The EU and the migration crisis: reinforcing a security-based approach to migration?

Abstract

The EU has long treated migration questions as issues of security within its normative and policy responses; the EU seeks to protect the external borders of the EU from outsiders rather than looking at the issues of those outsiders. In spite of a more recent rhetoric speaking of a comprehensive approach to migration, this chapter argues that this is simply a rebranded security based approach. The chapter argues that in creating the military crisis management operation EUNAVFOR Med, the EU has increased its security focus and only furthered this approach. It furthermore argues that not only does this fail to address the current issues in the area of migration, but it has its own problems particularly when considering the risks of breaches of international norms and the difficulty in ensuring accountability of actions.