Europe’s Refugees

(Bloomberg) -- Europe tore down borders after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Then a flood of refugees in 2015 fleeing wars on its doorstep triggered Europe's biggest wave of displaced people since World War II and a crisis that put some of those fences back up. Years later, the political fallout continues with populist governments in countries such as Italy taking a hard-line stance on refugee arrivals. The 27-member European Union is deeply divided over how to handle asylum-seekers escaping conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. The rift has raised questions about the EU’s commitment to its passport-free zone — one of the bloc’s crowning achievements — as leaders squabbled over balancing moral and legal obligations with anti-immigrant sentiment.

The Situation

An upsurge of violence in Syria’s nine-year civil war raised fears of a new wave of refugees into Europe in early 2020. The conflict threatened to undermine a March 2016 deal between the EU and Turkey that largely halted what had been an uncontrolled flow of asylum-seekers smuggled onto Greek islands from the Turkish coast during 2015, when more than 1 million migrants arrived. The figure fell to about a third of that number in 2016. Many applied for asylum in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy hurt her popularity at home. Political tensions erupted again in June 2018, when Italy refused to let boats with more than 600 mainly African refugees dock, forcing them to head to Spain instead. To cope with the surge in 2015, Germany, Sweden and other countries temporarily reintroduced some border controls, while Hungary, Slovenia and Macedonia erected fences along sections of their borders. Terror attacks in Europe hardened resistance to a plans to redistribute asylum-seekers across the bloc. 

The Background

Historically, more people emigrated from Europe than were received, as they headed to the Americas. World War II left as many as 20 million Europeans displaced. During the Cold War, western European countries took in refugees from the Communist East, though those people would often move on. That began to change in the 1990s with the dissolution of the Soviet bloc and the reunification of Germany. The disorderly break-up of the former Yugoslavia forced more than 400,000 people to seek refuge outside its borders. The scale of the current refugee crisis in the Middle East and North Africa, however, is unprecedented in recent times. The United Nations estimated that about 18.8 million people in those regions were displaced by violence in 2016. Once refugees reach the EU, they can generally travel freely. The bloc abolished checks at most internal borders in 1995 and now 26 nations are part of the passport-free Schengen area. Under the EU’s Dublin Convention, refugees are supposed to apply for asylum in the first nation they enter. But many don’t want to remain in an overwhelmed Greece or other Balkan nations, and press ahead to richer countries. Syrians made up the largest group of refugees arriving in Greece, joined by Iraqis and Afghans who were also escaping violence. Turkey still shelters more refugees than any other nation.

The Argument

Politicians from France, Germany and other European countries warn that the challenges posed by Europe's refugees could weaken or even split their union. In 2015, then European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker pointed out that Europeans of all nationalities were forced to emigrate at some point in history, including those in eastern Europe now opposed to a resettlement system. Some leaders, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, are using the issue to marshal nationalist support at home. They are feeding on concerns that the refugees, who are mainly Muslim, could bring crime and terrorism as well as higher unemployment rates to an EU still reeling from a debt crisis. Nationalist parties have gained support in elections as their candidates questioned whether Europe can withstand waves of refugees. Germany has led the effort for greater EU oversight and burden-sharing while also pushing for swifter deportation of people who don’t qualify for asylum.

The Reference Shelf

• The International Organization for Migration produces detailed reports on arrivals and deaths. 
• Eurostat data on the number of asylum seekers arriving in the EU and where they came from.
• A Bloomberg View editorial on how Europe should share the burden of the migrant crisis, and an opinion piece from Leonid Bershidsky on migrant arrivals in Italy. 
• The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR's 2016 report on displaced people. 
• Bloomberg News Q&A on Europe’s refugee crisis and a BBC guide.
• The website of Frontex, the EU agency for managing external borders, has maps and statistics about migrant routes.
• Bloomberg News QuickTakes on political asylum.
• "The Optician of Lampedusa," a book by Emma Jane Kirby, chronicles a rescue of refugees from the sea. 

To contact the editor responsible for this QuickTake: Leah Harrison at lharrison@bloomberg.net

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