LibGuides: Plenary (December 2020): Debate on a new pact on migration and asylum

Debate on a new pact on migration and asylum

Reforming asylum and migration management (10/2020)
In September 2020, the European Commission submitted a proposal on asylum and migration management, to replace the 2013 Dublin Regulation that determines the EU Member State responsible for examining asylum applications. While the proposal 'essentially preserves' the current criteria for determining this responsibility, it would also make changes and additions to the regulation, especially on solidarity and responsibility-sharing for asylum-seekers among Member States. The proposal comes after a failed attempt to reform EU asylum policy following the 2015 migration crisis.
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EP - Briefing
Hotspots at EU external borders: State of play (09/2020)
The 'hotspot approach' was presented by the European Commission as part of the European Agenda on Migration in April 2015, when record numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers and other migrants flocked to the EU. The 'hotspots' – first reception facilities – aim to improve coordination of the EU agencies' and national authorities' efforts at the external borders of the EU, in the initial reception, identification, registration and fingerprinting of asylum-seekers and migrants.
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EP - Briefing
The need for solidarity in EU asylum policy (09/2020)
In early September 2020, a fire in the over-crowded migrant camp of Moria in Greece pushed thousands of people onto the streets, exacerbating the already dire conditions faced by asylum-seekers and migrants. The incident also shows the need to find a solution to a crisis of solidarity in EU asylum policy that has remained unresolved since the unprecedented influx of migrants into the EU in 2015. The European Commission presented a new Pact on Asylum and Migration on 23 September 2020. In that, it puts forward a compromise on solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility for asylum-seekers among EU Member States.
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EP - At a glance note
Emergency measures on migration: Article 78(3) TFEU (03/2020)
Article 78(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provides for the adoption of provisional measures in emergency migratory situations at the EU's external borders. It was first used during the 2015 migration crisis. On the basis of that article, the Council of the EU adopted binding decisions providing for the relocation from Italy and Greece of 160 000 people so as to ensure a fair and balanced distribution of, and sharing of responsibility for, asylum-seekers who were already present in the EU.
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EP - At a glance note
Tackling the coronavirus outbreak: Impact on asylum-seekers in the EU (04/2020)
To curb the spread of coronavirus and to protect their populations, the EU and its Member States have restricted crossings of their external borders, and many internal EU borders, as well as restricted freedom of movement within their territory. These steps have also served to address the challenges the pandemic has posed to public order, public health and national security. However, the resulting restrictions on people's movement and access to EU territory could disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, among them asylum-seekers-already in the EU or trying to reach its territory to seek asylum.
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EP - Briefing
The Return Directive 2008/115/EC (07/2020)
In November 2019, the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) launched an implementation report on Directive 2008/115/EC on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals (the 'Return Directive'). The Return Directive aims at ensuring that the return of non-EU nationals without legal grounds to stay in the EU is carried out effectively, through fair and transparent procedures that fully respect the fundamental rights and dignity of the people concerned.
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EP - Study
Recent migration flows to the EU (04/2020)
This infographic aims to present the latest available data on migrant flows to the EU in the year 2019. It covers the detection of illegal crossings on the EU's external borders, numbers of deaths of migrants on those crossings, the number of asylum applications in EU Member States and their decisions on those applications.
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EP - Infographic
Migration and border management: Heading 4 of the 2021-2027 MFF (01/2020)
The Treaty of Lisbon makes explicit reference to pooling financial resources to support common policies on asylum, immigration and external borders. While expenditure for these policy areas still represents a minor share of the EU budget, it has recently increased in the wake of the 2015-2016 refugee crisis. Since the resources available under the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework (MFF) of the EU proved insufficient to address the crisis, EU institutions had to use the flexibility provisions of the MFF extensively.
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EP - Briefing
EU funds for migration, asylum and integration policies (05/2018)
The European Union significantly increased its funding for migration, asylum and integration policies in the wake of the increased inflow of asylum seekers in 2015. This study provides an overview, an analysis and an evaluation of the use of these funds, based on publicly available information, insights from interviews with various stakeholders and a survey of non-governmental organisations.
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EP - Study
Interim evaluation of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (11/2018)
Within the context of the Union’s home affairs policy to create an area of freedom, security and justice, it is necessary to adopt an integrated approach to tackle the pressure of migration and asylum applications and the management of the external borders of the Union. Hence, in April 2014, the EU established a specific EU funding programme dealing with asylum, migration and integration for the 2014-2020 period: The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). The AMIF was adopted with the aim of promoting the efficient management of migration flows and the implementation, strengthening and development of a common Union approach to asylum and immigration. The interim evaluation of AMIF covers the period 2014-2017.
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EC - Report
Statistics on migration, residence permits, citizenship and asylum for the enlargement countries (02/2020)
This compact guide looks at changes in the size of the population of the enlargement countries due to international migration and then focuses on citizens of enlargement countries living within the EU-28, presenting information for the number having had residence permits issued to them and their acquisition of citizenship of an EU Member State. It concludes with information concerning citizens of
enlargement countries having applied for asylum in the Member States.
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EC publication
Asylum and managed migration statistics (06/2020)
2020 edition
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EC publication

The Bureaucratic Production of Difference by Julia M. Eckert (ed.)
Publication Date: 2020
In the context of the ever-increasing political problematization of migration in Europe, agencies charged with migrant administration create diverse categories of difference to distinguish between the »deserving migrant« and the illegal one: They assess the detainability or the credibility of asylum seekers, the danger posed by Islamic organizations, and make situational decisions that determine whether migration or labour law applies to individual agricultural workers. In this book, each chapter analyses how organizational interpretations of the common good shape bureaucratic practices. Together, these ethnographic analyses reveal how migration policies in different European countries take shape in administrative practice.
Geographies of Asylum in Europe and the Role of European Localities by Birgit Glorius and Jeroen Doomernik (eds)
Publication Date: 2020
This 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.