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Since the reintroduction of border control at the French-Italian border in 2015, the town of Ventimiglia has witnessed an increasing number of migrants who are deemed illegal in the eyes of the current EU migration system. These people have been blocked or slowed down in their attempt to continue their journeys. This article examines around 120 drawings and writings left by migrants in Ventimiglia at the 'Eufemia' InfoPoint opened by Progetto20k, a collective that provides support to migrants attempting to cross the border. By reflecting upon these migrant experiences, the present work offers a unique perspective of undocumented movements to and through Europe. Such empirical material is invaluable in order to supplement the debate on 'migration traces' along international illegalised migratory routes. Through the analytical lens of 'migration traces', this work evidences the complexity of migration narratives from a bottom-up perspective. It also highlights the need for said perspective to challenge the dominant representation of undocumented migrants, perceived merely as threats and 'objects to be governed'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 11 June 2019, two Interoperability European Union (EU) Regulations entered into force. With it, six existing EU databases created for security and border management purposes merged into one single, overarching EU information system operating with the purpose of changing the way front-line officers worked in various tasks. The main objective of these Regulations was to prevent and combat illegal immigration and to improve security within the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice of the Union. This article studies the challenges that have emerged from making EU databases and information systems 'interoperable' as well as the potential negative consequences that the Regulations may have for fundamental rights as enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In particular, it examines whether the interoperability between EU information systems could violate the rights related to data protection, rights of the child, prohibition of discrimination as well as principles of necessity and proportionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frontex is the EU agency in charge of managing the external borders of the European Union. Its budget and tasks have expanded dramatically since it was founded in 2004. Academic attention for Frontex has likewise increased. This article provides an overview of the existing literature on Frontex. In total, 72 articles were selected and analysed. Five dominant themes of research emerged from this review: Frontex' activities, the agency's characteristics, its operational effects, the issue of human rights and its position in the EU bureaucracy. Recurring debates and relevant findings in these research strands are reported. In the final section, a research agenda with recommendations for future studies is formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how racial violence underpins the European Union's border regime. Drawing on two case studies, in northern France and the Balkans, we explore how border violence manifests in divergent ways: from the direct physical violence which is routine in Croatia, to more subtle forms of violence evident in the governance of migrants and refugees living informally in Calais, closer to Europe's geopolitical centre. The use of violence against people on the move sits uncomfortably with the liberal, post-racial self-image of the European Union. Drawing upon the work of postcolonial scholars and theories of violence, we argue that the various violent technologies used by EU states against migrants embodies the inherent logics of liberal governance, whilst also reproducing liberalism's tendency to overlook its racial limitations. By interrogating how and why border violence manifests we draw critical attention to the racialised ideologies within which it is predicated. This paper characterises the EU border regime as a form of "liberal violence" that seeks to elide both its violent nature and its racial underpinnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration and asylum elicit intense debate in the EU. The Commission's New Pact for Migration and Asylum 2020 sought to diffuse some of the divisive issues among Member States by proposing a series of measures, mainly directed at diminishing asylum arrivals. In this article I argue that there is a profound incoherence at the centre of this policy, which is its embrace of the nineteenth‐century theoretical framework of migration as driven by push and pull factors. While EU statistics provided by Frontex and Eurostat reveal that hundreds of millions of third‐country nationals are welcomed to the EU each year as tourists but also as students, workers, etc., and a few hundred thousand are treated as unwanted, EU policy is still dominated by a framing of people as pushed and pulled to the detriment of the host state rather than as an essential element of the European way of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a formalized field theory of international migration. Departing from the theories of Kurt Lewin, the author assumes that the valences of different migration targets create a field of attracting forces, which may trigger long-range "locomotions." Moreover, the author hypothesizes that the selection among the different migration