2015 European migrant crisis

During 2015, there was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe. 1.3 million people came to the continent to request asylum, the most in a single year since World War II. They were mostly Syrians, but also included significant numbers of Afghans, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Eritreans, and the Balkans. The increase in asylum seekers has been attributed to factors such as the escalation of various wars in the Middle East and ISIL's territorial and military dominance in the region, as well as the Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt ceasing to accept Syrian asylum seekers. The responses of national governments varied greatly. Many European Union (EU) governments reacted by closing their borders, and most countries refused to take in the arriving refugees. Germany would ultimately accept most of the refugees after the government decided to temporarily suspend its enforcement of the Dublin Regulation. Although the EU attempted to enact some reforms, these efforts largely fizzled out after refugee arrival numbers receded. Attempted reforms included distributing refugees among member countries, tackling root causes of emigration in the home countries of migrants, and simplifying deportation processes. The crisis had significant political impacts in Europe. The public showed anxiety towards the sudden influx of immigrants, often expressing concerns over a perceived danger to European values. Political polarization increased, confidence in the European Union fell, and many countries tightened their asylum laws. Right-wing populist parties capitalized on public anxiety and became significantly more popular in many countries. There was an increase in protests regarding immigration and the circulation of the white nationalist conspiracy theory of the Great Replacement. News organisations and academic sources use both migrant crisis and refugee crisis to refer to the 2015 events, sometimes interchangeably.

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HUM-446: Governing global migration I

This course examines key areas of contemporary migration politics in a historical perspective, such as refugee protection, border security, and regional integration. It also trains students in methods

Refugee crisis

A refugee crisis can refer to difficulties and dangerous situations in the reception of large groups of forcibly displaced persons. These could be either internally displaced, refugees, asylum seekers or any other huge groups of migrants. A crisis could occur within the country, while attempting to leave, or while on the move to a safe country, or even after arrival in a country of asylum. A situation can be called a crisis, either from the perspective of the forcibly displaced persons, or from the perspective of the receiving state, or both.

2015 European migrant crisis

Pegida

Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes), abbreviated Pegida (peˈɡiːda, stylised in its logo as PEGIDA), is a pan-European, anti-Islam, far-right political movement. German Pegida believes that Germany is being increasingly Islamicised and defines itself in opposition to Islamic extremism. Pegida wants to curb immigration into Germany and it accuses the authorities of failure to enforce related laws.

Between Hospitality and Inhospitality: The Janus-Faced 'Arrival Infrastructure'

Luca Giovanni Pattaroni, Maxime Carl Felder, Marie Hannah Florence Trossat, Joan Stavo-Debauge

Although 'arrival infrastructure' is central to the experience of migrants arriving in a new city, is it sufficient to form a 'hospitable milieu'? Our article compares newcomers' experiences with 'arrival infrastructure' in two European cities: Brussels and Geneva. Based on ethnographic research with 49 migrants who arrived a few months earlier, we show that arrival infrastructure is Janus-faced. On one hand, it welcomes newcomers and contributes to making the city hospitable. On the other hand, it rejects, deceives and disappoints them, forcing them to remain mobile - to go back home, go further afield, or just move around the city - in order to satisfy their needs and compose what we will call a 'hospitable milieu.' The arrival infrastructure's inhospitality is fourfold: linked firstly to its limitations and shortcomings, secondly to the trials or tests newcomers have to overcome in order to benefit from the infrastructure, thirdly to the necessary forms of closure needed to protect those who have just arrived and fourthly to those organising and managing the infrastructure, with divergent conceptions of hospitality. By using the notion of milieu and by embedding infrastructure into the broader question of hospitality, we open up an empirical exploration of its ambiguous role in the uncertain trajectories of newcomers.

2020

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