Editos

The pandemic seems to have put everything on hold: the arrivals of migrants in Europe, their movement between Member States which have closed their borders, even the exercise of the right of asylum in countries such as France, which have gone as far as to close its registration offices for asylum seekers. And almost the debate on these issues. The decline of the epidemic is a good time to take stock.

Here is a welcome bumper crop of articles and information about the part that cities, in both France and the rest of Europe, are playing in receiving and integrating refugees. By obligation, sometimes, for those cities at the external or internal borders of the Schengen area, but often by choice, now by cities who organise themselves into networks in order to do so.

European Insights wanted to take an in-depth look at legal channels for admission into Europe, which are often discussed but not always defined.
The following articles aim to shed light on the required distinctions and common characteristics of these mechanisms, and to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Cities, towns and organisations have been working to host and integrate migrants and refugees in both France and Germany since 2015.  They now want to work more closely together, share their experiences and play a larger role in directing European policy…

2018 has given us three different takes on Europe’s position on the Mediterranean situation. Paradoxically, the one which comes closest to our shared European values came from the United Nations, with the UNHCR-IOM proposal about a “regional disembarkation mechanism” in an aim (as yet unrealised) of organising the reception for migrants rescued at sea…

For two years now, France terre d’asile has regularly published Opinion pieces on Europe and asylum. In reaction to what we believe to be less of a refugee crisis and more of a reception crisis….