European Refugee Crisis Research Articles

The Politics of Injury: Debilitation and the Right to Maim at the EU Border

ABSTRACT Borders are sites of mass injury. This article questions the necro-consensus that has emerged within migration studies, and explores the political role that less-than-deadly violence plays at contemporary borders. By withholding from outright killing, and thus avoiding the optics of public scrutiny, EU states are deploying a carefully calibrated politics of injury designed to control racialised groups through debilitation. The injuries produced through this border regime—typified by illegal ‘pushbacks’ and deplorable camp conditions—exist beneath a threshold of liberal acceptability. In short, EU states routinely deny the right to asylum by imposing the ‘right to maim’ (Puar 2017). This article draws upon long-term research along the ‘Balkan Route’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, including interviews with medics, activists, EU officials, and people on the move, as well as analysis of a large border violence database. We argue that mass injury has become a politically tolerated form of violence that perversely provides the EU with the illusory conceit of humanitarian “care”. In dialogue with postcolonial scholarship that has questioned the centrality of death within biopolitics, we assert the importance of interrogating not only the necropolitical logics of migration policy (i.e death), but also the politics of non-lethal violence: the strategic and attenuated delivery of injury, maiming, and incapacitation that shapes contemporary borders. Contributing to geographies of violence and critical border studies, we suggest that greater attention is needed towards less-than-deadly harms that underpin contemporary political geographies.

A Comprehensive Analysis of National and Supranational Approaches to Refugee Migration within the Framework of European Integration

This essay examines the European Union’s (EU) response to refugee migration, focusing on policy contributions, national approaches, and prospects for collaboration. By analyzing the 2015 European migrant crisis and the ongoing Ukrainian refugee crisis, it elucidates the complexities surrounding refugee migration in the EU. The study explores EU legislative developments, including the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, and evaluates divergent national perspectives, ideological barriers, and challenges to collaboration within the organization. It underscores the importance of solidarity and equitable burden-sharing in addressing refugee migration. Using theoretical analysis and empirical evidence, this paper offers insights into the EU’s efforts to manage refugee migration and the implications for future policymaking and collaboration.

Political communication in the real world: evidence from a natural experiment in Germany

Abstract Various robust communication effects have been identified, but evidence is overwhelmingly based on artificial survey treatments with limited real-world insight. I conducted a natural experiment on the impact of the European–Turkey statement closing the Balkan route during the 2015/16 European refugee crisis in Germany. This design tests the lasting effect of the statement's framing on public sentiment. I identify treatment and control groups based on timing to demonstrate its effect on perceptions of the crisis, asylum attitudes, and policy preferences. Effects are largest immediately following the announcement but decline rapidly. This shows political communication can significantly change opinion within a limited time frame. This study enhances our understanding of real-world communication effects and offers a broadly applicable methodology.

Politics metaphor in British and Bosnian-Herzegovinian migration discourse

As the geopolitical situation changes, it is necessary to discuss how politics is structured by metaphor in the context of recent social phenomena, such as the European migrant crisis. This paper analyses the conceptual metaphors politics as war, politics as a game, politics as a trade, and politics as a theater in British and Bosnian-Herzegovinian newspapers. The goal of this study is to establish to what extent and in which situations journalists resort to figurative language to persuade the recipients to view politics in a desired way. The paper aims to reflect on the use of deliberate metaphor as a perspective-changing device by journalists striving to achieve their rhetorical goals and influence recipients’ perception of the political situation. The corpus comprises 174 British and 307 Bosnian-Herzegovinian articles collected from August 2015 to March 2016 (247,912 words). Relying on Steen et al.’s (2010) model of metaphor analysis, the paper investigates the types of metaphor in the corpus, the deliberate use of politics metaphors and their communicative function in migration discourse - discussing both the rhetorical goals of journalists and the rhetorical effects on recipients. It has been established that the analyzed set of metaphors has a divertive and persuasive function in migration discourse. Similar studies are encouraged to shed light on how deliberate metaphors related to politics may have diverging communicative functions in other types of discourse.

