Migration and the EU Global Strategy: Narratives and Dilemmas (original) (raw)

Abstract

Migration did not figure in the European Security Strategy of 2003. Never mentioned as a threat, it was not even mentioned as a risk. Thirteen years later, migration is widely cited in the new European Union Global Strategy. Much richer than the previous security document and global in aspiration, the Global Strategy treats migration as a challenge and an opportunity, recognising the key role it plays in a rapidly changing security landscape. However, this multi-faceted perspective on migration uncovers starkly different political and normative claims, all of which are legitimate in principle. The different narratives on migration present in the new strategic document attest to the Union's comprehensive approach to the issue but also to critical and possibly competing normative dilemmas. The launch of the European Union Global Strategy (EUGS) suffered from "bad timing". 1 The result of the 'leave or remain' referendum in Great Britain held in June 2016, which was interpreted as a setback for the European Union (EU), called into question not only the 'appropriateness' of issuing a (global) strategy, but also the very meaning of the European Union as an exemplary and appealing regional integration project. Few commentators have noticed, though, that the words emphasizing the "internal challenges" of the Union were also meant to underline the deep repercussions of the "refugee crisis" on the EU and its member states. 2 Statements, such as "we live in times of existential crisis […] our Union is under threat […] our European project is being questioned" or "never has our unity been so challenged" 3 aptly describe the internal crisis generated by the EU's inability to face the huge migration inflows it has been experiencing over the last three years. Remarkably, it was just a few months before the release of the EUGS that the European Commission admonished several member states for having "resorted to reintroducing temporary internal border controls, placing in question the proper functioning of the Schengen area of free movement and its benefits to European citizens and the European economy". 4 1 See for example Tocci, "Interview with nathalie Tocci".

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