Since the beginning of the year, thousands of migrants have been trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach the EU shores, with a spike of crossings never seen since 2015.
While Italy and the other European southern nations are trying to cope with the emergency, the EU struggles to harmonise the diverse approaches among state members to tackle the crisis, underlining once again how the current migration policies are not providing any solution to the rising issue.
Trying to shed light on these complex trends, last April, the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) hosted the conference “Building a Future-proof Europe for Migration” to address all the multifaced topics the EU has to determine to clinch a historical trend in a changing world. The conference interviewed some of the most prominent stakeholders within the EU institution and spokespersons of relevant players in the European humanitarian sector.
Here is an overview of the interventions by the speakers:
Lawrence Hart, the Director of IOM Italy and Malta said that the political discussion is often focused only on sharing the burdens of the migration paths, but there are other points to underline. For instance, the success of the national economy and the contributions the migrants give to the hosting countries or the multiculturality that they bring to the private sector boost innovation and competitiveness. According to Mr Hart, the migrant issue is more a matter of perception than of the numbers. As a reference, in 2022 there were 500 thousand Ukrainians welcomed in Europe with no concern, while 100 thousand illegal migrants have been seen as a threat. “We often focus on the challenges of the migrations rather than successes,” he said.
Beate Gminder, Deputy Director-General in charge of the Task Force Migration Management DG Migration and Home Affairs at the European Commission, said that in 2020 a nine-rules package on migration has been proposed: “We have now the chance to agree before the next European Parliament election. Actions have been decided already at the highest level” she added.
Matteo Villa, a Senior researcher at ISPI, underlined how “projection estimates that the immigration from Africa has been stabilizing in the last five years and for the next years at around 200 thousand units yearly.” On the opposite, Mr Villa said, ISPI models show that in the next decades, the African population will get older with less willingness to emigrate to Europe, while there will be more migration trends inside African nations. ISPI, according to Mr Ville, estimates that the immigrant from Africa living in Europe will go up from 2% to 3.5% by 2050 while the European population will shrink.
Andrew Geddes, Director of the Migration Policy Centre believes that diversity, integration, and inclusion are becoming divisive topics within the European Union. Mr Geddes underlined how in the last 20 years immigration policies within Europe have seen the economic development as a key factor. Thus, according to Mr Geddes, skilled immigration will be the main factor that will drive European policies on immigration and will shape the future of immigration in the continent.
Hanne Beirens, Director of Migration Policy Institute Europe, believes that although the optimism of the EU Commission, it will be hard to get all the member states on the same page on migration. According to Ms Beirens, in the EU there is a sense of urgency and emergency on migration as a top issue to tackle as soon as possible but at the same time, there are many points that remain unanswered such as the position on the protection of vulnerable, the role of migration for the labour shortage, the role of third countries in a changing world that see migration paths increasing dramatically.
Alberto-Horst Neidhardt, Interim Head of the European Migration and Diversity programme and Senior Policy Analyst, European Policy Centre, said that to convince nations outside the EU to help us achieve European goals in terms of migration “the economic measure and incentives for third countries could be a great way to achieve this.”
Gerald Knaus, Senior Associate Research Fellow and Chairman of European Stability Initiatives said that the German govt is committed to addressing migration in the broader way possible within the EU but “Europe is divided as never before on migration with several countries saying that the push-back policy is the most effective.” Mr Knaus believes that Europe is divided between a hard approach and a more humanitarian policy towards migrants. “We must open a legal and orderly path to immigration to stop illegal immigration and the market behind it” he underlined.
Alena Kudzo,Vice President, Policy and Programming, GLOBSEC, convinced that the Central European countries think that the EU’s generosity on migration is being abused. “They agreed in terms of solidarity with the rest of Europe but the methods are way different from the ones adopted by the other countries” Ms Kudzo pointed out. She also specifies how the main approach to migration for CEC is a combination of strict border control, deterrence, and application for visas in third countries, and that’s why ‘there cannot be a compromise with other countries right now.”
Grammenos Mastrojeni, Deputy Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean and expert on migration and climate change, underlined that extreme weather events “do not fuel migration” but instead push for a short range of movements. “What does push migration is the uncertainty of weather patterns and the impossibility to organize human activities in an orderly manner (such as agriculture.) When you call about climate change you can’t talk about migration because migrants are not people who are poor, or at least they are not that poor to not contemplate even emigrating in search of a better life” Mr Mastrojeni said. He also believes that climate change and migration is not the main reason behind the migration path because, under a certain level of income, “people affected by climate change would move just for a short distance.”
Among the other speakers, Paolo Magri, ISPI Executive Vice President and Antonio Villafranca, Director of Studies and Co-Head, Europe and Global Governance Centre.
Final thoughts
Considering the increasing number of crossings and deaths in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean, MOAS stressed the importance of implementing #SafeandLegalRoutes to prevent the loss of migrant lives embarking on dangerous routes. MOAS also advocates for a consistent and more human-based approach to the topic and calls for a long-term political solution at a European level.