European Migration Governance

Abstract

This article discusses the need for an ethical code for states in international migration management (IMM). IMM is interpreted as an ethical context characterized by moral dilemmas, insofar as it is difficult to irrefutably know if the decision to “allow entry” or “deny entry” of people is good and right. This calls for an applied ethics approach drawing a normative map in a world in motion, and then for an ethical code of practice regulating state behavior at three levels: admission policies, diplomatic relations with sending states, and inter-European state relations. The discussion is framed within the current five-year strategy of the EU Stockholm Programme and the migration polices of European states.