The European Union Humanitarian Aid Policy and Migration to Europe: New Challenges, New Commitments

Guest post by Dr Francesca Pusterla. Francesca holds a doctorate in political science (PhD) awarded by the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Geneva. Currently collaborating with Ca’ Foscari – the University of Venice, she has previously been a Research Assistant at the Department of International Development (SOAS, University of London – United Kingdom). In the framework of international relations, her research interests lie in the area of the European Union’s external activities and, more specifically, of its humanitarian aid policy and international development and migration studies. This is the ninth post in Border Criminologies themed series on'Everyday Violence and Resistance in Europe’s ‘Migration Management’ During the Covid-19 Pandemic', organised by Marta Welander and Dr Susanne Jaspars. 

The EU and its member states are increasing their efforts to prevent people from migrating to Europe. This is mainly focused on the containment and control of the number of incoming migrants and asylum-seekers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to border controls, the EU humanitarian assistance now plays a role to this end, as also reflected in the European Commission’s new Communication ‘on the EU’s humanitarian action: new challenges, same principles’. However, the measures intended to control migration risk slip into different types of violence against migrants. This may occur in three forms: individual, national and European. These types raise questions on the perception of migrants’ inflow by EU citizens, the national political reaction, and the EU level implications. Moreover, it raises the question: does migration management entail protection for migrants or from migrants?

Individual violence: Migration and the narrative of a ‘crisis’

In the past few years, the EU and its member states coined the term ‘European migration crisis’ to refer to the inflow of migrants and refugees. This expression has been contested because it reinforces a narrative of exceptionality and extreme vulnerability to which the EU and its member states would be exposed. This (mis)representation of the inflow of migrants as a crisis for Europe dramatically influenced the reaction of EU citizens, rapidly turning from empathy towards migrants to suspicion and even hostility. The political and media fury thus impacts the first form of individual violence against migrants. Migrants, therefore, lose their voice, individuality, have no way to tell their stories or frame their culture of belonging and reasons for their departure. Except in rare situations, migrants are often considered a general category without particular distinctions between the specific personal stories of each migrant. They are thus addressed as ‘a a crisis’ potentially threatening European stability. EU citizens feel more exposed and vulnerable since the exceptionality of the ‘crisis’ has intruded upon the political discourse in the EU member states, as well discussed in the work by Anna Stilz. Incoming migrants are somehow presented as harmful threats for local inhabitants, therefore praising the defence of their territorial sovereignty. Press and media have contributed to this misrepresentation of the crisis by exacerbating negative feelings. Unfortunately, the effects are not limited to political discourse but influence policies and open the door to further institutionalised violence. How does this concretely apply to national political violence?

National violence: Vulnerability and protection

Significantly, the feeling of mistrust among European citizens has facilitated the adoption and acceptance of emergency measures and becomes the second form of violence; or the national level. The boasted state of exception due to the alleged risks for national security due to the inflow of migrants influenced national policies, which turned the priority of protection for asylum seekers to an overreaction of protection from migrants. Governments are called on by their citizens to adopt firm management and even refoulment measures. Violence occurs through legal and physical barriers to access the EU territories at the EU external (see, e.g. Italy) and internal (e.g. between Italy and France) borders. It also includes dissuasive and obstructing legislation to migrants’ welcoming and integration (e.g. difficult mobility within single states and physical attacks by private citizens and organisations). The first violent political reaction to migrants is border management. The way migrants are rescued and welcomed reflects the later possibility for integration. In this sense, member states have been building a wall, showing a significant tightening of their policies. This entails a shift from search and rescue scope to protection and control. Migrants pass from being subjects of protection to objects of control and refoulment. This form of violence – de facto depriving migrants of attention to their personal and particular conditions – permeates national migration policies and, more or less indirectly, the orientation of EU policies. A telling example is the failure of the Mare Nostrum operation in favour of the Triton operation. The latter, firmly criticised by activists, human rights groups and also by some politicians is primarily an operation to intercept and block migrant vessels and gives up the search and rescue soul of Mare Nostrum. A second relevant aspect of this shift is the centralisation of the operation from national (Italian) management to the European one. Mare Nostrum was an Italian operation, while Triton is coordinated by Frontex, has a military dimension and is centralised within the EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The result? Violence against migrants shifts to a third level or the European.

European violence: scope and principles of EU coordinated actions

Violence at the European level develops around the controversial concept of solidarity. Solidarity should be one of the core values of the EU and a precise engagement for member states to promptly respond to adversities, promote the common good and face adversities together, each becoming stronger through unity and solidarity. Yet, solidarity has recently stumbled from one crisis to another, and the so-called migration crisis is a case in point. The centralisation of migration management at the EU level has been experiencing ups and downs in recent years. Though member states found common ground in Europe to manage migration, internal tensions were common. The adoption of measures to contain migration by EU policies that, until then, were just marginal (e.g. humanitarian aid policy) and the poor results of the 2015 relocation schemes are a clear example of such tensions.

The EU and the member states are now also trying to prevent migration through humanitarian aid policy by intervening directly on departures and control on countries of origin. But the prevention mechanism through an external, Humanitarian Aid, rather than internal policy, Migration and Asylum, seemed more intended to keep migrants out EU borders than reduce the need for people to move. This transpires once again in the need to safeguard specific national interests, thus exercising implicit violence on people in need and the common European humanitarian and solidarity principles. Concretely, what does the violence against migrants consist of? Not duly considering the real specific and personal needs and situations of single migrants and not correctly framing the social, political, environmental and economic deteriorated conditions that forced their migration. Consequently, the prevention of migration intended simply as a countering and limiting mechanism increased the level of violence against migrants and, contemporarily, the level of threat perceived by EU’s citizens.

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How to cite this blog post (Harvard style) 

Pusterla, F. (2022) The European Union Humanitarian Aid Policy and Migration to Europe: New Challenges, New Commitments. Available at: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2022/03/european-union [date]