targets also depends on the perceived opportunities: the higher the number of vacancies at a target and the stronger the reporting about these vacancies by earlier migrants, the stronger the field of perceived opportunities. A mathematical model based on these theoretical assumptions is tested with data about migration from Poland to other EU countries. The goodness of fit of the model is quite high and seems to corroborate its field theoretical foundations. The model is further explored by simulating its behavior for different scenarios of valences and perceived opportunities. The article finishes with a summary from the perspective of analytical sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between social inclusions of migrant and income inequality. Both positive and negative impacts of social inclusion on income inequality have been observed in the previous literature. This study specifically considers two types of migration flow: migration flow from EU and migration flow from non‐EU. The aim of this article is twofold: 1) is there a strong association between social inclusion of migrants and income inequality, 2) is there any different impact of social inclusion of two types of migrants (EU vs non‐EU)? Using data from 33 mainly European countries over the period 2003‐2015 and controlling for savings rate, arable land rate and age‐dependency ratio, our results indicate that there is a significant negative relationship between social inclusion and income inequality. In particular, we find that social inclusion from non‐EU migrants significantly reduces income inequality compare with EU migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how European integration, economic fluctuations, and the interactions of these factors affect bilateral migration flows. It focuses on how migration flows developed in the wake of the establishment of the European Monetary Union, and whether migration flows became stronger, and more responsive to economic fluctuations, in the euro area. It estimates a gravity equation of bilateral gross migration flows on a global sample and on a sample restricted to the first 12 members of the euro area. It is found that unemployment is a strong and robust determinant of bilateral migration flows both globally and in the euro area. EU accession and the lifting of labour market restrictions on new member states had a large effect on gross migration flows. While mutual euro area membership is not associated with an overall rise in migration, it is associated with increased flows from countries where unemployment is high to those where it is lower. Migration flows among the euro-area 12 have been on an increasing trend since the late 1990s; after falls in 2009 they picked up again in 2010 and 2011. The evidence overall suggests that labour mobility plays an increasing role in the adjustment to asymmetric shocks in the EU and the euro area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses the various topics within the issue, including migration, asylum, and the European Union (EU) return system.

Today’s ‘irregular migration’ from Sub-Saharan Africa has its roots in decades of policies which have impoverished rural economies and dispossessed small-scale producers to make room for export-oriented monocultures. Under pressure from opportunistic xenophobic political configurations the EU is reacting by seeking to block the unwanted flow of African migrants in their home countries through measures denounced by European civil society organizations. Its long-term recipe for ‘addressing the root causes of migration’ involves using EU cooperation funds to leverage resources from private investors ‘looking for new investment opportunities in emerging markets’, thereby promoting the same model of agricultural production and global value chains that has sparked today’s migration waves. An absent voice in the debate is that of the rural organizations in the territories from which the migrants originate. This paper seeks to reframe the issues from the viewpoint of these social constituencies, to recuperate their popular history of the evolutions that have transformed a portion of rural mobility into Europe-bound irregular migration, to map relevant contemporary rural transformations and the complexities of relations they engender, and to highlight initiatives underway today to build options of dignified and remunerative rural livelihoods for young people. Setting the West Africa-Europe nexus in the context of global processes of migration governance, this paper explores the opportunities for counter-hegemonic strategizing that EU internal policy contradictions open up and suggests how convergences might be promoted among actors and spaces that are currently inadequately connected with a view to defending both the right to migrate and the right to choose to stay at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining insights from critical studies on humanitarianism and scholarly work emphasising everyday practices, this study examines Turkish policing of human mobility at European Union borders in two border cities: Edirne and İzmir. Through a focus on the central understandings, justifications and operational responses by Turkish border officials, the article highlights the intertwinement of care and control as inherent to humanitarianism in the daily governance of mobile populations at Turkey’s western borders. In so doing, the findings draw attention to discursive articulations