Abstract
Since 2015 hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos, many fleeing war and poverty, others hoping to find work in Europe and give their children a better future. The arrival of migrants on Lesbos was accompanied by an influx of ‘humanitarian pilgrims’: hordes of journalists, celebrities, academic researchers and volunteers for diverse NGOs. Because the migrants arrived in such large numbers in 2015, they became part of the daily reality of both the local residents and officials at different levels of authority, from local municipalities to EU representatives. The migrants’ arrival on the island was presented in the media both as a historic event and an urgent public problem. The term ‘refugee crisis’ was born. Although its importance and urgency was widely recognized by policymakers, the inability of European and local institutions to manage the influx of migrants in this time of crisis soon became obvious. This ‘unmanageable’ situation, which demanded quick and creative solutions, involved responding to the suffering of the migrants who needed ‘to be managed’, and appealing to the local people’s solidarity and hospitality. The announcement that hundreds of thousands of refugees were arriving on the shores of Greece came at a time when the country was facing severe political and economic problems. The question is when is something ‘announced’ as a crisis and by whom, and which parties define and create a specific public problem and also suggest solutions and remedies. Based on an empirical case study in Greece, this contribution reflects on the concept of ‘Crisis’ from an interdisciplinary perspective, including a historical, philosophical and sociological understanding of its use in the refugee context.
Highlights
Schengen anniversaries – more than a thing about the past The European Commission celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement[1] in 2020 with the announcement that most controls at internal Schengen borders, introduced to contain the spread of Covid[19], were being lifted.[2]
How does ‘the past’ dominate the present while, at the same time, the conditions for new things to become real are emerging? In my contribution I argue that an analysis of temporality and law provide an important feature in generating understanding of how different enforcement instruments and their regulatory regimes have been mobilised and reconfigured in response to so-called ‘secondary movements’. The focus of this contribution ties in, in a timely way, with ongoing legislative developments regarding proposals initially outlined in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum[11] and in the EU Security Strategy 2020.12
Contrary to what some scholars suggested in the past,[54] bilateral readmission practices have not been substituted by the Dublin Regulation as an inner-European multi-lateral readmission agreement, and they have not become obsolete with the establishment of the internal market – neither in practice, nor in law
Summary
Schengen anniversaries – more than a thing about the past The European Commission celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement[1] in 2020 with the announcement that most controls at internal Schengen borders, introduced to contain the spread of Covid[19], were being lifted.[2]. Despite increased scholarly work reproblematising a so-called ‘refugee-, migration- or Schengen-crisis’ in Europe, internal Schengen borders and, in particular, police cooperation instruments used in the enforcement of differential mobility rights, have remained rather peripheral to central concerns and arguments raised in critical scholarship. The question of how migration governance takes place at internal Schengen borders requires the taking into consideration of cross-border police cooperation as a means of enforcement, as well as its regulation across plural scales of government This allows me to engage analytically with temporality: from a temporal condition of ‘post-crisis’, as outlined in the introduction to this Special Issue, to the question of temporality in relation to law and crisis. Elspeth Guild and others, Internal Border Controls in the Schengen Area: Is Schengen Crisis-Proof? (European Parliament LIBE Committee 2016)
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