Migration

How can we account for the perception among Slovenia’s general population that migrants pose a threat?

By playing upon fears linked to social insecurities and loss of national identity, as well as threats to national security, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán seeks to position himself as the sole protector of his nation.

Slovenia was changed by the first waves of refugees passing through in 2015. Its centre-left government has followed, rather than led, public opinion.

Since 2015, more than one million asylum seekers have entered Europe. Of these, roughly 250,000 have come to the Nordic countries, prompting them to reassess their immigration systems and services.

Mass migration is the 21st century’s revolution – leading, in turn, to a counter-revolution which threatens the core idea of the European Union. The refugee crisis has resulted in the reinforcement of stereotypes that Eastern and Western Europe already held about each other.

The Green Observatory provides a round-up of perspectives on a current political issue from the Green European Journal’s partners around Europe. This edition focuses its lens on the so-called ‘refugee crisis’: how is this crisis perceived and does the perception at all correlate to facts? Are the new EU proposals responding to the situation and are EU member states willing to shoulder each other?

We find ourselves living in a society where increasingly our actions and our right to freedom of cross-border movements – or lack thereof – are being constantly monitored, both physically and digitally. But as we enter the surveillance age, forms of digital civil disobedience are fighting to go beyond these new borders and to protect our scrutinised values and movements, and our right to privacy.

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 shadow looms over Europe. Everywhere, new borders are sprouting up overnight like mushrooms.

For Turkish citizens, entering and traveling within the EU can be a frustrating struggle, with many bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. Although this state of affairs seems a great injustice, the prospect of easier access for Turks to countries within Schengen seems fraught with difficulties – both linked to Turkey’s turbulent domestic politics as well as the increasingly uncertain state of the EU’s internal borders.