Agenda
Overall
Since 1999, the European Union has laid out its agenda for developing migration and asylum-related policies in the form of five-year programs that focus more broadly on justice, security, and freedom. The area of Justice, Liberty and Security is a broad grouping of policies including fundamental rights, citizenship, security and counterterrorism policies, criminal and civil law and police cooperation, as well as immigration, asylum, border management, and visa policy.
EU-level immigration policy essentially concerns two aspects:
1) External third-country immigration to the EU, which includes asylum, visas, the EU’s external borders, and non-EU economic migration; 2) Internal migration of EU/EEA nationals under the EU’s freedom of movement rules;
Institutional structure
The EU Council
Each five-year program contains political priorities, proposals, and deadlines, making it a roadmap rather than a strict policy document. The European Council must decide on and agree to the program before it can go forward.
The EU Commission
The European Commission is then responsible for producing an action plan that outlines how each point of the program will be transformed into EU policy, and publishing detailed proposals that will implement the program over the subsequent five years.
The European Parliament
The action plan, and each individual proposal, is then submitted to the Justice and Home Affairs Council and goes through a legislative process that includes the European Parliament.
Regional Consultative Processes (RCPs)
Regional consultative processes (RCPs) on migration bring together representatives of states, international organizations and non-governmental organizations for non-binding dialogue and information exchange on migration-related issues, such as: migration and development, labour migration, social integration of migrants, protection of migrants’ rights, smuggling and trafficking in persons, migration and health, trade and migration.
RCPs in Europe
• Inter-Governmental Consultations on Asylum, Refugee and Migration Policies (IGC)
• Budapest Process
• Söderköping Process (Cross-Border Co-operation Process)
• Prague Process
Budget
For the period 2007–13, the General Programme for migration management - "Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows" allocates almost EUR 4 billion to ensure the fair sharing of responsibilities between EU countries for the financial burden that arises from the integrated management of the Union's external borders and from the implementation of common asylum and immigration policies. This General Programme consists of four instruments:
- External Borders Fund (EBF)
- European Return Fund (RF)
- European Refugee Fund (ERF)
- European Fund for the integration of third-country nationals (EIF)
History
From 1960 to 1973, the number of foreign workers in Western Europe doubled from 3 to 6 per cent of the workforce. But primary immigration into Europe – driven by labour needs – all but ended with the oil crisis of 1973. The foreign-born population has continued to grow, not least because most countries still issue tens of thousands of residence permits each year for the purposes of family reunification
In 1999s the asylum has become one of the principal means of immigration into the EU.
In recognition of the common challenges faced across Europe with respect to immigration, EU Member States have cooperated on migration and asylum issues since signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.
The Lisbon Treaty introduces several changes to the way the European Union makes immigration policy. The major change is that legal immigration policies will be pursued under the ordinary legislative procedure (formerly known as co-decision). This means that measures to determine the entry, residence, and rights of legal migrants will no longer be agreed unanimously but instead according to a qualified majority.
Challenges
Schengen crisis
Schengen is now under review because in 2011 there were surges in illegal migration, mainly due to the uprisings caused by the Arab Spring in North Africa. Even though all countries agreed that there should be no border checks on EU nationals, they could not agree whether non-EU nationals should enjoy the same privileges when travelling inside the EU.
Labour market integration
The labour market outcomes of native and immigrant populations have diverged in most European countries with the foreign born facing higher unemployment leading to serious integration challenges. Slower economic growth across the continent will mean slack labour demand for years to come, even while accelerating demographic decline looms overhead.
Readmission of irregular migrants
With the adoption of the ‘Return Directive’ in June 2008, EU has intensified the fight against irregular immigration, while still leaving Member States with a wide scope for defining national immigration policies. The result of these policies has been the increased stigmatisation, and even criminalisation, of asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants, and the detention and deportation of immigrants, in violation of their basic human rights, according to the European Social Watch Report 2009.
Temporary and circular migration
Temporary and circular legal migration schemes have featured high on the agendas of EU policymakers since 2007. However there are very few highly-skilled migrants who engage in circular mobility and take back to their country of origin the skills they acquired in the EU. In reality, the only circular migration that is more or less regulated by the EU Member States is seasonal agricultural migration.
Current status
Looking ahead to 2014 – which will mark the development of a new five-year policy agenda for Justice and Home Affairs – the outlook is not inspiring. The traditional approaches towards developing common policy in the area of immigration and asylum seem to have reached a plateau. EU institutions are currently more focused on insuring coherent and complete implementation of previously agreed-upon policies, than finding ways to further mesh 27 national immigration and asylum systems.
Key Policies
Enhancing the integration of non-EU nationals in EU societies
Integration of migrants into their host society is essential to maximise the opportunities of legal migration and to realise the potential that immigration has for EU development. The EU is promoting European cooperation to develop common approaches and exchange information at EU level. The following instruments are applied to support the integration policy: European Integration Forum, European Web Site on Integration, Handbook on Integration and European Integration Fund.
Curbing irregular migration
The EU is tackling the issue through specific measures targeting employers who hire undeclared migrant workers and by seeking to set up a humane and effective return policy, in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is also targeting human trafficking networks and smugglers who take advantage of undocumented persons.
Managing migration through partnership with non-EU countries
The dialogue and partnerships with countries of origin and transit, based on solidarity and shared responsibility. The Global Approach to migration and mobility, renewed in November 2011, is the framework for the EU external migration policy.
Key Figures
EU migration accounted for 27% of total UK net immigration in 2010 – a majority of which comes from the new Eastern European states which joined the EU in 2004.
Greece accounts for 90 per cent of the EU's detected illegal border crossings, and has reported 45,000 illegal border crossings in just the first half of 2010, Frontex figures show.
According to the recent estimates (2009), the number of immigrants illegally residing in the EU 15 countries ranged in 2008 between 1.8 and 3.3 million, or between 0.46% and 0.83% of the total population.
Miscellaneous
Pensions Law
In a letter signed by the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the leaders of before mentioned countries claim that pension law is making it difficult for individuals to immigrate and accept jobs in another EU country, because, employees often lose their pension rights when they try to switch companies and move abroad.
Transition to Globalisation
Migration is increasingly coming into sharp focus on the global agenda and is recognised as a powerful vehicle for boosting development in both countries of origin and destination. This is illustrated inter alia by the 2012 report of the UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda, ‘Realizing the Future We Want for All’, which recognises migration as a key dimension of global population dynamics and an enabler for inclusive economic and social development.
Globalisation » Demography » Migration
Transition to Political Tools
The role of EU Commissioner for Home Affairs is becoming that of coordinator and collaborator as much as that of policy initiator, making sure that the policies pursued within one portfolio cohere with the goals articulated by another. This is no easy task, particularly when a broad range of political considerations need be taken into account.
Political Tools » Regional » Europe » EU » Ext. Policies » Migration
Transition to Political Actors
Leaders of right-wing nationalist parties from four EU member states have announced plans to create a European "patriotic" party that would protect the continent against immigration, "Islamization" and globalization. Warning about the dangers that immigration and "Islamization" pose for Europe, the right-wing leaders said that that the new party would be based on European Christian traditions across the continent and that it would fight against the EU's centralized bureaucracy.
Political Actors » Political Parties » Regional » Europe
