Is Flexible Solidarity the Answer? Public Launch of MEDAM Report on Asylum and Migration in Warsaw
On the occasion of the publication of the “2018 Assessment Report on Asylum and Migration Policies in Europe“, prepared by experts from the Mercator Dialogue on Asylum and Migration - MEDAM, CASE hosted a public debate in Warsaw. Speakers included Mathias Luecke from the Kiel Institute, Mikkel Barslund from the Centre for European Policy Studies and Paweł Kaczmarczyk from the Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw. Discussion was moderated by Vice President of CASE Management Board, Izabela Styczyńska. The event was one of a series of public debates promoting the report organized by MEDAM researchers all over Europe; apart from Warsaw, events were held in Berlin, Florence, Brussels, Vienna and Budapest.
Authors of the report underline that while the refugee crisis is no longer as severe as two or three years ago, Europe still needs to implement a coherent policy to tackle the migration issues. In the publication, they therefore offer suggestions of most relevant policies that should be introduced and present analysis of those already under implementation. In doing so, they convey 10 major messages:
- Importance of flexible solidarity, as opposed to ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
- Need for more resilient solutions to management of migration flows developed with third countries.
- Need for increase in opportunities of legal employment offered to citizens of African countries.
- Based on the analysis of the situation in Germany, it appears that impact of presence of large numbers of refugees on host country citizens’ income is minimal.
- Policymakers should avoid and prevent securitization of the migration crisis.
- They should also facilitate socio-economic integration of immigrants.
- While irregular migrants claim they understand risks associated with irregular travel, they tend not have false image of their prospective incomes in their destination countries.
- Population growth and economic situation is the main driver of migration in Africa – but most of it is and will continue to take place within the continent.
- Development aid is not necessarily going to reduce the migration flows.
- Refugees’ economic integration in low- and middle-income host countries can be facilitated through trade preferences.
During the event, two of the report’s authors dr. Luecke and dr. Barslund present stressed that the main result of their research and therefor the main message of the report is clear: closer cooperation and more flexibility and solidarity are crucial to successful management of migration flows to and within Europe.
Introduction and main messages
Read more about the MEDAM project: http://www.medam-migration.eu/en/