and practices, while pointing to their moral, emotional and cultural elements. The article advances the literature by underlining the centrality of geography in impacting on the logics and practices of governing mobility within the territory of the nation state. The findings also underscore variations in border practices and the embodiment of humanitarianism between the two border cities under investigation as well as across the country. In addition, the article adds to debates on the emerging spaces of humanitarianism by bringing into focus the operation of humanitarian border policing in Turkey before departure and/or after the unsuccessful attempt of border crossing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Do EU citizens’ preferences shape EU immigration policy? Using mixed‐methods and a unique data source on policy‐making in the EU Council of Ministers, we qualitatively and quantitatively assess the link between public sentiment and immigration policy‐making. Accounting for the economic, political and institutional context, we find that domestic public opinion does not play a central role in the policy positions adopted by Member States nor in the salience Member States attach to immigration issues during the negotiation process. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of how EU immigration policy reacts to public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the 2007 EU all-source intelligence assessment ‘Worst Case Scenarios for the Narrower Middle East’ and the lack of policy response to the warning provided. SIT-6577/07 mostly predicted and provided forewarning on some of the events lately known as the Arab Spring, as well as a rise of anti-European terrorism, and an increase of refugees and migrants in the European Union. The article offers a post-mortem analysis of the key judgements and main findings of the most significant intelligence product declassified by the EU and discusses the main question: Why the warning was not effective? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although emigrants represent an increasing share of the electoral population in many democracies, not much is known about their participation in home country elections. With the purpose of contributing to fill such gap, this article develops a longitudinal and exploratory analysis of the contextual factors of emigrants’ participation in national elections in the case of Portugal (1976-2015), a country with one of the highest emigration rates of the EU today. It begins by presenting a longitudinal analysis of the electoral participation of Portuguese emigrants. Afterwards, the conditions underlying levels of participation are examined. Using aggregate data covering the main 15 destination countries, this study compares institutional, socio-economic and political contextual factors for voting. Findings indicate that the lack of political participation of emigrants is first demonstrated by the very low registration rates, although it varies according to the country, and that voting methods and socio-economic factors in the destination country are the most relevant to explain voting in home country elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows how understandings amongst policy élites of a ‘new normal’ form the basis for current and future EU action on migration in the Mediterranean region. This new normality centres on the understanding that Europe faces significant migratory pressures at its Mediterranean borders. By opening the ‘black box’ of European and EU migration governance, the article seeks to provide fresh insight into how framing and frame enactment shape policy responses. Rather than detailing the ‘outputs’ or ‘outcomes’ of European migration governance systems – such as laws and policy approaches – this paper adopts a different approach by exploring the underlying perceptions and understandings of migration held by actors within migration governance systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While anti-immigrant parties have been electorally successful in European parliaments, it is still unclear whether they have influenced policies. This article contributes by investigating the anti-immigrant party policy impact on a previously unexplored welfare policy area, that concerning the mobility of vulnerable European Union/European Economic Area citizens. In Sweden, the aid offered to these citizens varies a great deal in different municipalities. Furthermore, the largest anti-immigrant party (Sweden Democrats) has, unlike the mainstream political parties, preferences for a strict policy in line with so-called welfare chauvinism. Taking advantage of this subnational variation, our data give us a unique opportunity to investigate whether anti-immigrant party representation impacts welfare policy outcomes. The empirical findings show a negative correlation between Sweden Democrats' representation and the aid offered and indicates that municipalities where Sweden Democrats holds a pivotal position offer less aid to vulnerable European Union/European Economic Area citizens. The hypothesis that these effects are conditional upon the ideology of the ruling coalition is, however, not supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to look Into the process of securitization of migration that has been happening in Spain and the European Union in the last 15-20 years, trying to analyze the way in which migrations have been defined as a threat to security and the