Towards an ever “closer” union? : Refugee Policy and Social Cohesion in Eastern EU Member States

• Introductory paragraph: In the grand chessboard of refugee politics that has spooked Western Europe since the first “migration crisis” broke out in the mid-1980s, a new opening has appeared with an ominious sign for the future of the Union. A schism has occurred between “old” and “new” Europe following the policy chaos that occurred with the mass arrival of Syrian refugees. On the one hand, Western EU (WEU)1 governments have been willing to welcome refugees as illustrated by Angela Merkel's unilateral decision to suspend the Dublin Regulation on the first country of entry and give blanket asylum to Syrian refugees. On the other hand, Eastern EU (EEU) leaders from the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and the Visegrád Group (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) have refused to receive these refugees. Hungary, for example, rushed to build a fence along its frontier with Serbia and at times blocked their onward travel to Austria and Germany. In 2014, while acceptance rates for refugees hovered around 77% in Sweden, they fell as low as 24% in Latvia (IRIN 2015). For countries that must equitably apply the same regulations, this gap is astonishing.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Internationell migration och etniska relationer (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- International Migration and Ethnic Relations (hsv//eng)

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