EU Responses to the Refugee Crisis

How have the European Union
member states handled the Refugee Crisis? Discuss how it should be dealt with.
Introduction
The European Migrant / Refugee Crisis means a massive refugee movement since 2015 with leap in casualties as a result of local disputes in Africa and the Middle East, moving from the original region to the European Union through the Mediterranean Sea or southeast Europe (The UN Refugee Agency, 2015; Amnesty International, 2015). Of course, before this point, Europe had experienced a series of situations in which many refugees and immigrants flowed in and were accepted. However, the European refugee crisis after 2015 started from the state that no one knows practical and exact solutions with the massive scale per movement, unpredictability that nobody can confirm termination point, and with difficulties in methods that cannot be solved by methods of border blockade and movement control. It also showed unknown and unique characteristics to be explored through actual cases and for concrete solutions. (Townsend, 2015). Because this situation is unprecedented situation for the international community after World War II, the international community, centering on the United Nations, categorizes it as a special case.

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In relation to the refugee issue, the EU member states are facing a number of controversies and serious confrontations over the acceptance of refugees. For example, the EU Commission has warned that the refugee capacity and economic burden of Greece and Italy, as the first arrivals of Syrian and North African refugees, have already reached their limits, and emphasized that they can no longer watch this issue but the EU member states need to share each other’s suffering through the refugee quota system. For that, the member states advocating the acceptance of refugees actively such as Germany and France, accepted the relocation scheme for 160,000 migrants from Greece and Italy, while the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia, expressed their dissent. (The guardian, 2016; Trauner, 2016) In this regard, this essay will categorize EU member states’ response to refugee acceptance into two broad categories, and examine their claims and the challenges that remain for them in the future. I will start with the opinions of Germany as a representative of Western European countries that have been favored for refugees since 2015, accepting the largest number of immigrants in Europe.[1] Then, I will mainly analyze the Central and Eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, who opposed the refugee policy and argued the temporary refugee allocations cannot be a solution. In addition to their differences, I would like to discuss solutions that could be implemented differently in the EU, member states, individuals and other continents.
Literature Review
Historically, the movement of peoples or tribes has always existed, and
its forms have been very varied, such as voluntary or forced migration,
immigration or refugees. However, as the number of refugees coming to Europe
has increased sharply since 2015, studies on immigration policy and the
improvement of legal system have been actively conducted in Europe and
elsewhere. Mchugh (2015) produced in-depth press releases analyzing the
phenomenon of refugee situations reinforcing the conservative immigration
policy of the right-wing political forces, however, with the anti-immigrant
sentiment associated with the refugee crisis and the rise of populist parties,
many similar studies are still underway. Also, Ross and Zaun (2016) have
explored the relationship between the global economic crisis and immigration
policy, and many researches have been actively carried out in relation to the
fact that the refugee crisis is a problem that cannot be separated from the
economic crisis. Nevertheless, I think it is time to find solutions in a
different level with the existing crises in Europe, in the way that the
European Union, which appears to be a collective of humanitarian societies, is
in fact very vulnerable to external shocks, and even though the European Union
is formally a democratic ideal society, it is very difficult to reach consensus
by gathering opinions among internal members. And this European refugee
situation is not only an economic and political issue, but also a problem with
a fairly complex ethical dimension. In addition, it is not a matter of European
continent alone, but it is a problem that the world should cooperate with.
Therefore, we should find some suggestions that can be suggested not only to EU
member countries but also to North America and Asia.
Background
The UN 1951 Refugee Convention, the basis for the establishment of the UN
Refugee Agency (UNHCR), describes the refugees as:
… being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events … (UNHCR, 2011)
Europe has long been in the midst of refugee problems, but the immediate
cause of European refugee problems since 2015 is closely linked to the Syrian
civil war. In the context of the democratization movement after Arab Spring,
there has been a civil war between Syrian rebels and government troops to evacuate
Al Assad’s government from 2011, and the disastrous consequences of the IS occupation
of eastern Syria, the number of refugees as victims has explosively increased. In
September, 2015, a photograph of a 3-year-old boy a Kurdish Syrian refugee Alan
Kurdi, who was killed in the middle of a move from Syria to Europe, caused a
major international impact. (The Independent, 2015) This led to the turning of
countries that were passive in accepting refugees to an active position.
