The political vision of Europe during the ‘refugee crisis’: missing common ground for integration

Abstract

This article analyses imaginaries of political decision makers of the European Union in the context of the 'refugee crisis' and interprets them according to theories of European integration -neofunctionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism. Speeches, interviews, statements and press releases of the 28 heads of state and government and two Commissioners are analysed through a qualitative content analysis. The aim of the article is to derive prospects for European integration from the imaginaries. We found that the European imaginaries expressed by the largest group of heads of state and government remain blurred without clarification which position is taken on European integration, while the imaginaries expressed by the Commissioners are mainly characterised by support of further integration. Our interpretation of the European imaginaries suggests that the prospects for further integration remain limited according to neofunctionalism, but are higher following liberal intergovernmentalism. In policy fields that are directly related to the management of the crisis further cooperation can be expected.

Refugee Students in Spain: The Role of Universities as Sustainable Actors in Institutional Integration

“…Learning Spanish is a process that will make life much easier if I stay in Spain. [Igor, PhD Student, Complutense University; from Ukraine] However, respondents expressed frustration with the specific details of course content and design, which they often saw as being at odds with the aim of providing them with active language-learning opportunities that will allow them to communicate effectively in both spoken and written Spanish [53].…”

Enhanced local-level willingness and ability to settle refugees: Decentralization and local responses to the refugee crisis in Norway

“…The refugee crisis underscored the interrelationship between the local, national, and global levels, showing that local responses to the global refugee crisis matter-despite the incomplete refugee governance at EU level found by other studies (Morsut & Kruke, 2018;Scipioni, 2018;Wolf & Ossewaarde, 2018). Further, the local-level management of the crisis helped to make the role of the municipalities more explicit as autonomous actors in questions of integration, with a tendency towards decoupling of policies between the local and the national levels.…”

“…However, as Schiller and Hackett (2018) note, little is known about the local dimension of migration policymaking in crisis contexts. More studies have focused on the supranational level, examining the incomplete EU crisis governance of the 2015 refugee influx (Morsut & Kruke, 2018;Scipioni, 2018;Wolf & Ossewaarde, 2018).…”

Transforming the European Migrant Crisis into Rural Developmental Opportunities: The Case of Latvia

“…The European migrant crisis has persuasively been accentuated as the most momentous challenge that the European Union has witnessed since its establishment in 1993 (Poddar, 2016). The magnitude of this migration crisis is been amplified by political instability in the Middle East, wars, limited economic opportunities, and climate change (Wolf & Ossewaarde, 2018;Upadhyay, 2016). In accordance to the estimate put forth by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), 59.5 million migrants are currently displaced.…”

“…The European Commission has equally donated a staggering €2.1 billion to the same course, making the "migrant crisis" the largest humanitarian relief project. Additionally, €500 million was allocated to the Syrian Trust Fund; €1 billion was disbursed to the Turkish Facility for Refugees; while €1.8 billion was also allocated to the Emergency Trust Fund in Africa to mitigate the root causes of migration (European Commission, 2016;Chardon, 2016;Wolf & Ossewaarde, 2018). Besides the European Union, researchers in religious organisations and NGOs have waded into the non-ending migrant crisis.…”