European (Dis)integration and the Migration Challenge

This Section brings together two themes in the study of European politics that have been shaping both the notion of international society in Europe, and domestic visions of political community. On the one hand stands the theme of unravelling EU solidarity and of undermined commitment to Europeanization, linked to the economic crisis, enlargement, and the democratic deficit of EU policy making. On the other hand stands the rise in intra-EU, third-country, regular and irregular migration and the challenges it has posed to fragmented political communities, to economies under austerity, and to a discordant EU leadership. The Section explores the way these two themes speak to each other. The assumption this Section starts from is that migration is linked in important ways to the faltering political consensus on the benefits of EU integration. Both intra-EU and third-country legal and illegal migration have dominated European politics agendas in the past decade, starting from the post-9/11 security concerns, going through the large-scale enlargement in 2004, and ending with the current asylum-seekers influx. At the same time, the European project has had to deal with some of the biggest challenges in its history (currency crisis compounded by economic crisis, legitimacy deficit and a democratic deficit in a EU28, as well as an Eastern and Mediterranean neighbourhood torn by instability and conflict). The aim of this Section is to interrogate the links between the migration problematique and EU responses to these challenges, and to examine their impact on European integration – and disintegration. The Section is especially interested in theoretical accounts of the correlation between disintegration and migration that engage with scholarship on political community, nationalism and identity building. This, however, does not preclude Panels and Papers with an explicit empirical weight from participating, as long as their perspective remains comparative. The Section plans to include Panels and Papers that interrogate the dynamics of disintegration and the pressures caused by migration from the perspective of EU harmonization (internal market, asylum, borders), from the perspective of national politics (national responses to migration and crisis, including the opening up of various 'domains of insecurity'), and from the perspective of popular political agendas (combining Euroscepticism with anti-migration rhetoric). The Section proposes to have three Panels, suggesting the below as reference points: 1. (Un-)doing EU Migration Governance in Time of Crisis: the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), Schengen, borders, problems, prospects. The aim of this Panel is to focus specifically on EU's ambition to create a common migration regime: freedom of movement of EU citizens as well as a common refugee framework. Did the EU attempt a normative overstretch? Are the challenges linked to the context of economic crisis and political instability? Or are they linked precisely to the policy area of migration and its normative imperatives? Is the vision of common migration governance sustainable given the context of crisis? Can the normative challenges against the CEAS and against the free movement of EU citizens be addressed or is migration simply too tricky to fully harmonize? 2. Riding Old and New Migration Faultlines against the Background of Europe: national responses to migration challenges, the post-communist divide, frontline states versus the rest, welfare rich/ welfare poor, etc. The aim of this Panel is to investigate European differences in terms of migration governance and what they tell us about European integration's relevance to national politics. Do we have Europeanization of migration governance? What has the impact of the EU been on national narratives, policies, practices? One possible avenue for investigation here is comparing members and non-members in Europe, and comparing old and new members, in terms of responses to migration, narratives of crisis, and compliance with EU rules. Another possible investigative avenue is addressing specific migration concerns (asylum, economic migration, work and student visas, family reunification) and how they have played out across the EU. The overall focus is on the relevance of the EU to erasing or perpetuating differences in the patterns of migration and responses to it. 3. Securitizing Europe, Securitizing Migration, And Political Contestation: moving both Europe and migration into domains of insecurity, the mechanisms of this move, and the consequences of it. The aim of this Panel is to examine the place of security, with its embeddedness in visions of identity and political community, in the problematique of migration in Europe. One possible interest would be the dynamics of (de)securitization itself. Another would be technologies of populism engaged by anti-Europe/ anti-migration political platforms. Yes another interest of this Panel would be the negotiation of specific migration related policy areas (e.g. the political economy of welfare migration) in security terms, and in view of the EU. The overall focus is on the technologies of political contestation that positions both Europe and migration into a domain of insecurity. Section Chair: Dr Nevena Nancheva Nevena Nancheva is Lecturer in Politics, International Relations and Human Rights at Kingston University. Her main research focus is on Europeanization and nationalism. She has published on national minorities, migration and asylum in Europe, including a monograph on national identity narratives in the Balkans which has just come out with the ECPR Press. Section Co-Chair: Dr Radu Cinpoes Radu.Cinpoes@kingston.ac.uk Radu Cinpoeş is Head of Department of Politics and Senior Lecturer in Politics, Human Rights and International Relations at Kingston University. Growing out of his interest in nationalism and the politics of exclusion, his research has recently focused on two complementary directions: migration, mobility and refugee issues, on the one hand, and issues concerning discrimination and intolerance, on the other. He has published on the extreme right, nationalism, European identity and Romanian politics. His current research project investigates agential reflexive mediation of structural conditionings and the role of social networks in the context of transnational mobility.