On the other hand, in the European Union, conflicts are occurring between
Member States due to the two basic treaties, the Schengen Treaty and the Dublin
Treaty, which are applied in relation to the acceptance of refugees. First, the
Schengen Agreement (1985) is a border open treaty between EU member states that
requires the elimination of borders and immigration procedures, and assure the
equal treatment of nationals with their own nationals. In the case of refugee
matters, the Schengen Treaty has more significance, because when a visa is
granted in one country people can enjoy freedom of movement within the Schengen
zone. Meanwhile, the Dublin Convention, which started in 1990 in the 12 member
states of the European Union and entered into force in 1997, is a treaty establishing
the principle that which country should apply for refugee applications filed with
each member state and ensuring that the country in charge of refugee is dealing
with the issue. The meaning of the Dublin Treaty in refugee issues is that it
has curbed the prevalence of refugee claims in certain European Union countries
and has clearly identified the need for states to assume equal responsibility
for refugee acceptance. However, this two treaties confronts the unexpected
difficulties. Due to geopolitical conditions, it is Greece and Italy where the
refugees firstly arrive through the Mediterranean, while it is Hungary when
they use land route through Turkey. However, due to various reasons including
economic recession and security problems, it is difficult for these countries
to accept mass refugees. Even if these countries accept refugees, it is a
problem because it is contrary to the basic purpose of the Dublin Treaty, based
on the equal responsibility of accepting refugees. Also, various problems which
can be caused by freedom of movement guaranteed in Schengen treaty leads to the
case where the Dublin Treaty is virtually rendered impotent.
How the Member States Responded
Germany has a key position in the European Union, reserving the Dublin
Treaty on August, 2015 and proclaiming unconditional acceptance of Syrian
refugees, giving a bit of a breath of fresh air to the Mediterranean countries,
including Greece. Germany decided to focus on the policy by actively accepting
refugees in order to resolve the problems and declared to accept about 800,000
refugees of about 1.2 million refugees arriving in Europe, which is about 1% of
the population of Germany[2].
(BBC, 2016) In addition to these actions, Germany pressed the Middle-Eastern European
countries to overcome the crisis through solidarity among their member countries
rather than their own self-determination. At the same time, the countries in
favor of refugees tried to convince Middle-Eastern European countries suffering
from aging due to declining fertility rates and the widespread export of
skilled engineers to Western Europe that refugees with a high level of
education will be able to become a new growth engine rather than depriving them
of their jobs. (The Economist, 2015)
On the other hand, Poland, Hungary, and other Central and Eastern
European countries argue the current EU refugee policy (Germany-led) is
unrealistic and requires too much sacrifice and obligation to the Member
States. In other words, although the situation in the Member States of the EU
is all different, they are unilaterally forcing the reference point in one
standard. For example, Germany, actively accepting refugees, is the country
with the third highest percentage of immigrants in the world, including the
immigrants about 12% of the total population.[3]
Therefore, it is argued that social understanding of refugee acceptance is very
high. Also, as of 2017, Germany’s unemployment rate is as low as 3.6% (CEIC,
2017) and the declining skilled labor force due to aging population and low
birth rate, is also a necessity to replenish the labor force through inflow of
refugees. However, the situation in Eastern Europe is different from that in
Western. There are still many countries that are suffering from high
unemployment rates and financial self-reliance is weak compared to advanced
countries in Western Europe. In addition, many countries in the Middle-Eastern
Europe still have conflicts and racial issues in the past, and the public
opinion on refugee acceptance due to the lack of immigrants is also negative.
Therefore, they argued if some advanced countries, such as Germany, ignore the
situation of the Middle-Eastern Europe and claim the refugee quota system on
their own, without consideration of the situation of other regions, it will
provide a source of serious social problems.
