The EU׳s Regional Refugees Approach: A Double-Edged, but Promising Approach (original) (raw)
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Contemporary Security Policy, 2019
Building "resilience" to insecurity and crisis is high on the European Union (EU) agenda. EU uptake of this buzzword is especially significant with regard to migration and forced displacement. Uncertainty, however, remains about what resilience is, how it translates into practice, and what its implications are. In this article, we analyze EU humanitarian and development policies and provide empirical insight into resilience-building in Jordan and Lebanon. We show that EU resilience thinking highlights strengthening the humanitariandevelopment nexus, responsibilizing crisis-affected states, and framing refugees as an economic development opportunity for refugee-hosting states. We also find that how resilience translates into practice depends on the local context and interests of the actors involved. For the EU, resilience-building is primarily a refugee containment strategy that could jeopardize the stability of refugee-hosting states. We conclude that resilience-building in Jordan and Lebanon may ultimately threaten rather than safeguard the security of Europe. KEYWORDS Resilience; European Union; humanitarian aid; development; migration; forced displacement Almost nine years into the Syria crisis, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has registered over 5.6 million Syrian refugees (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2019). Although many have made the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to reach Europe, most refugees remain in Syria's neighboring countries, notably Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. The European Union (EU) has taken up migration and displacement as key security challenges in the 2016 EU Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy. In particular, the EU has turned to building the
Dirāsāt, 2023
The study aimed to identify the dilemma of resilience for the donors and the hosts in response for the Syrian refugee crisis in the case of Jordan and the European Union (EU) and how Jordan and the EU attempt to tackle it. Methods: The study was conducted and built primarily upon textual analysis of secondary data of various texts from official European and Jordanian websites, news reports, and scholarly literature on resilience, as well as document analysis of different EU-Jordan official policies including their bilateral and multilateral agreements to trace the goals for Jordan and the EU within these policies ,the shift towards resilience as a priority for the EU, the new mechanisms and tools the EU uses to build resilience in Jordan, and how it might be a better strategy, at the same time, dilemma for them both. Results: The results of the study showed that resilience may appear as a dilemma; however, the EU and Jordan are working to resolve it through focusing on its bright side. More importantly, its role in preserving Jordan's social cohesion and its stability makes it a better security strategy than providing humanitarian assistance. Conclusions: The study recommends the need for strategies to enhance resilience in both Jordan and the EU. Jordan can boost exports to the EU by raising awareness about the rules of origin scheme, especially among remote area industries. The EU should find a balance between its humanitarian and political efforts in the region.
Democratization, 2021
Under what conditions does the EU contribute to the prevention of governance breakdown and violent conflict in areas of limited statehood and contested orders by fostering societal resilience? This study seeks answers to this question by examining the EU's effectiveness in fostering societal resilience in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey while they have coped with risks emerging from cross-border mobility, mass influx, and prolonged stays of the forcibly displaced due to the Syrian crisis since 2011. The study argues that the EU has been constrained in building societal resilience. The findings suggest that the EU's effectiveness is limited by context-specific social, political, and economic risks in host countries; divergence among policy actors’ often contradictory preferences; and the impact of the EU's policies in outsourcing management of forced displacement. The study concludes that the EU needs to link the implementation of its short-term pragmatic programmes that primarily enable state resilience in crisis contexts with its long-term liberal vision for fostering high level societal resilience with democratic principles and institutions.
Democratization, 2021
Under what conditions does the EU contribute to the prevention of governance breakdown and violent conflict in areas of limited statehood and contested orders by fostering societal resilience? This study seeks answers to this question by examining the EU's effectiveness in fostering societal resilience in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey while they have coped with risks emerging from cross-border mobility, mass influx, and prolonged stays of the forcibly displaced due to the Syrian crisis since 2011. The study argues that the EU has been constrained in building societal resilience. The findings suggest that the EU's effectiveness is limited by contextspecific social, political, and economic risks in host countries; divergence among policy actors' often contradictory preferences; and the impact of the EU's policies in outsourcing management of forced displacement. The study concludes that the EU needs to link the implementation of its short-term pragmatic programmes that primarily enable state resilience in crisis contexts with its long-term liberal vision for fostering high level societal resilience with democratic principles and institutions.