IRREGULAR MIGRANTS ON THE ROADS OF SERBIA

With the onset of the migrant crisis in Europe, irregular migration is becoming a significant security problem for European leaders and citizens. As a result, there has also been a change in the public opinion of European countries, because many citizens associate irregular migration with terrorism and other security problems. In line with the growing importance of irregular migration as a security problem, the research aimed to determine changes in migration trends in Serbia, that is, on the ‘Balkan route’ of migration since 2015, when the migrant crisis in Europe began. Results that can roughly indicate the profile of an irregular migrant found on the territory of the Republic of Serbia were obtained in this research, conducted between June and August 2020 on a sample of 50 irregular migrants. An irregular migrant is a person from Afghanistan, of Islamic religion, uneducated, and of a poor financial status. They want to go to Germany for money, and they cross the borders of the countries located on the ‘Balkan route’ on foot, occasionally using the services of smugglers. Additionally, they have no problems with the border police of Serbia. The conducted research can contribute to gaining new knowledge about the problem of irregular migration, primarily about the trends that are different than they were at the time of the migrant crisis in 2015. Unlike previous research, this research is unique in that it also refers to the work of the border police and the attitude of border police officers toward irregular migrants.

Imaging welcome culture: Visual border politics and Holocaust postmemory during Germany’s long summer of migration

This article contributes to debates on visuality in international politics by focusing on how images come to matter in the context of migration and border politics. It examines how political actors mobilized photographic images during Germany’s so-called “refugee crisis” 2015 and how the mobilization of images influenced bordering practices. The article suggests understanding visual (border) politics as situated processes of meaning-making. Whether images can be mobilized to legitimate policies depends on a number of contextual factors, such as previous policies, the wider public and policy discourse, collective visual memories, and viewing habits. Developing a multimodal analytical framework and applying it to the case of Germany, I argue that visual memories of the Holocaust centrally affected how images of the “refugee crisis” were discussed in policy discourses and became politically performative. As the analysis illustrates, the iconic image of “Alan Kurdi” was not the key visual motif in Germany, but political actors primarily referred to images of welcome culture, train stations, and the “Balkan Route” when legitimating appropriate policy responses. The article concludes by arguing that this humanitarian framing and focus on German “welcome culture” contributed to create conditions of possibility for restrictive policies in the aftermath of the “refugee crisis.”

Beyond the asylum‐applications growth. The limits of the Spanish refugee reception program

AbstractBased on two extended qualitative research projects conducted between 2017 and 2022, this paper analyses the refugee reception programme (RP) in Spain, which is managed both by the central state and some specialised social organisations. This cross‐sectoral RP presents notable and enduring problems, which have deepened since the increase in asylum applications during the so‐called European refugee crisis in 2015. This paper affirms that, although this increase in asylum seekers represents a serious challenge, the persistent shortcomings of the RP are better explained by a set of structural factors related to (1) the restrictive institutional model of asylum and immigration policy, (2) the lack of development of the RP, its dispersal policy and its social intervention design, (3) the lack of multilevel governance between the State and the municipalities and regional administration and (4) the current neoliberal and nativist policies.

Has the war in Ukraine changed Europeans’ preferences on refugee policy? Evidence from a panel experiment in Germany, Hungary and Poland

ABSTRACT The Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 resulted in the largest refugee crisis in Europe since WWII. Using a unique panel conjoint experiment on refugee policy preferences carried out in Germany, Poland and Hungary just before and after the onset of the war in Ukraine, we show a heterogenous response to the influx of refugees from Ukraine across the three countries: no change of policy preferences in Germany, moderate change in Hungary and a significant change in Poland. Our results have direct implications for the development of a common EU asylum policy, as even though the countries persistently diverge on the preferred mode of asylum seekers’ allocation, with Germans favouring relocation and Poland and Hungary the status quo, the results highlight the scope for consensus rooted in shared preference for the asylum seekers’ unrestricted access to the labour market. This dimension consistently emerges as the most important policy dimension in all three countries before and after the outbreak of war.

The Refugee Crisis in Europe: An Analysis of the EU’s Response and Its Impact on Member States

The refugee crisis in Europe has been a pressing issue for several years now, with millions of people fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty in their home countries. The European Union (EU) has been at the forefront of efforts to address the crisis, with member states grappling with the challenge of providing a haven for refugees while also dealing with large-scale migration political, economic and social implications domestically. The article will clarify these problems.

