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.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
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
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, commonly known as Frontex (from French: Frontières extérieures for "external borders"), is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, exercising in coordination with the border and coast guards of member states the border control of the European Schengen Area, a task within the area of freedom, security and justice domain. Frontex was established in 2004 as the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders and is primarily responsible for coordinating border control efforts.
The Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) is a nationalist, right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man faction in the House of Representatives, it won nine seats in the 2006 general election making it the fifth-largest party in parliament. In the 2010 general election it won 24 seats, making it the third-largest party. At that time the PVV agreed to support the minority government led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte without having PVV ministers in the cabinet.
Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a person's legal status in which the person is at the one time recognized by more than one country under its nationality and citizenship law as a national or citizen of that country. There is no international convention which determines the nationality or citizenship status of a person, which is consequently determined exclusively under national laws, that often conflict with each other, thus allowing for multiple citizenship situations to arise.
Covers asylum as international legal protection for vulnerable migrants, the distinction between asylum-seekers and irregular migrants, and the global refugee crisis.
The ongoing war in Ukraine has profoundly impacted the Ukrainian scientific community. Numerous researchers have either emigrated or transitioned to alternate professions. For those who remain in research, the destruction of civil infrastructure and psycho ...
Can living near a national border have an effect on the politicization of individuals? To answer this question, this article challenges the results put forward by some European Border Studies scholars granting the border a major role in the construction of ...
Hydropower has a long tradition in Europe, contributing significantly during the first half of the last century to the welfare and industrial development of most countries across the continent. Today, reaching nearly 650 TWh of annual generation in an aver ...