consequences that this definition has had on Spanish / European foreign policy, especially as regards the process of externalization of borders and the use of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for these purposes. In this sense, we will try to assess the usefulness of studying the migration crisis in Spain in the mid-2000s to analyze the current situation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demarcated by growing austerity, economic uncertainty and EU-exits, the past decade witnessed monumental shifts across the political and economic landscapes of Europe. Citizenship is a stabilising force in this era of crisis, particularly for intra-EU migrants. In this contribution, I examine how the Euro crisis impacted citizenship acquisition among these migrants. Building upon the model proposed by John Graeber's article [2016. 'Citizenship in the shadow of the Euro crisis: explaining changing patterns in naturalisation among intra-EU migrants.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42 (10): 1670-1692], I discuss the relative importance of citizenship in times of crisis from global and regional perspectives. I argue Graeber's theory presents a strong model for citizenship acquisitions during the crisis, yet leaves the core dyadic structure and several inconsistent findings unexamined. I replicate these models and introduce a dyadic model using bilateral data from 21 receiving and 23 sending states in Europe between 2007 and 2013. Contrary to Graeber's theory, I find citizenship acquisitions among intra-EU migrants primarily coincide with increased in-migration, rather than influences of the Euro crisis. I conclude that while economic sending and receiving contexts matter, the Euro crisis did not appear to restructure intra-EU migrant citizenship incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the level of convergence in the field of emigration and diaspora policies of the European Union Member States. The analysis of policies of 28 states shows that the convergence of emigration and diaspora policies is more pronounced in the area of intra-EU mobility. Moreover, EU states tend to apply territorial limitations to their emigration and diaspora policies. Therefore, it might be expected that future convergence will concern only the EU core. The most developed area of intervention of the individual EU Member States is heritage promotion, but it predates the EU and is a derivative of the historical emigration from Europe. Today, considering the diversity of EU emigrants, traditional heritage promotion is challenging, both on the national and EU level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivations for migrating within the European Union have mainly been attributed to economic, career and lifestyle choices. This article suggests that political dissatisfaction is also an important motivator of recent intra-European migration. In our analysis of in-depth interviews with Romanian migrants in Spain and with Spanish migrants in Norway, we found a common emphasis on the political dimensions of their decision to migrate. In the interviews, the economic component of migration was often related to bad governance and negative perceptions of the state. The similarities of Spanish and Romanian migration narratives are especially striking because Spain and Romania represent substantially different migratory, political and economic contexts. However, migration is more obviously intertwined with conventional acts of political protest in the Spanish case. We suggest that differences in democratic contexts are pivotal in people’s reactions to and framing of their deep dissatisfaction with domestic politics, as found in many European countries today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent increase in migration to the European Union raised many concerns for the EU, for Member States and for the individual. Much of the discussion hitherto has been focused on the EU from a state perspective and has been concerned with the policies proposed and adopted to address and limit inward movement of peoples. One issue that has not received requisite attention is that of the meaning of 'protection' from the individual claimant's point of view. This article reflects on the Syrian migration of 2015 and 2016 and the implications of a triumph of realpolitik--that is, state sovereignty--over a generous, meaningful and humane approach to asylum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European federalism must be conceived at multiple levels, not just that of the state and the EU. A regional level has emerged below and across the states, as a result of spatial rescaling: the migration of functional systems, political change and the institutionalization of the regional level. The sub-state region remains a contested space, both as to its territorial boundary and its control. The EU itself has used the regional level for the framing and implementation of its own policies. Regional politics are characterized by inter-regional competition. Demands for recognition and autonomy from below have added another dimension. There is not a uniform regional level of politics or policy but a variety of constructions of the region. Federalism helps us understand this changing dynamic, if it is seen not as a specific form of government but as a general principle of order, combining unity with diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