The Belgrade ‘Campscape’: Refugee Spatialities, Mobilities and Migration Corridor Geographies

ABSTRACT This article examines the institutional and makeshift refugee geographies of Belgrade, using Diana Martin’s concept of ‘campscape’. It argues for the importance of this concept as a lens through which the complex relationship between the presence of refugees, camps and the city may be analysed. Accordingly, it takes into consideration key refugee spaces related to the role played by Belgrade as a migration hub along the so-called Balkan Route: institutional and makeshift camps, together with spaces associated with civil society and humanitarian support. After reviewing the key literature, the paper presents three sections that explore Belgrade’s distinctive campscape by analysing its (1) spatialities, (2) mobilities and (3) institutional geographies. The article concludes by claiming that the concept of campscape, when applied to a refugee mobility hub like the one developed in Belgrade since 2015, may be useful for illustrating the endlessly morphing refugee geographies of a well-established informal migration corridor.

SCHOOL LEADERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON BARRIERS FOR CREATING INCLUSIVE INTERCULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS AND POTENTIAL GENERATIVE AI BENEFITS

Greek schools have been progressively challenged by the diversification of student demographics during the past decade. The European refugee crisis after 2015 has triggered immense needs to create inclusive intercultural school environments for disabled students whose first language and cultural backgrounds differ from the dominant Greek middle-class students in mainstream schools. School leaders play a vital role in creating inclusive schοols that respect race, culture, ability, class, family background, and linguistic diversity. Social justice leadership constitutes an integral part of inclusive intercultural education, yet works exploring school leaders’ struggles in engaging in this type of leadership in Greece are scarce. This work gives voice to women educational leaders in Greece and investigates the barriers they encounter in providing appropriate education to migrant students with disabilities. Moreover, it explores school leaders’ perceptions of how generative AI applications can potentially be used to minimize these barriers.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0078/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Criminalization of the immigration in the EU and protection of procedural rights

Serbia is a transit country for migrants on their way to the EU via the Western Balkan route. In 2015-2016, millions of migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia used the Western Balkan route to reach the EU countries. Serbia as the EU candidate country has to fulfil the requirement of cooperation with the EU in the area of managing migratory flows through efficient control of its borders jointly with the EU officers. In order for Serbia to reinforce the border management, it is important to understand the EU migration policy. Although the Tampere European Council Conclusion from 1999 and the European Agenda on Migration from 2015 declared the EU commitments to develop legal access to vulnerable individuals, in practice migration is perceived as a threat to security. As a result of this approach the preventive and repressive criminal law measures were introduced in the immigration law. The European member state authorities selectively use criminal law to achieve the migration policy goals. The criminal law measures that are applied across the EU are detention, arrest, police control, removal from the territory. However, there is criticism that these criminal law measures are not followed by criminal law guarantees, especially procedural rights and human rights protection instruments. The analysis is put in context of the Return Directive 2008/115 that sets the EU standards and procedures on return of illegally staying migrants. In this article the author analyses the effects of immigration criminalization and the development of the Court of Justice jurisprudence in relation to the procedural rights.

Is the European refugee crisis a potential threat to public health Evidence from Italy

Is the European refugee crisis a potential threat to public health Evidence from Italy

Is the European refugee crisis a potential threat to public health Evidence from Italy

Is the European refugee crisis a potential threat to public health Evidence from Italy

The Sweden Democrats and the Twitterstorm of the decade – from social media to riot through a rhetorical vision

Amidst the European migrant crisis, a provocative advertisement campaign by the far-right party the Sweden Democrats was destroyed by a mob. No other campaign in Sweden had attracted a similar amount of attention and resentment. This qualitative case study analyses the activism rhetoric that caused the ‘Twitterstorm’ of the decade. Through a fantasy theme analysis, it determines how the protesters defended their anti-racist rhetorical vision. Action themes connected to fantasy types and symbolic cues provoked the Twittersphere, leading activists to destroy the campaign, transcending the virtual for the physical. This event is a paradigm case for rhetorical-political social media activism and gives insight into how the SD’s provocative rhetoric functions.

Migration Management in the Western Balkan Region: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Introduction. For centuries, the Western Balkan region has been actively involved in international migration processes, mainly generating flows of migrants to other states. The European migration crisis has led to the region has become one of the main hub of transit migration from Asia and Africa to the European Union states. The European Union – a global center of gravity for migrants implement an active migration management policy in the region. The purpose of the article is to identify the impact of European Union policy towards the Western Balkans on the development of the migration crisis in the region as a whole and in Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular. Materials and Methods. The study is based on statistical materials on migration of international and regional organizations. The analysis of the features of political regulation of migration in the region is carried out on systematic approach and content analysis of numerous declarations and treaties, as well as published scientific research. Results. The study revealed that the externalization and securitization of migration policy carried out by the European Union leads to an aggravation of the crisis in the Western Balkans, which are actually turning into a buffer zone for deterring and filtering migrants. The strengthening of migration and border control in the region has led to the diversification of migration flows; as a result Bosnia and Herzegovina has become one of the main centers of transit migration. Discussion and Conclusion. Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the course of joining the European Union, systematically takes all imposed decisions in the field of migration management. However, these deals lead to an increase in migration pressure on the country that it is not prepared due to its internal political and economic problems. Contradictions between the central and regional authorities of the country in fundamental issues of migration policy reinforce the tendencies towards its disintegration. Data on the scale of migration in the region, its analysis and conclusions on the principles of European Union migration policy will be useful to researchers in the field of migration processes, and can be used by government agencies for developing a Russian strategy for managing immigration processes.

