The European Migration System and Global Justice. A First Appraisal

Abstract

The large inflow of migrants to Europe over the last two years has made the refugees and migrants issue a focal point of the current political debate. The strain on the Dublin System and the blatant inconsistencies of the European approach to migration have served as a ‘wake up call’, bringing to the fore the need to overhaul the EU’s role in the governance of this policy area, riddled with tensions between Member States. Some Member States have accused the European Union (EU) of imposing regulations that affect them negatively; on the other hand, the EU has accused countries such as Italy and Greece of failing to comply with the existent rules. Inter-state solidarity has frequently been lacking, and violations of human rights with respect to the migrants have been documented. Moreover, the migration crisis has disclosed a number of normative and ethical issues connected to the current management of migration in the EU: to what extent can such a system be reasonably deemed just? Just for whom? Does the European management of migration live up to the principles of global justice? Following the objective of establishing to what extent the EU’s approach to migration has become decoupled from the question of justice, the book collects the first results of an analysis the definitions and legal provisions regarding migration and asylum in different member states (Italy, France, UK and Germany), one EU associated country (Norway) and the EU as such. The text introduces the concept of EU Migration System of Governance (EUMSG) to describe the different levels of government involved in partially cooperative and partially conflicting relations between the EU and the MSs, against the simplistic view of mutually exclusive or hierarchically ordered relations.