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What can we expect of border screenings and faster asylum processes at the EU borders? What can be achieved by legal pathways? Can resettlement frameworks prevent secondary refugee movements to Europe? How fair is a reception system based on “vulnerability”?
Online press conference, Tuesday, June 6, 15.00-16.00 CEST | In-person background briefing, Thursday, June 8, 10.00-11.00 CEST, Brussels.
Berlin/Brussels: European policymakers are lauding the promises of migration management more than ever before. The European Commission’s Pact on Migration and Asylum is expected to facilitate more effective management of the EU borders. German government officials are discussing migration in terms of a problem to be tackled at the EU borders. In Belgium, government officials issued similar calls, while also asking for more solidarity among the EU member states in guaranteeing refugee protection.
Policymakers, it seems, wish to “manage” migration but at the same time ensure standards of protection and rights to migrants. To bridge this gap between rigid border policies and humane asylum laws, a seemingly useful category has established itself in the legal system: “vulnerability”.
“Vulnerability” has been seen as a promising way to distinguish in migration law between those who “deserve” protection and those who may be rejected.
“Policy makers are relying on ‘vulnerability’ so they can be tough on borders while also humanitarian,” says Luc Leboeuf, an expert in international migration law. Leboeuf coordinates the VULNER project, carried out by an international research consortium which has examined how asylum and migration laws affect the lives of migrants in Europe and beyond. “Vulnerability’ is the promise of an easy framework to identify those in need of protection and to develop laws and policies that account for these needs, but in practise, it also contributes to rendering the system less efficient and generating additional administrative burdens – which does not solve the deeper issues Europe is facing.”
Join the VULNER press conference to hear about the policy implications of the VULNER research results
with research coordinator Luc Leboeuf (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, and UCLouvain, Belgium) and Cathrine Brun (Centre for Lebanese Studies).
Online press conference (GDPR compliant zoom license) on Tuesday, June 6, 15.00-16.00 CEST.
Additionally, journalists are invited to an in-person background briefing
with Luc Leboeuf, Sabrina Marchetti (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice) and Cathrine Brun
In-person background briefing on Thursday, June 8, 10.00-11.00 CEST, Representation of Saxony-Anhalt, Etterbeek, Brussels.
What can we expect of border screenings and accelerated asylum processes at the EU borders? What can be achieved by developing legal pathways? Can EU resettlement frameworks prevent secondary refugee movements to Europe? How fair is a reception system based on the “vulnerability” factor? What does the VULNER project recommend in terms of policy?
Register here: https://survey.demogr.mpg.de/index.php/196254
About the VULNER project:
The VULNER project was funded by the EU’s Horizon-2020 research programme. Over the course of three years, VULNER researchers carried out a systematic analysis of relevant court cases and legislation, as well as 657 interviews with civil servants, social workers, legal professionals, NGO employees and migrants. VULNER research highlights how “vulnerability” is defined on paper, assessed by asylum authorities, and how this differs from migrants’ own experiences. It also showed how migrants are put into situations of vulnerability by the asylum/migration systems themselves.
The outcome is 10 key messages, each with concrete policy recommendations, concerning the asylum process, housing policies, social workers’ working conditions, and more.
Find the newly published Policy Handbook here: https://www.population-europe.eu/research/discussion-papers/better-policies-and-...
The briefings on June 6 and 8 will be ahead of the final conference of the VULNER Project. Over the past three years, VULNER research has combined expertise from law and anthropology to investigate the limits of using “vulnerability” to identify and address the protection needs of migrants in Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Norway, and Uganda. Researchers, policy makers, NGO representatives, including from the UNCHR, the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA), and the European Federation of Public Service Unions, will meet in Brussels to discuss the project’s findings and recommendations on 8-9 June.
Contact us below if you would like to attend the conference.
Some of the VULNER results:
1. Research in Germany, Italy, Belgium and Norway show how the asylum reception system can worsen migrants’ situations, such as physical and mental health issues. Especially the working conditions of social workers matter greatly in this.
2. In Uganda being identified as “vulnerable” gives refugees resettlement prospects to Europe. Here, researchers learned how refugees are put in the position of “advocating” for how “vulnerable” they are. The system forces them to compete to demonstrate suffering, rather than helping them in achieving self-reliance on the long term.
3. In Canada, researchers documented how the immense bureaucratic and administrative hurdles of gaining temporary visas can lead to perpetual insecurity and fear. This applies especially when they are attached to specific employers.
4. In all countries, research showed that migrants’ situations and the operationalization of migration laws and policies would improve if authorities increased transparency about the asylum processes and collaborated more with migrant communities and civil society organisations, in view of reaching a deeper understanding of migrants’ realities.
For more information about the VULNER project or to arrange for interviews with researchers, please contact Peter Weissenburger, Population Europe: weissenburger@demogr.mpg.de, +49 (0) 30 2061 383 33
http://Register for the press briefings here: https://survey.demogr.mpg.de/index.php/196254
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