Lessons from the past for future directions

Migration is a continued process that causes both positive and negative effects. This study investigates the EU’s resilience to migration challenges taking into consideration a comparative analysis of the European refugee crisis of 2015 and the influx of refugees from Ukraine due to the Russian invasion. On the one hand, the European refugee crisis of 2015 raised doubts about the EU’s ability to manage a humanitarian crisis, highlighting the necessity for enhancing its crisis management. However, the EU learned valuable lessons from that crisis, leading to a decrease in illegal border crossings and an improvement of its ability to anticipate future im migration patterns, and its resilience against migration challenges.

Engaged Documentary Cinema in Independent Slovenia

The essay discusses engaged documentary cinema in independent Slovenia. It focuses on the aspects of political engagement that address the deprived, underprivileged or oppressed communities and groups in contemporary Slovenian society. In the most unenviable position among them are members of the Roma community, the administratively erased inhabitants stripped of all their civil rights, exploited seasonal workers, representatives of the LGBTQIA+ community and the like. The discussion devotes its main attention to the operation of the informal collective Newsreel Front and its latest project “If the Forests Could Talk, They Would Dry Up with Sadness”, which documents the tragic situation of the refugees on the so-called “Balkan route” and their attempts at crossing the border between Croatia and Slovenia, fenced off with a razor wire.

Multi-Purpose Accessibility of Mountain Area Forests for the Purpose of Forest Management and Protection of the State Border

The planning and implementation of surveillance of state territory in forested border areas, especially mountainous areas, is considered to be highly complex. This is illustrated by the example of the difficulties the European Union faced in controlling the 2015 European migration crisis. Thereby, Croatia has the difficult task of protecting the borders of the Union because a particular problem on the Western Balkan Route is the so-called bottleneck to Slovenia in the area of the Municipality of Donji Lapac, which consists of the green border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Consequently, by using the example of planning multi-purpose forest roads, the aim of this paper is to propose the inclusion of the road network of border management units of mountain areas in the control system of the state’s green border, which, in this paper, includes its surveillance and protection by land for the purpose of national security. The research was conducted on the example of the Visočica–Lisac border management unit in the Municipality of Donji Lapac. The results of the research indicate a possible solution to the control of the border management unit by establishing a two-level surveillance system. The higher level consists of strategically defined surveillance points and corresponding multi-purpose forest roads designed on a tactical level. At this level, the priority is protection or, more precisely, defense of the state border. The lower level consists of tactically determined surveillance points with corresponding multi-purpose forest roads designed on the operational level. In addition to protecting the state border, this level would also have the task of protecting the forest, that is, monitoring the area of the management unit.

Linguopragmatuics of EU Regulatory Documents on Migration Regulation Issues

The accelerating migration movements dictate the need to coordinate the efforts and policies of different states, this makes the issues of managing migration processes of particular relevance and importance. The migration crisis in Europe in 2015-2019 turned a serious challenge for the viability of the European Union itself. The acute phase of the most recent migration crisis forced the European Union to revise existing migration policies, with regard to both EU member states and to migrants heading to Europe. The present study focuses on an analysis of the vocabulary of EU official legal documents in order to identify the specificities of migration regulation during the acute phase of the migration crisis. The use of discursive, pragmalinguistic and content analyses shows that migration institutional discourse functions as a strong ideological tool that can be used not only to control hostile attitudes in society but also to minimize conflicts in the process of migrants’ integration. The specific linguistic techniques identified in the process of the analysis seem promising in terms of harmonisation of migration processes. The experience of the European Union may be of practical importance for Russia and the countries of the near abroad which also have encountered the migration problems. Therefore the understanding of approaches that contribute to the regulation of migration processes can help reduce the level of aggression in the countries of migrants acceptance.