Migration and asylum policy

Abstract

Mobility in a broad sense - including migration and displacement - has been a concern for politicians, civil society organizations, and the public in the European Union (EU) for decades. The influx of numbers of asylum seekers and migrants since 2015 not only led to logistical challenges to receiving refugees and processing asylum cases in a number of EU countries, but also intensified conflicts between and within member states. In 2018, the Special Eurobarometer 469 presented EU citizens' attitudes toward the integration of immigrants. A majority grossly overestimated the number of undocumented migrants residing in their country: Almost half of the respondents (47%) believed that the number of undocumented migrants is about the same or even higher (29%) than the one of legally staying migrants. The anti-migration discourses are not congruent with the realities in Europe. European and international refugee and asylum policies are deeply entangled. © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Gabriele Abels, Andrea Krizsán, Heather MacRae and Anna van der Vleuten; individual chapters, the contributors.