Unintentional insecurity: the effects of the EU’s asylum regime on humanitarian migration
Date
2017-08-31
Authors
Cranwell, Bradley M.
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Abstract
This thesis assesses the unintended consequences of the European Union’ asylum regime. The structure of the asylum regime arguably burdens the Member States along the external border with responsibility of humanitarian migrants seeking international protection more than Member States to the north. As a result, the Member States on the external border pursue security measures of migration control to deter migration from their borderlands, consequently creating human insecurity. The question this thesis seeks to answer is as follows: How has the EU’s asylum regime resulted in unintended consequences of human insecurity and ultimately become a catalyst for human rights infringements? By reviewing the dimensions of insecurity, migrant immobility and rightslessness, I answer this question by arguing that migrant insecurity is a common phenomenon within the EU asylum regime as there is a tendency to pursue security measures that prevent migrants from obtaining regularized status within his or her chosen Member State. In a time when the nexus between migration and security is a prominent feature in decision-making by state actors, reviewing measures of migration control is important to see the creation of insecurity. The thesis reviews the relevant concepts of the field, the make up of the asylum regime and how it consequently creates instances of insecurity and finally reviews Spain as a case study of Member States along the external border.
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Political Science, Migration, asylum, asylum seekers, borders, europe, European Union, human rights, humanitarian migration, insecurity, irregular migration, Mediterranean, Migration, policy, security, spain