Europeanness to their existing national identity is a way of belonging to a greater collective when the localized identification with the country of residence is not required.     

Multilevelling EU external governance: the role of international organizations in the diffusion of EU migration policies

ABSTRACT

The thematic and geographical expansion of EU migration policies has gone along with an increasing mobilisation of pertinent international organisations such as the IOM and UNHCR. Combining insights from the external governance approach with IR debates on international institutional complexity, this article examines the dynamics behind this ‘multilevelling’ of EU external policies. Three strategies of institutional interplay are distinguished: counterweight, whereby international organisations act as independent complement or corrector to EU policy; subcontracting, referring to the outsourcing of EU project implementation to international organisations; and rule transmission, a process in which international organisations engage in transferring EU rules to third countries. Whereas greater organisational authority and autonomy have allowed the UNHCR to keep an independent voice as counterweight to EU action, both the UNHCR and IOM have become increasingly involved in the implementation of the EU's ‘global approach’ to migration via subcontracting and rule transmission. In sum, these processes shed a new light on the role of the EU within the international migration regime complex.     

Drivers of highly skilled mobility from Southern Europe: escaping the crisis and emancipating oneself

ABSTRACT

Since the outbreak of the crisis in Southern Europe, young highly educated Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese and Greeks have been taking their talents and expertise to other countries in search of a better quality of life and career prospects. This paper explores the characteristics of these new emigrants, the reasons for which they are leaving, and whether these reasons are shaped by the economic crisis, by pre-crisis grievances, or by other factors. We analyse original data from 6377 questionnaires collected in 4 countries through an e-survey we ran in 2013. We refer to the existing literature on the drivers of highly skilled emigration and the (un)employment situation in the four aforementioned Southern European countries which have been hardest hit by the economic crisis. We suggest that while gender is not important, age, marital status, education and satisfaction with current employment (both income related and with regard to future prospects) are important factors predicting emigration. Non-economic factors, notably career opportunities, quality of life and future prospects supersede all other considerations in the decision to emigrate for these highly educated Europeans.     

Progress,democracy, efficiency: normative narratives in political science EU studies

ABSTRACT

This article identifies influential political narratives in the 73 currently most highly cited political science articles on the EU. It is based on systematic analysis of expressions of normativity, which signal that European integration, or its institutions or policies, are bad, good, flourishing or declining. A normative narrative of continuous progress in integration, connected with a 1990s grand theoretical debate in EU studies, accounts for much of the positive tone of EU studies until about 1998. Narratives about the EU's democratic deficit and its impact beyond its borders help explain the subsequent negative turn in EU studies normativity.     

Crisis subjectivities: resilient,recuperable, and abject representations in the new hard times

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore a range of media representations that center on what we identify as crisis subjectivities. These are subjects presented as embodiments of economic and political crises, coming out of a context best described as the propagation of crisis as an ordinary, everyday occurrence. We trace the development of three main types of crisis subjectivities (resilient, recuperable, and abject) within this context, focusing on the ways in which these subjectivities are subsequently read back as the cause of broader structural crises, especially through their connection to discourses of postfeminism and the postracial. Formed through normative divisions of the population, i.e. racism, classism, and sexism, crisis subjectivities are also presented as disrupting normative temporality on multiple levels, interrupting narratives of progress, individual life trajectories, and the temporality of crisis itself. Within this context, normative discourses of time as linear, constant, and progressive are replaced by representations that emphasize time as discontinuous and disjunct, defined by unexpected accelerations, delays, and deferrals. Finally, we explore the way these crisis subjectivists and temporalities are articulated to discourses that suggest that the proper responses to crisis are individual resilience and self-management, while de-emphasizing structural analysis and collective action.     

On the threshold: becoming Romanian Roma,everyday racism and residency rights in transition

ABSTRACT

This article examines the reaction of welfare state actors and ‘Romanian Roma’ migrants to the political environment on migration in the UK. Based on the ethnographic fieldwork between January 2013 and March 2014, the article focuses on how processes of everyday racism infused understandings of the legal framework for European migrants’ residency rights. The article first explores how state actors developed ideas about ‘Romanian Roma families’ as opposed to ‘Romanian-not-Roma families’ in a context marked by pervasive uncertainty about legal entitlements, welfare restructuring and decreasing resources. Second, I draw on new migrants’ accounts to identify their perceptions and understandings of discrimination placed within their previous experiences of racism and state violence. The article argues that processes of racialisation are subtly enfolded into everyday life shaping the narratives through which both welfare state actors and new migrants understand their situated experiences and future plans. The article reveals the small and mundane practices that reproduce racialised hierarchies which maintain the notion of ‘Roma’ as a group with particular proclivities and the affects for their socio-legal status as European migrants in the UK.     

Redefining membership: restrictive rights and categorisation in European Union migration policy

This article analyses European Union (EU) policy-making on the rights of third-country nationals (TCN) against the backdrop of theoretical literature on the transformation of citizenship. The aim is to evaluate why and to which extent EU policy expands citizenship rights to TCNs, thus redefining the criteria for membership in the European polity. The research emphasises the role of norms and frames in policy-making and is based on secondary sources, primary documents and semi-structured interviews. The analysis reveals how the combination of a principled conflict over citizenship and a strategic conflict over competence led to a legal framework characterised by ‘restrictive rights’ and ‘politics of categorisation’. ‘Restrictive rights’ means that membership rights are granted to TCN in principle, but subject to very restrictive conditions. ‘The politics of categorisation’ refers to the political construction of migrant categories that are subject to different rights-regimes. Both phenomena have the ambiguous effect of enabling the expansion of rights to non-citizens while at the same time creating new lines of division and mechanisms of exclusion.     

Forced Migration and the Expatriation of the Rohingya: A Demographic Assessment of Their Historical Exclusions and Statelessness

This paper attempts to outline the forced migration and consequent flee and displacement of the Rohingya Muslims in Northwestern Arakan State of Myanmar after several violent clashes and insurgencies between the Rohingya Muslims, the Buddhists and government security forces. More than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar in August 2017 violence which has been described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). Being only visible as “refugee problem” of this mass expatriation, the continuous forced migration and displacement of the Rohingya have been rendered invisible. In this context, this paper attempts a demographic assessment of Rohingya people through historical process of their exclusions and the magnitude of the forced migration to the neighboring countries as illegal, economic burden, stateless migrants. This paper analyses the historical origin of the underlying situation, identity politics, ethnic crisis, and statelessness for better understanding the demographic decline of the Rohingya in this geographic region. Finally, it highlights the international community's responses to this undergoing humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya.     

Common agenda or Europe’s agenda? International protection,human rights and migration from the Horn of Africa

ABSTRACT

This article examines the relationship between international protection, human rights and migration in the context of the EU Agenda on Migration which aims to ‘tackle migration upstream’ and reduce arrivals to Europe from the Horn of Africa (HoA) (Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan). This initiative is underpinned by assumptions about the factors associated with migration from the region, including the idea that poverty, rather than political oppression and human rights abuse, is the principal cause. The article draws on interview and survey data with 128 people originating from HoA countries and arriving in Europe between March 2011 and October 2016 to show that conflict, insecurity and human rights abuse in countries of origin and neighbouring countries often drives decisions to move and/or move on. This evidence challenges the underlying premise of the EU Agenda. Moreover, a lack of coherence between Europe’s ambitions to control irregular migration and co-operation with rights-violating States threatens to create further political destabilisation which may ultimately increase, rather than decrease, outward migration from the region. Agreements between the EU and HoA countries should be re-centred to focus on compliance with international human rights standards rather than States’ willingness to prevent irregular migration to Europe.