Migrattion Threat to EU Security: Prejudices and Realities

Abstract

The article analyzes the complex interface between the phenomenon of migration and the security of the European Union and its member-states. The migration crisis in Europe, which began with the Arab Spring in 2015 and continues to this day, is truly one of the most important existential challenges for the EU. This crisis is overlapped with other fundamental problems facing the European Union, contributing to the securitization of migration and asylum issues. In the absence of an effective EU strategy in this direction, there remains the danger of radicalization of European societies and, therefore, a threat to the entire integrationist project. The process of globalization has supplemented some of the traditional functions of the state, first of all, such as protection of its territory and political independence, with new functions that are associated with the obligation to ensure economic independence, cultural identity and social stability. Securitization of migration usually has several dimensions: socio-economic problems (unemployment, the growth of the black economy, the crisis of the welfare state and the deterioration of the urban environment); the growth of securitarism in the EU member-states (when migrants are viewed as a threat to the national identity and demographic equilibrium of the host society); and political challenges as a result of the nexus between external and internal security caused by the terrorist threat. In addition to traditional challenges, there emerged a fairly new phenomenon – instrumentalization of the migration problem, namely the use of migrants by the third countries as a means of pressure on the EU member states in order to achieve certain political or economic goals. The new Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces a number of undeniably positive provisions for the European Union. Nevertheless, the document has been criticized by the EU individual countries, as well as by public and human rights organizations. This situation can be explained by the fact that in modern Europe, security interests and values are in a moral conflict with each other, which presents the main challenge to the future of the European project.