LEGAL AND ILLEGAL MIGRATION IN EUROPE PRECEDING THE END OF THE COLD WAR IS THE HIGHLIGHT FOR RESEARCHERS, THE MEDIA, POLITICIANS, ECONOMISTS AND SOCIOLOGISTS, BOTH BY THE EFFECTS IT HAS ON A SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC LEVEL, BUT ALSO BY THE DIRECT ONES ON SOCIETAL SECURITY. THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THIS PAPER IS TO CAPTURE THE INTERDEPENDENCE CONNECTION BETWEEN MIGRATION AND SECURITY AT A EUROPEAN LEVEL AND TO EXAMINE THE WAY IN WHICH THE EU APPROACHES AND MANAGES THE ISSUE OF SECURITY IN TERMS OF LEGAL AND ILLEGAL MIGRATION, WHICH IS THE SOURCE OF POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIETAL SECURITY. THE FIRST PART OF THIS ARTICLE MAKES A REVIEW OF THE SPECIALIZED LITERATURE IN RELATION TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF MIGRATION-SECURITY RELATIONSHIP WITHIN EUROPE. THE SECOND PART ANALYZES EU'S INTEGRATED MEASURES IN APPROACHING SECURITY, FROM LEGAL ISSUES, TACKLING OF THE ISSUE IN THE UNION TREATIES AND POLITICAL DISCOURSES TO THE EFFECTS OF EU'S IDENTITY CONSTRUCT PROCESS. HOW DID MIGRATION BECOME A SECURITY ISSUE? TO WHAT EXTENT HAVE TRADITIONAL SECURITY APPROACHES/TOOLS BECOME USELESS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND THE PROVISION OF SECURITY AT EUROPEAN BORDERS? TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE NEW SECURITY AGENDA OF THE EU AN INTEGRATED RESPONSE TO THE CURRENT MIGRATION FROM AND TOWARDS EUROPE? THESE ARE SOME OF THE QUESTIONS THAT WE WILL TRY TO ANSWER THROUGH OUR ANALYSIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The four Visegrad states (V4) of Central Europe play an important role in facilitating closer relationship between the European Union (EU) and its eastern neighbours. In particular, they seek to achieve this through increased cross-border mobility as a means of supporting institutional reforms, sharing know-how, and promoting cross-border economic development. Such approach is of particular interest in highlighting the V4's different response to preventing uncontrolled migration from the southern neighbourhood, in contrast to managing legal migration across the Union's eastern border. Previous studies of the Visegrad states' role in the eastern neighbourhood often point to the historical discourse, or simply assume unspecified existing "interests." However, an assessment lacks into the extent to which the V4's increasing role in the neighbourhood is based on a historical discourse seeking to revive past connections, or an interest (security)-based approach shrouded in normative agenda. The article argues that while the V4 states might pursue visa liberalisation with the eastern neighbours for diverse reasons (ends), the four states employ a shared normative agenda (means), which includes (1) a shift from the "exclusive" impact of Fortress Europe towards "politics of inclusion" and (2) recognition of the transformational impact of cross-border mobility in areas as diverse as minority rights, promotion of democratic governance, and economic cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the end of 90s and the beginning of the new century, a political framework at European Union level has been established. This framework fosters the achievement of a common understanding of migrant integration and promotes mechanisms of coordination, funding, information exchange and "best practices" through the affected institutional levels, by means of soft law. In this paper I will analyse and discuss some of the most important consequences derived from the most important actors' understanding of "integration". I will use the case of "best practices" as an example, since they are considered as a fundamental tool within EU multi-level governance mechanisms. I will show that in the EU context, the very notion of integration has been constructed through an exercise of (apparent) depoliticization and technification, whose results are contradictory -since the political element often "returns" and manifests itself "at the bottom", "at the border" and "within" the technical element- and at the same time effective -since this exercise has been able to foster and shape certain ways of knowing, speaking and acting on migrant integration, naturalizing unequal power relations in society itself-. This paper is based on the empirical materials proceeding from the fieldwork done in Brussels between 2011 and 2012. It is made up of interviews done to the most important social and political actors within the EU integration framework, observations of various meetings and the reading of numerous sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration has recently become a considerable topic to debate by the governmental authorities as the illegal immigration has increased substantially along with the well-known immigration crisis, that has brought numerous concerns among with terrorism. Considering this fact the opinion regarding immigrants from outside the European Union countries in European Union may have been influenced and also changed in a negative way. The analysis focuses on the EU citizens' perception toward the feeling about outside immigrants related with concerns as unemployment and terrorism, based on data collected by the Eurobarometer 83.3 from 2015 and Eurobarometer 85.2 from 2016 for the European Union country members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is based on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in terms of immigration in recent years in Europe. There