In addition, the ability of the Middle-Eastern European countries to
exceed their limitations is one of the reasons for their opposition to the
relocation scheme. In the case of Hungary, which is the land of Syrian refugees
among Central European countries, had received more than 170,000 asylum
applications arrived by the end of 2015, (BBC, 2016) This has led to serious
social and financial deterioration to a serious level. Even though
Middle-Eastern European countries are gradually increasing their economies of
scale through industrialization, they have been in the EU for 10 more or less
10 years, it can be argued that this is an overwhelming situation. Furthermore,
they pointed out that the temporary refugee allocation cannot be a fundamental
solution to the refugee crisis and that the powerful nations should take
practical solutions. In fact, the struggle between the Syrian dictatorship and
the anti-government forces that have resisted it has already become more
complicated as support forces from Russia, China-America and Saudi Arabia have
been long-termed with their own weapons support. Plus, it can be a trend that
is continuing to increase as the number of refugees passing through Europe
increases, nobody can say that the limit is the limit. They repeat passing refugees
to each other,[4] and
as a result, mutual denunciations have also heated up, deepening the conflict
between neighboring countries.
These countries, in particular, demanded that the EU completely block the
so-called ‘Balkan Route,’ which has become a major route for refugees to Europe
since 2015. They put pressure saying if the EU does not launch it, they will
implement it on their own, and made it closed in March 2016. In addition, the
EU strongly opposed shifting the external borders of non-EU countries to the
border with Greece, not the Greek coastline but the Greek northern land, namely
Macedonia or Bulgaria.[5]
This claim has been welcomed by Balkan European countries, such as Serbia,
Macedonia and Bulgaria, who are experiencing serious social and economic crises
due to refugee problems, as they are now on the Balkan route of mass influx of
refugees. Actually, in the background of these claims, distrust of Greece takes
a big part. They say it would not have brought such a serious situation if the
Greece well-managed the refugees arrived in its coast based on the ‘Dublin
Treaty,’ which set the principle of national order to deal with asylum application.
They have believed that Greece has helped these refugees to enter the EU addressing
the difficulty of mass refugee problems and has either neglected or guided
these refugees to go through the Balkan route and into the EU. Thus, it was claimed
that Greece’s overland border blocking and the establishment of new external
borders are inevitable in order to prevent mass refugee inflows to the Central
and Eastern European countries that follow the Balkan route geographically.[6]
However, when the Balkan route was closed down in 2016,[7]
it was heavily criticized by many scholars as the European Institutions exalted
this agreement as an instrument for putting an end to the refugee crisis, but
afterwards, none of them took authorship and the responsibility for this
statement (Sardelic, 2017).
Meantime, at the EU level,
it was necessary to control the refugee inflow rate and seek cooperation from
Turkey. The EU has offered a remedy for providing 6 billion euros in economic
support, a visa waiver for Turkish citizens, facilitating Turkey’s EU accession
negotiations, and acceptance of a Syrian refugee from Turkey whenever they
accept one of the ineligible refugees who are repatriated from Greece. That is
to say, Turkey received a long-awaited visa exemption and subscription
negotiations on the condition that non-eligible refugees who do not meet the
refugee qualification criteria are allowed to “re-enter” Turkey from
Europe as a transit country. The EU says the EU-Turkey agreement is aimed at an
important moral practice goal. In other words, by screening camouflaged
refugees, Europe will be able to receive the real refugees who have gone on the
journey of life to avoid the reality and possibility of political persecution. (Economist,
2015). Because Turkey is bordered by Syria and Iraq, where refugees are most
prevalent, and the East Mediterranean Sea route is the fastest route to Europe,
so coordination with Turkey was an inevitable choice to do.
