The U.N. High Commission for Refugees estimates that 300,000 people
have crossed the Mediterranean into
Europe this year and 2,500 migrants have lost their lives in the crossing
attempt. With the current migration trend unlikely to reverse itself any time
soon, politicians across Europe need to act fast to agree on new policies to
stop the deaths and agree on a long-term solution to the migration crisis. The
push factors behind migration to Europe -- war, state persecution and poverty,
as well as lack of economic opportunities in much of Africa and the Middle East
-- will continue to persist in the decades to come.
The recent deaths of 71 migrants in the back of a
lorry in Austria serves as a
reminder that the misery and tragedy of the migrant issue is no longer
contained on the periphery of the Europe on the islands of Lampedusa and Kos.
It has arrived in the heart of the continent.
In the absence
of a common EU migration policy, each country currently fends for itself. In
light of the events so far this year and the projections for
the years to come, politicians across Europe need to accept that an
EU-wide migration management strategy is desperately needed: no country can
solve the current and future migration challenge by itself. They also need to
share the burden of migration fairly between countries -- an idea strongly advocated by
German chancellor Angela Merkel, and put on the table by a group of
MEPs in July.
One suggestion would be to implement a common EU-wide asylum
system with standardized humanitarian criteria whereby refugees can have their
asylum claim processed in an EU member state embassy outside EU territory.
Prospective asylum seekers would be enabled to claim asylum before they arrived
in EU territory, thus eliminating the need for hazardous clandestine migration
across the Mediterranean as well as saving state resources in respect to
repatriating unsuccessful asylum seekers.
Refugees would
then be fairly distributed across the 28 EU member states. An EU extraterritorial asylum system would help refugees with a legitimate
asylum claim and cut out the human smugglers. However, so-called economic
migrants would still have to resort to clandestine migration in order to reach
Europe.
Introduce a lottery
In order to
provide these economic migrants with a legal migration route, the EU could
follow the lead of the United States, which has a green card lottery that
enables a fixed quota of 50,000 green cards (proof of permanent residence) to
be given to labor migrants from a list of countries that have low migration to
the U.S. (countries that have already contributed 50,000 in the last five years
are excluded). Applicants have to submit their application online, and if they get
a notification telling them they have won the "lottery," they have to
present their documents and pass an interview in a U.S. embassy, before being
given the right to remain in the US.
Although
undoubtedly unpopular with domestic electorates, a common EU visa lottery
system could focus on Asia and Africa -- and those countries with a high
migration pressure to the EU. It would provide a legal gateway for so-called
economic migrants to formalize their employment in Europe and alleviate some of
the migration pressures on Europe's southern borders. This system would also
enable them to invest their capital into the European economy instead of
handing it to the organized criminal gangs.
Cutting out the human smugglers
All EU countries
have signed the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees and are obligated to grant any person the right to claim asylum within
their national territory. In order to claim asylum, migrants have to reach
European territory first. Instead of forcing migrants to resort to human
traffickers to get to an EU members state, European countries need to enable
migrants to apply for asylum in the EU from their country of origin. Human
smugglers make billions every year off Syrian, Eritrean, and Iraqi refugees
wishing to cross to Europe in order claim asylum.
At the same time a significant number of migrants claiming
asylum in Europe are not fleeing persecution and war but instead poverty and
unemployment. These economic migrants use and by default clog up the asylum system
because it constitutes the only available legal route to Europe. A US-style
green card lottery -- with a real chance of winning -- could help the asylum
system focus more on the refugees.
Although
economic migrants are a politically contentious issue with voters, there need
to be legal ways for labor migrants from Africa and Asia to come and work in
Europe. As it stands, employers' demand for unskilled and semi-skilled workers
in the low-pay sector throughout Europe acts as a pull factor for economic
migrants wishing to escape poverty in their home countries. The lack of
appropriate legislation for unskilled and semi-skilled labor migration
throughout Europe has created a void that is currently filled by organized
human smugglers.
The current
legal framework on immigration and asylum in Europe is a relic of the 20th
century, shaped by cold war politics and decolonization. In the era of
globalization EU member states need to institutionalize a common, flexible, and
comprehensive legislation that can facilitate international migration according
to regional economic demand while simultaneously maintaining our humanitarian
ideals. The current patchwork of 28 different national immigration legislations
across the EU achieves neither.
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