are analyzed some aspects of migration regulations and their implementation in cases of underage migrants in the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe has faced many challenges, having to manage many difficult situations: the economic crisis in Greece, the security issues in Ukraine and the conflict with Russia, the global threat of terrorism, culminating with the humanitarian crisis of refugees and migration. The European Union passes through one of its most tense and difficult periods, but has the ability to act as a global player to find long-term solutions, which can help to solve these crises, to provide adequate answers to the problems it confronts. All Member States should address the issue of migration and refugees, bearing in mind first of all in their cooperation, the values that unite us, not the differences of opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that a two-tier system has evolved dividing intra-UK/EU marriages from extra-UK/EU marriages. For the former, marriage is a contract between two individuals overseen by a facilitating state. For the latter, marriage has become more of a legal status defined and controlled by an intrusive and obstructive state. I argue that this divergence in legislating regulation is steeped in an ethnicized imagining of ‘Britishness’ whereby the more noticeably ‘other’ migrants (by skin colour or religion) are perceived as a threat to the national character. The conceptualization of women as legally ‘disabled’ citizens (1870 Naturalisation Act) for whom a state must act as responsible patriarch, is a fundamental part of this imagining of the nation. The paper therefore examines the social (gendered and ethnicized) assumptions and political aims embedded within the legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper assesses how well supranational umbrella organisations represent the interests of their constituencies in European Union (EU) policy-making. I examine two prominent European umbrella organisations – The European Council on Refugees and Exiles and The European Network Against Racism – and their national member organisations. I hypothesise that, due to the notoriously diverse set of actors and issue priorities that comprise migrant inclusion, not all interests are represented equally well at the supranational level, leading to some degree of ‘representational strain’. I first analyse the dimensions on which issue priorities are structured at both the umbrella and constituency levels, and secondly, the degree of congruence between the interests of national members and European umbrella organisations. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the results show that these EU umbrella organisations do well overall, but experience some difficulty representing the full range of issues prioritised by their diverse membership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THE AIM OF THIS PAPER IS TO EXPLORE THE EXTRAORDINARY DIVERSITY THAT CHARACTERIZES THE EUROPEAN UNION NOWADAYS AND HOW STATES RESPOND TO THIS CHALLENGE, THROUGH POLICIES DESIGNED TO INTEGRATE MINORITIES EXISTING WITHIN THEIR OWN SOCIETIES. AFTER THE 2ND WOLD WAR, THE EU MEMBER STATES HAVE NOT ONLY ALLOWED BUT ALSO ENCOURAGED IMMIGRATION AND UNTIL TODAY, THIS UNSTOPPABLE PHENOMENON LED TO THE CREATION OF AN IMPRESSIVE MULTICULTURAL LANDSCAPE. EUROPEAN MUSLIMS BECAME PREMANENT RESIDENTS AND WERE SUBJECT TO INTEGRATION POLICIES WITHIN THE HOST COUNTRIES. OF COURSE, NOT ALL OF THE MEMBRES OF THE MUSLIM COMMUNITIES WERE ABLE TO SUCCESFULLY BE INTEGRATED, THEREFORE THE EUROPEAN UNION CONFRONTS ITSELF WITH A PARTICULAR NUMBER OF PROBLEMS. SOME FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES NEED TO BE ADRESSED AND QUESTIONS NEED TO BE ANSWERED. WHAT DETERMINED THE MASSIVE MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS WAVES? ARE THE EU MEMBER STATES, ESPECIALLY THE WESTERN ONES, ABLE TO INCORPORATE WITHIN THEIR STRONG SECULAR SOCIETIES, A COMMUNITY THAT IS DEFINED MAINLY BY ITS AFFILIATION TO THE ISLAMIC RELIGION? IS THERE A REAL MUSLIM PROBLEM? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration of skills is one of the most important and complex socio-economic phenomena. The mobility between the European Union countries gains more and more attention in the specialty literature. The migration process has strong economic implications – people are attracted by the better living and working conditions within the destination countries. Besides the economic, social and political implications this phenomenon presents ethical and moral implications too. The direction of the migration for highly skilled persons is mainly from developing countries to the developed countries. The migration process can imply a loss and a gain at the same time. The countries of origin will suffer a loss of highly skilled/ educated people, while the receiving countries will gain without making any investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues for the engineering sector of Great Britain brought by the country's exit from the European Union (EU). Issues tackled are access of companies to markets and employment opportunities, economic stability and trading relationships, EU technical standards applied across member countries, collaborative research and development and innovation, and the free movement of people and surge of low-skilled workers that could curb European skills and immigration. INSET: THE EXPERIENCE OF SWITZERLAND'S UNIVERSITIES.

