Samenvatting European Societies H3: ENGELS

European societies – L3




3 Migration and mobility in the European union
Look at all the slides for graphs and tables

3.1 Setting the scene
SLIDE 4-6: your image of migration

The 2015 migration crisis as a key event

SLIDE 7

- In 2015, Europe experienced a large increase in asylum applications

Many migrants arrived via the Mediterranean route

 Media coverage focused on dramatic images of displacement and
humanitarian suffering
 The crisis became strongly associated with refugees fleeing war and
persecution

Political responses to the 2015 crisis

 Urgent measures put in place
 EU governments sought to reduce the number of arrivals
 Border controls were reintroduced within the Schengen area
o You had to show passport
 Cooperation with non-EU countries to stop migration flows
o EU-Turkey deal (2016) is most important cooperation
 Stronger emphasis on returns of irregular migrants

Disagreements between EU member states

 Southern European countries (Greece, Italy) faced large numbers of
arrivals and called for solidarity
o Large numbers of arrivals
 Some member states strongly opposed relocation of asylum seekers
((Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia)
o Struggled to agree to handle this together
 EU countries struggled to agree on a common response

Meanwhile, public concern about immigration grew

 Support grew for anti-immigration political parties
 Migration began to shape national and European elections
 Migration shaped elections

After 2015: from a migration crisis to a political crisis

 More political crisis, not only migration crisis
o Highly political issue
o Migration policy was failing
 The number of Mediterranean crossings declined after 2015

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,European societies – L3


 But the ‘crisis’ understood as being a crisis of numbers of migrants swiftly
mutated into a crisis of politics, policies and institutions
 Migration became a highly salient political issue in many EU countries
 There was a growing perception that migration and asylum policies were
failing

Not all migrants are represented in the same way!

 During the 2015 crisis and beyond, the focus was on refugees seeking
protection
 Other forms of migration received far less attention in the media
o Labour migration
o Family migration
o Student migration
 As a result, migration is often associated with crisis and humanitarian
suffering
 Images of places such as Moria camp have become symbols of migration
to Europe

But there is another way of thinking about migration

 In 2024, 3.5 million non-EU citizens were issued a first residence permit by
an EU member state
 These were people moving for employment, to join with a family, to study
and for other reasons that symbolise hope, ambition, love and aspiration
o Migration is not only about crisis, also about daily things like these

Key message for today

 Migrants arriving via Mediterranean boat crossings represent only a small
share of total migration to the EU
 Migration is diverse – people move for many different reasons
 How migration is understood and represented strongly shapes political and
policy responses

Making sense of migration in the EU

 The term “immigration” is too broad-brush to understand migration
dynamics
 Instead, we analyse different types of migration
o Labour migration, family migration, irregular migration, asylum,
intra-EU mobility
o How do these different types change the way of coping with
migration?
 Different migration types generate different political debates and policy
responses
 These debates unfold across multiple levels of governance
o National governments
o The European Union

What do we mean by migration?

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, European societies – L3


IOM defines an international migrant as “any person who is moving or has moved
across an international border away from his/her habitual place of residence,
regardless of the person’s legal status; whether the movement is voluntary or
involuntary; what the causes for the movement are; or what the length of the
stay is”

 Immediately apparent that international migration comes in many forms
and shapes

Which is why migration can be simultaneously represented as…

 A solution
o Addressing labour shortages
o Responding to population ageing
 A problem
o Labour market competition
o Concerns about identity and social cohesion
 Or perhaps more realistically…
o A normal feature of a globalized world

International migration is relatively rare

 About 3.7% of the world’s population are international migrants
 This means that over 96% of people live in their country of birth

Why?

 Migration involves social, financial and psychological costs
 Leaving family, friends and familiar environments involves risk
 Many countries regulate and restrict international migration
o Some people just can’t migrate because of rules
 As a result, internal migration (within countries) is far more common than
international migration

Migration vs mobility in the EU

 Migration
o Movement from outside the EU into EU
o By non-EU citizens (third-country nationals or TCNs)
 EU mobility
o Movement within the EU  people going from one EU state to
another
o By EU citizens exercising free movement rights
 Mostly people from outside EU
 The prevailing image for most people when ‘immigration’ is mentioned
may well be movement from outside the EU by TCNs
 But this is not the whole picture – far from it, in fact

Migration in Europe since the 1660s

 This lecture focuses on the post-Cold War period (more recent)
 During this period:

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