The heightened arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants on European shores in 2015–16 sent policymakers
across the continent scrambling for new strategies to manage migration. Proposals to reform the European
Union’s legal framework for asylum were the first out of the starting blocks but, several years later, no
such agreement has been reached. And with new EU leadership having taken office in late 2019, Brussels
is hungry for fresh ideas that will either revive or reform the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
Crucial to this search will be a recognition that, while deficiencies still plague Europe’s asylum systems, these
systems have changed significantly since the onset of the migration and refugee crisis—even in the absence
of legal reforms