This article analyses the interaction between immigration detention and the notion of vulnerability. Vulnerability dominates the contemporary legal discourse and is particularly relevant in the context of deprivation of liberty. Despite its frequent use in international, European, and European Union (EU) legislation and jurisprudence, a clear definition is lacking. However, the EU asylum directives, and mainly the Recast Reception Conditions Directive, initiate an EU approach to vulnerability. Bearing in mind this context, the present article, first, critically analyses how the EU conceptualizes the notion of vulnerability and its relationship with the notion of special needs. It then assesses how vulnerability impacts immigration and asylum detention taking into account jurisprudence from the Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights, the recast EU asylum directives themselves as well as the EU Return Directive, as it applies in this context. More specifically, the article examines the influence of vulnerability on: detention decision-making, the method of imposition of an alternative to detention, detention conditions, and the implementation in practice of alternative measures. The analysis is enriched with empirical legal findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically assesses the amended European Union asylum detention framework. It traces the tension reflected in the regime between protection provision and administrative imperatives, such as migration management. The research argues that the amended legislation closely frames asylum detention. A coherent regional understanding of "alternatives to asylum detention" also emerges from the legal framework. These elements have the potential to advance protection of forced migrants at global and regional levels. However, European Union asylum law also carries within it the risk of undermining protection. The research explores in this respect the broadly phrased detention grounds and advances an interpretation on the basis of Member States' international and regional (Council of Europe) legal obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to critically examine the development of alternatives to immigration detention policies. In the European Union, the emergence of alternatives to detention in the immigration framework is a relatively new phenomenon, strongly inspired by the criminal framework and enshrined in a movement of increased regulation of the immigration detention regime. Through promoting this notion, civil society has sought to engage in a constructive dialogue with States on the use of detention and the possibility to use less coercive and more human rights compliant approaches when dealing with migrants. In Europe, while these campaigns have yielded some positive results, one can question whether, when implemented, they have led to a humanisation of migration policies or, on the contrary, to an increase in the criminalisation of migrants. In view of the above, this article introduces briefly the different understandings of what are alternatives in the framework of immigration detention. Secondly, it analyses their current state of implementation in the European Union, both from the legal and political perspective. From this analysis, some opportunities and risks associated with such developments are presented. Finally, possible ways forward are proposed to support civil society's positioning on this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detention poses a specific challenge to refugee protection; detained asylum-seekers risk not being able to file and meaningfully pursue their claim and benefit only from restrained social and economic rights. They pay a steep human cost. Courts, the legislature, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have made efforts to rationalise its use, with the aim to render it a truly exceptional measure of last resort. However, challenges remain and there are pitfalls in asylum detention regulation. One major challenge is non-implementation of legal guarantees in practice and insufficient control by the judge. This can nullify legal guarantees, especially in a highly sophisticated framework like European Union law, where individualisation and the necessity and proportionality requirements, are the elements that rationalise otherwise broadly phrased detention grounds. The misuse of alternatives to detention that have been established to rationalise the use of asylum detention is another, as they may paradoxically be used to enhance control over asylum-seekers instead. Finally, migration management imperatives pose distinct challenges to refugee protection, where asylum detention is used arbitrarily as a means to their end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines detention of asylum-seekers, more specifically how European Union law simultaneously constructs the asylum-seeker as a detainable subject, while also limiting States' powers of detention. The power to detain is limited by international refugee and human rights law, but European Union law sets more stringent standards. While international refugee law regards the asylum-seeker as a presumptive refugee, European Union law seems to take a different view. Nowadays, the legal and physical rite of passage from irregular migrant to asylum-seeker to refugee defines the predicament of refugees who seek protection in the European Union. Asylum-seekers are vulnerable to detention as irregular entrants, when they are in transit in search of effective protection, and if they become deportable under the Dublin System. Coercive forms of detention are, too glibly in our view, assumed to be permitted to ensure they cooperate with identification and registration processes. The article aims to problematise this detainability of asylum-seekers, examining in particular how their