REFUGEES FROM SYRIA IN EUROPE How Effective are the European Responses
Aya Bejermi, 2015
The armed conflict in Syria has resulted in a massive influx of refugees and displaced persons in the Middle East region. Not only has it affected the initial Syrian population but also the communities that lived in the Syrian territory such as the vulnerable community of Palestinians. My dissertation addresses the question whether the European Union (EU) and its Member States have responded effectively to the major refugee crisis of the 21st century. Immigration and asylum have become topical subjects in the sui generis entity. The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) is the most powerful regional instrument on asylum but in a context of increasing euroscepticism, I argue that the EU response did not take the protection of refugees from Syria at stake. My dissertation expands on the notion of border and freedom of movement within the EU. Most of the Member States have not opened their door in proportion with the number of Syrians asylum seekers. I analyze the range of responses and focus on the practices of some Member States towards Syrians and Palestinian refugees. Despite a clear need of international protection, the responses towards the refugees from Syria differ greatly. I conclude with recommendations to adopt in order to improve such gaps between EU MS and enhance the cohesion of the EU in asylum matters.
The Refugee Crisis Affecting Eu Foreign and Security Policy
IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences, 2016
The conflict in Syria has started the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Syria is a country with around 22 million people, from this number with the start of the Syrian civil war, 200,000 people have been killed including 8000 children, 7.6 million are internally displaced people, 3.2 million are refugees and 12.2 million people are in need of humanitarian aid. These enormous numbers have had an impact not only on the neighboring countries of Syria like Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey but also the impact was enormous on the European Union countries and on the international community. The critical challenges and the areas of intervention from the international community and the EU are legal and physical protection, providing shelters, health, education and employment for the refugees. These are not the only obstacles of the refugee crisis there is the economic, political and social and the security pressures. For all these obstacles the solutions are, all the EU countries should work together to help the refugees with the creation of improved legal and institutional framework for asylum and migration, the EU must resolve the inadequacies of Dublin that regulates the entry of migrants and redefine the human rights implications and also reinforce the security policies in order to stop or prevent the emergence of nationalist or racist movements and terrorist attacks.
Syrian Refugees in Neighboring Countries: A Complex Predicament with No Immediate Solution
LUGARIT, 2024
This article analyses the Syrian refugee crisis in neighboring countries, emphasizing the complex political, economic, and social dynamics that hinder sustainable solutions. It explores the Syrian regime's reluctance to facilitate the return of refugees, the regional challenges faced by host countries like Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, and the limited influence of international actors such as the European Union. The article argues that addressing the refugee issue in isolation is futile without a broader political agreement and highlights the potential for localized solutions to improve conditions for refugees and host communities. The Syrian refugee crisis is depicted as a multifaceted challenge that remains unresolved, requiring concerted efforts for meaningful progress.
The current refugee crisis is one of the most acute issues in Europe, and has become a serious problem. It stems from the Arab Spring movement from December 2011, which resulted in many regional upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), most importantly the on-going Syrian civil war. The eruption of civil war in Syria drew sectarian and terrorist conflict into the country from neighboring Iraq, attracting regional intervention by Turkey and Iran and global involvement by the US, Russia and their allies. The result is that millions of people have fled their homeland to live in neighboring countries, but the unsafely of the whole region, particularly Syria and Iraq due to the advance of Daesh from 2014, has caused most refugees to attempt to move to Europe to avoid the Palestinian trap of living as stateless persons in refugee camps for decades (Independent, 2015).
How Syria's neighbours and the European Union are handling the refugee crisis
The Syrian refugee crisis is shaping up to be the largest of its kind since the Second World War. Large numbers of Syrians are fleeing persecution and the gross violations of human rights that have characterized a civil war already raging for four years. The spillover effects are far-reaching and cannot be ignored by the international community. The present article plans to examine how the most affected countries are coping with the influx of refugees inside their borders. How does the European Union fare in comparison with Syria's neighbours? Is the EU the best place for Syrian refugees?