EU announces asylum reforms
The European Commission has laid out proposals for reforms of Europe’s common asylum system, including options to allocate asylum applicants among EU member states.
Under current rules, known as the Dublin regulation, asylum seekers must apply to the first EU country they arrive in.
However, last year, German chancellor Angela Merkel announced that all Syrian refugees coming to Europe would be eligible for asylum in Germany.
Other European countries have reintroduced border controls in the wake of the migrant crisis, in contravention of the EU principle of freedom of movement.
The Commission has proposed two alternative solutions: either to amend the Dublin regulation by introducing a “corrective fairness mechanism”, or to replace it entirely with a new system that allocates refugees more evenly across the EU.
The Commission also intends to end so-called “asylum shopping” by requiring refugees to remain in their assigned EU country.
Announcing the proposals, Frans Timmermans, the First Vice-President of the Commission, said that the migrant crisis had shown Europe’s existing asylum system to be unsustainable, and had “placed too much responsibility on just a few Member States.”
He commented that: “In the immediate term we have to apply the existing law to stabilise the situation. Beyond that, we need a sustainable system for the future, based on common rules, a fairer sharing of responsibility, and safe legal channels for those who need protection to get it in the EU.”
Dimitris Avramopoulos, commissioner for migration and home affairs, commented that: “While the EU will continue to invest in its workforce and address unemployment, Europe also needs to enhance legal and safe channels for people who come into the EU, whether it is for protection or to work.”
Tim Hatton has written about the Common European Asylum System for IZA World of Labor. He argues that: “The most realistic option would be to first set the central policy to obtain the optimal number for all the countries together and then to reallocate asylum-seekers to obtain the ‘right’ number for each country. The deeper policy integration that this would require is more feasible than is sometimes believed.”
Meanwhile, Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga has written an article asking whether market mechanisms can solve the refugee crisis. He writes that: “A way to distribute refugees efficiently, while respecting their rights, is to combine two market mechanisms. First, a market for tradable refugee admission quotas that allows refugees to be established wherever it is less costly to do so. Second, a matching system that links refugees to their preferred destinations, and host countries to their preferred types of refugees. The proposal is efficient but has yet to be tested in practice.”
The European Commission communication can be read in full here.
Related articles:
Setting policy on asylum: Has the EU got it right? by Tim Hatton
Can market mechanisms solve the refugee crisis? by Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga
Find more IZA World of Labor articles on migration policy