Refugee Crisis and Migrations at the Gates of Europe: Deterritoriality, Extraterritoriality and Externalization of Border Controls

Abstract

The refugee crisis has shaped a new perception of the migration reality in Europe. The ramifications of its impact on European integration are visible and enduring. The EU's response has included a certain strategic perspective, albeit weighed down by an excess of eurocentrism and a security perception that does not take third countries' interests into balanced account. The major economic effort being made supports a far-reaching strategy, only now beginning to be outlined, to promote economic development in the countries of origin and transit of migrants. Additionally, issues such as the monitoring of respect for migrants' human rights have not yet been suitably globally defined in this strategy. Although the behaviour and response capacity of the EU and its Member States can be assessed in different ways, the truth is that the migration debate has decisively swayed a block of countries that are openly reluctant to engage in intra-European solidarity and accept the new realities and responsibilities entailed by the refugees already present and yet to come to Europe. This position is very negative in the medium and long term, since, as noted, the crisis has also underscored the permanence of migration trends and flows and the consolidation of the routes or gates of entry to Europe. This contribution considers the vulnerability of the European borders designed and in operation in the Schengen Area. The internal borders were the most affected at the start of the migration crisis and are likely to be marked by current regulatory changes, which tend to allow exceptionality as a relatively common occurrence in the European 'federal' area of free movement. Nevertheless, the resilience of this system of the absence of internal border controls in the 'federal' area of free movement is undeniable.