Analysing the causes of the refugee crisis and the key role of Turkey : why now and why so many?

In this paper, I seek to explain the causes of the massive migratory flows from Turkey to Greece since August 2015. The context of conflict and regional turbulence in the Middle East, together with several events taking place at the beginning of 2015, in which Turkey was directly or indirectly involved, triggered in August the unprecedented refugee crisis that we are still witnessing today. These events led to a sea change, in the period of the 9th to the 14th of August, in the Turkish position towards refugees and in the Syrian refugees’ willingness to wait in Turkey till the end of the war in Syria. The intersection, during these days, between Turkey’s decreasing interest in receiving and controlling Syrian refugees within its territories and the increasing motivation of a significant number of Syrian refugees to leave Turkey, sparked the beginning of the current refugee crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean route. Finally, I will argue that this refugee crisis has accelerated the EU-Turkey accession negotiations in an unprecedented way, and at the same time has increased the leverage power of Turkey.Funded by the European Research Council (ERC) within the 7th Framework Programme, the BORDERLANDS project is hosted at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, and directed by Professor Raffaella A. Del Sarto

Fortress Europe? : porous borders and EU dependence on neighbour countries

First published online: 2 January 201

Containing the refugee crisis : how the EU turned the Balkans and Turkey into an EU borderland

Published online: 10 Nov 2017The events that took place during the 2015-16 refugee crisis in the southeastern EU region boosted unprecedented bordering processes. Borders were reinforced and extended and a costly and difficult deal with Turkey was undertaken; the western Balkans were turned into a vast buffer zone made up of multiple buffer states with fences of all types and sizes; while Greece was ring-fenced and to this day struggles to manage thousands of refugees stranded in camps all over its territory. By seeking to contain the refugee flows, the EU turned its southeastern region into a fortified EU borderland

Empowerment through migration control cooperation : the Spanish-Moroccan case

Defence date: 8 June 2016Examining Board: Professor Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute; Professor Anna Triandafyllidou, European University Institute, RSCAS; Professor Sandra Lavenex, Université de Genève; Professor Hein de Haas, University of Amsterdam.In EU migration studies, sending and transit states' compliance with destination states' migration control policies is often explained as the result of the EU and the member states successfully wielding pressure and persuasive bargaining power. This thesis argues that sending and transit states do not cooperate because they are persuaded to do so by the superior power and are subject to pressure exercised by the EU member state, but because of a long bargaining process between the two countries in which bilateral, multilateral, geopolitical factors and bargaining strategies all play an important role. Migration control cooperation cannot be understood by just analyzing the relations between the EU and its neighbourhood countries, but instead needs to be analyzed in the terms of bilateral relations and the influence of linkages, interdependence relations and embedded processes between EU members and neighbour states. Moreover, by examining the terms and factors of migration control cooperation between such pairs of states, I demonstrate how the latter can enhance their bargaining position by cooperating strategically and conditionally. Through an in-depth analysis of over twenty-five years of the Spanish-Moroccan migration control cooperation I explain the reasons of Moroccan (non-) cooperation over certain periods of times, geographical areas and measures, as well as the structure of the terms of their collaboration. The findings prove that Morocco has instrumentalized migration in order to obtain bargaining power. In other words, through migration control cooperation Morocco has gained power in economic, political, diplomatic, and regional terms. By applying a strategic conditional cooperation on migration control, refusing to implement certain migration control tasks, using the interdependence framework in its favour, taking advantage of the international context and implementing a successful bargaining strategy, Morocco has over the years become a key partner for Spain and the EU with a strong and privileged bargaining position in the North-African, Mediterranean and international arenas

Tragedies in the Mediterranean : analyzing the causes and addressing the solutions from the roots to the boats

In the wake of the April 19 tragedy in the Mediterranean, in which more than 900 migrants died when the boat taking them to Italy sank, politicians and experts from across Europe were swift to give their analysis of the causes of this dramatic event. In most cases, the geopolitical instability in Libya and Syria was held up as the cause, and a range of immigration policies were suggested to prevent the deaths of other migrants in the Mediterranean. After meetings and negotiations, the European Union agreed on a 10-point action plan on migration to address the urgent situation in the Mediterranean. This primarily consists of implementing migration control measures, such as the reinforcement of Joint Operations in the Mediterranean (namely Triton and Poseidon), or military operations to destroy boats used by smugglers, and it concentrates most of its efforts in two geographic areas, Libya and the Mediterranean. However, the analyses offered so far have overlooked two key elements for understanding the root causes of the tragedies and to propose effective and lasting solutions. This article reassesses the tragedies in the Mediterranean in terms of these two key elements. First, the need to analyze the push-factors of flows of irregular migration and asylum-seekers in the Mediterranean from a global and international perspective. To this end the present analysis takes into account not only the geopolitical context in the Mediterranean and Africa, but also traces the migratory routes from the Mediterranean back to their origin. Second, the analysis of the repeated tragedies has mainly focused on immigration and EU migration policies, but not from the perspective of international relations and EU foreign policy. In other words, there has been very little discussion about the likelihood that migratory flows currently targeting Europe via the Mediterranean may be a direct or indirect result of the decisions and inactions of the EU and its member states in relation to conflicts and tyranny in Africa and the Middle East. I argue that an approach based on a foreign policy perspective is needed (rather than an approach based exclusively on rigid and security-based immigration policies) in order to consider possible measures to prevent continued tragedies in the Mediterranean

The leverage of the gatekeeper : power and interdependence in the migration nexus between the European Union and Turkey

First published online : 24 October 2016In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey reached an agreement seeking to end the refugee flows from Turkey to Greece. This agreement is the outcome of a bargaining process in which Turkey gained considerable leverage from its position as a ‘gatekeeper’ situated between Syria and an increasingly ‘immigration-averse’ and securitised EU. More importantly, this bargaining process might have broader implications for the EU and its relations with its periphery, since Turkey has progressively reversed the asymmetries of power by demonstrating the indispensability of its continued commitment to act as gatekeeper vis-à-vis an increasingly fragmented and anxious EU

La crisis de los refugiados

La crisis de refugiados por la atraviesa Europa mostró las debilidades y flaquezas de la Unión Europea. Por tal motivo, la opinión pública europea está en una disyuntiva: apoyar sin miramientos un derecho universal o ensimismarse en una autocomplacencia identitaria. Por si fuera poco, la crisis de los refugiados en Europa tiene su origen en el conflicto en territorio sirio. Elena Sánchez-Montijano y Jonathan Zaragoza-Cristiani plantean el dilema de Europa de apoyar sin miramientos un derecho universal o ensimismarse en una autocomplacencia identitaria