Refugees

In a rational world, security threats might boost European integration, given their cross-border nature. Today’s Europe, however, is different.

A circulation of misinformation can have far-reaching implications, and can influence not only the European Union’s relations with Russia and its neighbours, but also its own internal process of integration.

It would be an illusion to believe that irregular migration will come to an end as a result of the legally dubious deal agreed between EU leaders and Turkey on 18 March 2016. Instead, we should recognise that migration is a natural human phenomenon, which has to be managed as such, and reform the dysfunctional EU framework on asylum and migration.

A crisis point has emerged, whereby the figure of the ‘irregular’ migrant is seen as both a security threat to the European Union (EU) and its borders and as a life that is itself threatened and in need of saving by the EU and its agencies.

“The Baden-Württemberg flying green carpet has landed in the middle of society.” These were the words uttered by Winfried Kretschmann in his speech following the victory of the Greens in the German land, a remarkable feat given the odds against them and the current trends playing in favour of the far-right. However, elsewhere in the country, the picture is somewhat different…

Music has an immense capacity to bring people together and foster cultural understanding. Case studies from the UK show us how entire new musical genres have emerged from the encounter of different musical traditions, and how the cultural landscape of a nation can be enriched thanks to the influence of migrant communities and diasporas.

The idea of Europe becomes much more than simply an idea when people, overcoming the uncertainty – if not outright hostility – of states, act according to borderless solidarity.

Confronted with the obscene images that have been reaching us ever since the influx of refugees entered new dimensions in the summer 2015, we may wonder: why is it that Germany behaves with much more dignity and efficiency than France, let alone the UK or Hungary?

Over the past year, Europe, besides the economic crisis, has had to face another big challenge: the largest refugee flow since the Second World War.

National borders are a reality – and for most people, they are something that is taken for granted and indeed necessary.