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Editorial

Editorial

The Refugee Crisis and what it can teach us about Europe

Anna Triandafyllidou

Robert Schuman Chair, Global Governance Programme Research Area Director Cultural Pluralism, European University Institute

The unfolding refugee crisis indeed the largest refugee flow that Europe has experienced on its soil since the Yugoslav wars of the mid-1990s has posed important challenges both at the national and the European level for countries of first arrival like Greece, transit countries along the Balkans and final destinations such as Germany or Sweden. While the crisis has included a de facto or de jure interruption of Dublin III and the first safe country principle, and hence an awareness that we need to create a true common European asylum system, it has also led to the reaffirmation of national borders, discussions over the interruption of Schengen (fortunately avoided) and a renewed emphasis on national sovereignty and border controls.

After several years of Eurozone crisis that had seen the North-South divide in Europe re-emerge, we are now witnessing a re-emergence of the South-West divide. This has had to do with the vocal reactions of government authorities in Hungary and Poland against refugees and their calling upon southeastern countries to guard off their border and do everything possible to stop the flows, paying little if any attention to the fact that people were escaping conditions of war and violence. Indeed this lack of respect for European and international treaties on human rights and asylum, the lack of solidarity towards both asylum seekers and other European states, and the further rise in popularity of far right populist parties in Central Eastern Europe has painfully reminded all of us the pre-1989 Europe and its political and economic divisions.

One is not necessarily to blame Central Eastern European countries for their lack of empathy with other Member States – they have themselves experienced a sort of neo-colonial approach when qualifying to join the EU – they had to take the EU acquis and implement it or forget about accession. However, what is worrying is that Central Eastern European governments seem to have a limited touch with reality, and that can be detrimental for their own citizens. Reactions of the kind: if I close my eyes and keep them hermetically shut, the refugees will go away, magically disappear, go somewhere else, are not helpful. Such reactions remind one those of southern European governments in the early 1990s towards the then rather dramatic economic migration flows from Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Those who thought that by voting new stringent expulsion laws they could control their borders were sadly proven wrong – they simply fuelled the ranks of irregular migration and the informal economy. Those who had more realistic approaches and found ways to manage the flows and accept people, had a smoother path towards socio economic change.

As history teaches out single countries cannot shape wider socio-political transformations and governments need to keep in mind the long term perspective: they need to think on how to best govern a phenomenon that they do not control rather than seek to ignore it wishing it will disappear. It won’t.

ΤΕΥΧΟΣ 100 - 14/12/2016

Περιεχόμενο

Editorial. The Refugee Crisis and what it can teach us about Europe................................... 5
Anna Triandafyllidou

Youth Organizations & Migration................................................................................................ 6
Johanna Nyman

Do we pull together or do we let others deal with it?................................................................. 7
Ulrike Lunacek

How can host societies improve the integration of new citizens?........................................... 8
Nawel Rafik-Elmrini

Religious Extremism and its Hold in the Balkan societies....................................................... 9
Arolda Elbasani

Are we Europeans stuck in our own problems
or should we assume greater responsibility?............................................................................. 10
Dušan Reljić

Western Balkans’ EU integration: from Thessaloniki to Paris.............................................. 11
Pierre Mirel

Forward........................................................................................................................................... 12
Dorian Jano

What our fear of refugees says about Europe
and the way forward for European policy approach............................................................. 13
Bledar Feta

Migration as a Global Challenge. A Call for a New Type of Leadership. .......................... 15
Andreja Kokalj

Beyond Humanitarian Relief: Educating Refugee Children................................................ 16
Despina Karamperidou

Between Global Developments and Internal Political Considerations.
How does the Refugee Crisis Resonate in Montenegro?....................................................... 18
Milena Milošević

Migration & Multiculturalism Policies....................................................................................... 20
Ervis Martani

New selection procedures of refugees, factors of illegality and precarity........................... 22
Marc - Antoine Frebutte

EU Policy’s impact on the co-operation between Greece
and FYROM during the EU Refugee Crisis.............................................................................. 23
Maja Slijepcevic

On Refugees and the EU Member States. Refugees as our future fellow citizens............ 25
Vasileios Mamaloukas

An EU candidate cannot be focused solely in managing the flows................................................................................................. 26
Kaltrina Selimi

Europe’s new identity: the refugee crisis and the rise of nationalism............................................................................................... 27
Claudia Postelnicescu

Towards a comprehensive EU migration policy.................................................................................................................................. 28
Alexandra Alexandridou

Croatia’s response to the refugee crisis................................................................................................................................................. 30
Senada Šelo Šabić

More development, less migration?........................................................................................................................................................ 31
Jovana Savic

European Union’s “visible” refugee crisis............................................................................................................................................. 33
Alexandru Damian

Foreign Fighters - Disguised Danger in the Background of the Migration Crisis in Europe.......................................................... 34
Vladimir Koturović, Jovana Poznan, Suzana Bošković

The Refugee Wave and the issue of Strategic Communications...................................................................................................... 36
Radu Magdin

Refugee/migration crisis: Quo Vadis (Europe)?................................................................................................................................... 38
Robert Bucić

The Meaning and the Use of Identity Papers - Reflections on Syrian Experience ....................................................................... 39
Rajendra Yogambigai

New Migration Challenges in the Western Balkans............................................................................................................................. 40
Erka Çaro

Does the Political Orientation of Governments Matter?..................................................................................................................... 41
George Vasileiadis

Migration & extreme-right........................................................................................................................................................................ 42
Eneda Seitaj

Refugee/migration crisis: Quo Vadis?.................................................................................................................................................... 43
Alexandros Lefteratos

Refugee Crisis and temporary protection mechanism: Ignoring the Solution at Hand................................................................ 44
Olga Mitrovic

The Problem is Media............................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Ivo Bosilkov

The Transatlantic Relations and how they can affect the refugee/migrants crisis........................................................................ 46
Jason Tsoukalas

“Nobody invited you here!” A study on the rise of extreme-right movements in Europe
in regard to migration and migrant crisis............................................................................................................................................... 48
Katerina Jakimovska

European Values under question - Migration in times of uncertainty............................................................................................. 49
Žan Pajtler

Migration Crisis. A General Approach................................................................................................................................................... 50
Helen Zi

EU ban-opticon Policy toward Newcomers: Border Security or Securitization of Borders.......................................................... 51
Stevan Tatalovic

The EU and its Migration Policy, Between Borders and Containment............................................................................................ 53
Hadzic Anel

The cover benefited fromMarilia Vrouva. The figure shows Europe balancing on a bomb that is about to burst. This issue deals with the refugee crisis from the perspective of young people from the Balkans.

 

 

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