The North African Revolutions: A Chance to Rethink European Externalization of the Handling of Non-EU Migrant Inflows

48 Pages Posted: 17 Jul 2012

See all articles by Mason L. Richey

Mason L. Richey

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Date Written: February 16, 2012

Abstract

In this paper I discuss EU and member state externalization of the handling of non-EU migration flows. I begin with a discussion of the migration consequences of the 2011 Maghreb revolutions, which provoked an EU migration policy crisis. Then I show how this was an outcome of the ineffectual and strategically incoherent nature of EU immigration policy, which is incorrectly criticized as a well developed non-entrée regime that skirts human/immigrant rights obligations by externalizing interdiction, detention, and processing to countries with lower detention standards and higher human rights abuse rates. Lastly I demonstrate that when such externalization policies are enacted, they are less due to EU action and more a function of member state decisions. I show that EU periphery member states are responsible for the most problematic policies in part because of constraints on EU-level policy-making that lead these member states to erect 'Fortress Europe' through their own devices.

Keywords: immigration, Europe, North Africa

Suggested Citation

Richey, Mason L., The North African Revolutions: A Chance to Rethink European Externalization of the Handling of Non-EU Migrant Inflows (February 16, 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2109199 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2109199

Mason L. Richey (Contact Author)

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies ( email )

270 Imun-dong Dongdaemun-gu
Seoul, 130-791
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

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