But this negotiation with
Turkey faced many criticisms. It is pointed out that there are ethical problems
in negotiations with Turkey, which tend to be violent and non-humanitarian in
their relations with the Kurd. That means, it can help consolidate the
dictator’s power base by recognizing the legitimacy of the authoritarian regime
in Europe’s values and actions to solve the troublesome problems in Europe. In
particular, the visa waiver issue has been criticized because the EU was just engrossed
in reducing the number of refugees and as it has nothing to do with
humanitarian principles or treatment of refugees. But the EU-Turkey agreement
appears to be in force. After the EU-Turkey agreement, the number of refugees
from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to Europe has sharply decreased. Besides, the
European refugee crisis is currently undergoing a settling due to the agreement
between the EU and Turkey, but it is hard to know how long it will last. First,
it is unclear whether the agreement between the EU and Turkey will continue. As
a condition of the EU-Turkey agreement, Turkey must legislate and implement
many reforms. It is uncertain whether Turkey can and will meet the needs of the
EU. If Turkey’s reforms do not meet the expectations of the EU, the EU will not
be able to implement the visa exemption proposed by Turkey as a carrot and the
resumption of EU accession negotiations as scheduled, and Turkey will likely respond
by opening the way for refugees.
The bigger problem is that the EU does not have enough time and cards to
persuade its member countries of the border blockade. The EU, which is fiercely
contested over the direction of refugee policy with Middle Eastern European
countries due to mass refugees from the Middle East, has been troubled by the
crisis of the Brexit (United Kingdom out from the EU) and the possibility of the
collapse of the European zone. But there is growing concern over whether the
Schengen Treaty can be maintained as it is now, as the conflict of interests
within the EU member states is sharply divided and the leadership of the major
member states is weakening. It is difficult to rule out the possibility that
the EU’s core Schengen treaty will collapse and that the EU member states could
lead to a huge economic loss, possibly triggering a disintegration of the EU
itself.
Suggestion
Often when looking at refugees from Europe, refugee problems are
sometimes approached in terms of human resources, not humanitarian, but I argue
that it is not right to analyze refugees from the point of view of human
resources. It reflects the view that although Europe has taken on the problems
of other continents but they can use them as a resource for the development of
the European Union as well as the intention to resolve the economic downturn in
Europe based on refugee labor and taxes. Therefore, I would like to suggest to
consider the meaning of accepting refugees as historical moment when two
civilizations coexist in Europe. To this end, the perception that two
civilizations are essential partners for mutual development should be fully
considered. Although the problem of refugees is in the process of seemingly
tragic modern history, the consensus of historical awareness cooperation in
balancing the exchange between Europe and other civilizations will be
important.
In addition, it is important to establish a social consensus on the
refugee problem. For this purpose, it is important to have a positive attitude
to actively participate in and understand the refugee problem as their own
issue. In addition, people’s attitude and consideration for refugees should not
be limited to small acts of humanity, but to the level of helping them and
causing social structural changes that can be accepted as members of the
community. At the social level, we should make efforts to secure and maintain
the soundness of the society itself while at the same time utilizing more
active acceptance policies in the human rights dimension. Citizenship ethics
education for social integration as well as sophisticated policy planning
should be done together. The attitude of the developed countries that have the
capacity to accommodate the refugees may be caused by the refusal of the
refugees and the disgusting tendencies that are prevalent in the civil society,
but also there are a few political movements encourage anti-immigrants
atmosphere – such as populism. It is a well-known fact that some discomfort may
arise when accommodating refugees, but the social atmosphere that encourages
fear beyond it is a challenge to be overcome. Accepting a certain part of the
refugees is a recognition of a new way of life, which means that there is some
change in the existing way of life. However, this should strive to expand
soundness in all aspects of institutions and consciousness so that it does not
threaten the current lifestyle, culture, or identity of the society.
It is also necessary for the refugees who receive help to form and
practice their own sense of responsibility. In some parts of Europe, which
accept refugees, the voice of concern is increasing due to the unethical
conduct of refugees. Some cases of refugee applicants committing crimes such as
sexual violence, robbery, theft, etc can impair the view of refugees and at the
same time worsen public opinion regarding the local identity of refugees.