increasing deportability and transferability may increase their detainability. Drawing on empirical examples from the treatment of refugees arriving in the European Union in 2015, it suggests that the Union's legal limits on detention need further implementation and institutionalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border procedures have so far received little attention in the legal literature dealing with European asylum law. Literature on immigration detention in Europe has also neglected the use of detention in border procedures. This is remarkable because one of the reasons that Member States resort to border procedures can be traced back to the centrality of territorial presence within the modern State for the enjoyment of rights. The triangular relationship between an application for international protection, refusal of entry, and a deprivation of liberty has remained imprecise. This indeterminacy has had important repercussions for the way in which the right to liberty has been protected at the borders of Europe. However, the way in which the Recast Asylum Procedures Directive circumscribes Member States' use of this procedure is unprecedented. This article uses the Dutch implementation of the Asylum Procedures Directive in order to unpack the above-mentioned triangular relationship between an application for international protection, refusal of entry, and a deprivation of liberty. It will show that European Union regulation in this area is distinctive because it entails recognition of the fact that, when it comes to the enforcement of migration control, individual rights are at stake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illiberal practices of liberal regimes have been extensively studied by critical security studies. The literature on risk emphasises the idea of imminent dangers and the logic of worst-case scenarios, which eventually unsettle the balance between security and liberty by always favouring the former in its most coercive and exceptional forms. This paper, by drawing on (in)securitization theory, attempts to explain how particular illiberal practices with respect to the control and management of immigration on the fringe of the EU become normalised. It argues that (in)securitization of immigration and illiberal practices are effects of the very functioning of a transnational field of (in)security professionals that are produced through the structural competition between different actors of this field over the definition of security and the appropriate control and management of immigration. In this respect, it uses Greece as a case study and draws on material gathered through interviews with Greek security professionals in Athens, Lesvos, Orestiada, and Alexandroupoli, and analysis of their discourse in dissertations they prepared during their study in police academies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses how European Union (EU) law allows for the extension of the status of EU citizenship and important rights associated with it to non-citizens of Latvia. Topics discussed include viable legal possibilities for Latvian noncitizens; declaration for the Latvian government to append to the EU Treaties; and inheritability of the non-citizenship status.

The European response to the refugee crisis has been lamentable. A preoccupation with numbers has, too often, ignored how each refugee is an individual, many of whom have experienced the most appalling conditions in their countries of origin and in transit. These stories are only rarely heard, when the cameras are there to capture the tragedies. In this commentary we review the challenges of responding to the health needs of refugees, including examples of best practice, but above all call for a concerted political response that will both reduce the pressure on refugees to flee conflict-afflicted countries and recognize their contribution if they do come to Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marc Pierini and Jørgen Carling address the implications of the current refugee crisis resulting from the Syria conflict to European politics. Marc Pierini analyzes the possible consequences of the arrival of refugees for the politics of the European Union and the international legal refugee regime. They also touch on the potential benefits and challenges of their integration into the societies of European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Southern Euro Zone countries show significant delays to adapt their social and productive systems to the EU goal of creating knowledge-based societies. A signal can be the increasingly higher level of skilled labor migration from these countries, especially during the actual crisis. Recent literature on skilled migrations often rejects the concept of “brain drain” (BD) arguing that circulation and exchange of people and knowledge is expected in the era of globalization. Using both conceptual analysis and secondary data, the paper attempts to highlight proportions of the intra-EU BD phenomenon and show how they may challenge the assumptions of circular migration models. It discusses that a BD problem likely exists in the Southern Euro Zone and proposes an alternative framework for its analysis. The main hypothesis behind this review is that the phenomenon relies on substantial lack of social opportunities for high-skilled people in the countries of origin as provoked by multiple factors. In this account, the several drivers of migrants' choice will be conceptualized by adopting a “Capability Approach,” and they will be further analyzed according to its foremost hypotheses regarding rational behavior, human welfare, and development. The resulting theoretical view has to be considered as an expansion of the neoclassical economics “standard view” on high-skilled migrations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]