In person icon Nudging Protection Seekers Elsewhere as a Responsibility Avoidance Strategy Within ‘Fortress Europe’

Abstract

The ways in which the European Union (EU) and its Member States repel protection seekers have been well documented in recent studies on bordering and externalisation. At the same time, less research has scrutinised the implicit or explicit efforts of some Member States to propel migrants already residing on their territory to leave and seek protection elsewhere within ‘Fortress Europe’. Such efforts have grown rapidly over the last years in Southern European countries like Greece, Cyprus and Malta. What is more, recent evidence suggests that they have also been deployed in Western European countries such as the Netherlands. This has led to the resurgence of heated discussions around ‘secondary movements’ of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection, and has reignited decades-old conflicts between Member States on the issue of migration governance. This panel contributes to empirically illustrating, conceptualising, and analysing the increasingly audacious ways in which some EU Member States ‘nudge’ different groups of forced migrants elsewhere (e.g., Greece nudging beneficiaries of international protection forward to Western Europe, Cyprus nudging protection seekers around the different de jure and de facto jurisdictions of the island, etc). By tracing the origin, manifestation, and consequences of such ‘nudging elsewhere’ practices, the panel fills an important research gap at a time of crucial changes in migration governance in the EU, such as the recent adoption of the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the revised Schengen Borders Code. In terms of empirical contribution, it shows how ‘nudging elsewhere’ further undermines the already embattled Common European Asylum System and negatively impacts migrants’ access to protection and rights. Theoretically, the panel contributes to the literature on migration governance in Southern Europe and the EU, secondary movements, border control, and autonomy of migration.

Title	Details
The Greek Trick: ‘Nudging Forward’ as a Novel Strategy for Governing Migration at EU’s Periphery	View Paper Details
Nudging Migrants Around: Forcing Secondary Movement Across Jurisdictions in the Context of a Frozen Conflict	View Paper Details
(Im)mobile Islanders: Forced Migrants’ Experiences of Onward Movements from Malta	View Paper Details
Dutch Deterrence and Asylum Seeker Resistance Under the Dublin Regulation: Challenging the Focus on Southern Europe	View Paper Details
Nudging Forward in Italy and Greece: Legality, Legitimacy and Band-Aids Under the Asylum Pact and the Schengen Borders Code	View Paper Details