Therefore, refugees should practice their own responsible behavior norms, and
follow their own responsibility to better fulfill their responsibilities. In
addition, active and in-depth consideration and efforts should be made to
resolve the causes of the refugees’ home country. It would be great if the
refugees who are directly related to their home countries have interests in their
home countries’ issues after the resettlement and are engaged in the refugee
research of the settlement countries.
Conclusion
Immigration is a huge and complex phenomenon, so it is powerful enough to
change the overall picture of society. That’s why we cannot find a solution by
comparing what the related costs and benefits are, but the outcome depends on
how we deal with it. In particular, European refugee issues are closely linked
to human rights issues in that they basically escape from violence. Therefore,
it may be possible to discuss the theory of convergence by suggesting a new
type of larger community such as ‘Global Citizenship Ethics’ or to introduce a
third ethical framework. At the national level, the refugee problem needs to be
regarded as a problem of the social community and its members. Refugees
themselves need a responsibility to actively resolve the causes of their
problems.
In summary, Germany, as a representative of Western Europe, is relatively
moderate in its policy of accepting refugees, because in the German society the
elements are implicitly contained with a wide range of issues and developments;
historical consciousness and tolerance that reflects the Nazi’s mistakes, well-established
educational and political institutions that have supported humanitarian respect.
However, the eastern European countries have a tough stance on the refugee
problem. The influx of refugees with different religions and cultures is a kind
of cultural shock because of the deprivation due to the relatively poor
environment and the social environment maintaining the religious and ethnic
homogeneity. And there were no colonial histories that dominate others, unlike
some Western European countries, they do not intervene in the internal affairs
of old colonial countries, so there is no sense of responsibility or duty based
on historical consciousness, And the fact that there are cases in which
nationalism is promoted with a narrow nationalism.
I think it is reasonable that the efforts of the EU to accept refugees
have no meaning without the solution of root cause of the refugee crisis, which
is claimed by the Central and Eastern European countries. These countries have
a realistic view claiming that the EU’s refugee allocation is not a fundamental
solution to the refugee crisis. In particular, Syria, which can be considered a
representative country of the refugee crisis, could not be able to make further
progress unless a solution is sought, such as a real agreement between the US
and Russia, I argue. However, it is also true that it is difficult for the EU
to provide a fundamental solution. Because if the EU implement the EU asylum
rules it can overburden Southern European states, whereas if the EU ignore
these rules they can lay a burden on Northern member states (Trauner, 2016). Because
of the acute conflict of interests within the EU member states over the refugee
issue and the weakening of the leadership of the main member states, we cannot
be sure whether the ‘Schengen Treaty’ presupposes free movement in the region
can be maintained as it is now, or it will bring new challenges to integration
and maintenance. This is the reason we all need to work together to solve the
more fundamental causes of ethical issues.Bibliography
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[1] The highest number of first time asylum applicants in the third
quarter of 2017 was registered in Germany (with over 46 000 first time
applicants, or 28 % of all applicants in the EU Member States). (Asylum
quarterly report, 2017)
[2] However, the open-door migration policy of Angela Merkel seems to
be slightly changed to aim for a cap on Germany’s refugee intake, opposed to
her previous rejections. (CNN, 2017) http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/09/europe/germany-upper-limit-refugees/index.html
[3] UN, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “Trends in
International Migrant Stock: The 2017 Revision”, can be seen here: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimatesgraphs.shtml?3g3
[4] Grierson and Weaver, Croatia moves refugees to Hungarian border –
as it happened, The Guardian, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/sep/18/refugee-crisis-hungary-builds-border-fence-with-croatia-live-updates#block-55fbf9b1e4b0c46d88e03183
[5]  Independent, “Refugee
crisis: Eastern Europe opposes Angela Merkel’s policy on asylum seekers”, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-eastern-europe
–opposes-angela-merkel-s-policy-on-asylum-seekers-a6877916.html.; DW,
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[6] Radio Praha. “Visegrad leaders debate back-up plan for migrant
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http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/visegrad-leaders-debateback-up-plan-
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[7] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/09/balkans-refugee-route-closed-say-european-leaders