Greek coast guard officer tries to calm Syrians who are part of the the largest refugee flow the continent has seen since World War II.Thanassis Stavrakis \/ Press Association. All rights reserved. The refugee
\nand migrant crisis is a highly sensitive political topic in the European
\nUnion. Commentators use different terminologies. Many European media outlets, politicians and officials argue that
\nmany (or most) migrants who are arriving in Europe are actually economic
\nmigrants, rather than refugees requiring international protection. According to
\nthis line of thought, it is more accurate to talk about \u2018mixed flows\u2019 rather
\nthan flows of refugees. <\/i><\/p>\n
While it is
\ncorrect to say that not all migrants are refugees, data of the United Nations High
\nCommissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
\nshow that 82% of the arrivals by sea to the EU in 2016 come from the world\u2019s
\ntop-10 \u2018refugee producing countries\u2019. Nearly half of 172,945 people who reached
\nthe EU by sea from 1 January until early April 2016 come from Syria, another
\n23% from Afghanistan and 14% from Iraq. Children make up 35% of the total and
\nwomen another 20%. As the UNHCR claims, \u2018the vast majority of those attempting
\nthis dangerous crossing are in need of international protection, fleeing war,
\nviolence and persecution in their country of origin\u2019. <\/p>\n
Arguments
\nhighlighting that current migrant flows in the Mediterranean are \u2018mixed\u2019,
\nwithout further qualification, oversimplify an issue that is overwhelmingly
\nhumanitarian. Different sources of data, such as the number of asylum permits
\ngranted by national authorities, may be quoted in support of claims that the
\npercentage of economic migrants is higher than that which can be derived from
\nUNHCR analyses. However, we can reasonably presume that the UNHCR receives less
\npolitical pressure than national immigration authorities when assessing the
\nnature of the phenomenon. <\/p>\n
National immigration authorities in the EU are more
\nlikely to be affected by the policies of the respective national governments,
\nwhich are now focusing more on curbing the influx of migrants and refugees
\nrather than on humanitarian considerations. Evidence of this focus is provided
\nby the deal that the EU and its member states have made with authoritarian Turkey
\nto curb migration flows, regardless of the fact that Turkey is not a safe country of
\nasylum for refugees from Syria,
\nIraq, Afghanistan, and other non-European countries.<\/p>\n
Furthermore,
\nsweeping references to migrant flows as being made up of \u2018illegal\u2019 migrants \u2013
\nanother refrain of mainstream European politicians, officials and commentators –
\nmisses the point of the need to seek international protection. The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees recognizes that people may have to enter a country where they seek
\nprotection illegally and should not be penalized for this. UNHCR data shows that
\nmost of the people in question are highly likely to be in need of international
\nprotection, hence it is beside the point to label them on the basis of how they
\narrive to Europe.<\/p>\n
Following
\nthe terrorist attacks in Paris, it has become fashionable to portray migrants
\nas a security threat, despite the fact that most perpetrators of the Paris
\nattacks were EU citizens and had already lived on EU territory for years. Willingly or unwillingly, this thinking conveys the idea that a
\nterrorist, or at least a security threat, may be hidden behind every migrant.
\nBesides being grossly incorrect, this approach plays into the hands of extremists
\nwho are eager to describe the current crisis exclusively as a security issue.
\nIt also serves the purposes of external actors who presumably want to use
\nmigrants as a \u2018weapon\u2019 to destabilise the EU.<\/p>\n
A
\nthoughtful analysis should deconstruct narratives portraying migrants as a
\n\u2018weapon\u2019 and identify them for what they are: people looking for international
\nprotection or, at most, better living conditions. Moreover, it is
\nimportant to stress that \u2013 as Europol Director Rob Wainwright
\nargued in February 2016 \u2013 \u201cThere are
\nno concrete indications that terrorists are systematically using the stream of
\nrefugees to come into Europe undetected\u201d. An informed view will also
\nacknowledge the responsibility that many EU member states carry for causing or contributing
\nto the destabilisation of the countries of origin of the refugees. This applies
\nboth to the \u2018recent\u2019 wars fought by some European countries (i.e. in Iraq from
\n2003, in Libya in 2011) and to the heavy, long-term heritage of colonialism and post-colonial
\npolicy.<\/p>\n
There may
\nbe many reasons why media, officials and politicians stress the security
\nimplications of the current crisis and the alleged economic motivations of
\nmigrants. Some politicians may want to easily gain electoral support by stirring
\nup fear. Similarly, some media are keen on playing the \u2018fear card\u2019 in order to
\ndraw a broader audience. Furthermore, some security officials may be eager to
\nchannel the debate in ways that highlight the merits and role of their
\ninstitution, or have an \u2018over-securitised\u2019 perspective because of their
\nprofessional focus. While it is important to hear different opinions and
\nsources of information, it is even more important to subject them to scrutiny
\nbased on the most reliable data and debunk the increasing trend of securitising
\nhumanitarian and migration issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greek coast guard officer tries to calm Syrians who are part of the the largest refugee flow the continent has seen since World War II.Thanassis Stavrakis \/ Press Association. All rights reserved. The refugee and migrant crisis is a highly sensitive political topic in the European Union. Commentators use different terminologies. Many European media outlets,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}