Europe’s new wecome mat
The European Parliament reached agreement today on a new set of asylum rules. The agreement caps a three-year effort, as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez put it, “to have an improved, more humane, and better coordinated management of our frontiers and migration flows.”
The human influx reaching Europe has frayed unity between countries of entrance and the remaining members of the 27-nation European Union. The new framework seeks a balanced and unified response that adheres to the bloc’s founding values of equality, rule of law, and defense of individual dignity.
Some numbers illustrate the challenge. The EU has registered more than 355,000 irregular border crossings into the bloc this year, an increase of 17%. The total number of asylum-seekers could top 1 million. According to the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 2,500 migrants have died or gone missing while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea – 50% more than last year.
Amid this human flow, Europe is drifting further from its democratic center – although finding a causal link between those two trends requires some caution. Support for some populist hard-right parties has risen above 20% in four of the bloc’s five most populous countries and is gaining in at least a dozen more. In France this week, attempts to make President Emmanuel Macron’s immigration bill more palatable to the hard right have threatened to break apart his ruling coalition.
Yet among ordinary Europeans, anti-immigrant messages may have only limited appeal. The most recent surveys by Eurobarometer found that only 31% of those asked said migration was a top-four concern, while 69% support their countries investing in programs to help immigrants integrate.
The five new regulations agreed to today would expedite asylum claims, mandate health screening for migrants, and set up facilities for more efficient deportation. Their centerpiece is a burden-sharing arrangement between countries such as Italy, Greece, and France and other EU members farther north or inland. Those countries could elect to accept migrants or pay into a fund to help “entry” states cope with the influx.
Human rights groups were quick to decry the reforms today, charging that they will result in detention camps, rapid expulsions of people back into dangerous conditions at home or in transit countries, and infringements of personal privacy. They say they were hastily adopted ahead of June 2024 European Parliament elections that could see greater gains for far-right parties.
The new rules still face several hurdles. The drafters hope, however, that they will result in better cooperation between the E.U. and its neighbors. With a common framework and "a perspective of listening, not lecturing," said Manfred Weber, leader of the European People's Party, Europe and "transit" states like Albania and Tunisia may help migrants find safer passage with dignity and compassion.
