Since 1980s, a number of factors caused an overall enhancement in the number of persons applying for asylum in Europe. This rapid increase in asylum applications and the end of the ideological gains towards refugees with the end of the politicized Cold War environment, necessitated European countries to re-focus on their immigration and asylum policies in a more systematic manner, especially after the ratification of the &lsquo / Single European Act&rsquo / . Following the transfer of competencies in asylum and migration to the Community level, discussions were quickly moved within a European framework although harmonization of divergent national practices about an issue directly related to state sovereignty, has not been deemed as a troublefree task for the Member States. On the other hand, the acquis regarding this problematic and state-centric issue has already started to be transferred to the Applicant Countries for the EU membership, as part of the pre-accession strategy, and also to the third countries through bilateral agreements. This thesis work will focus on the concerns regarding the extension of these European asylum acquis to the third countries as well as on the advantages of creating a Common Asylum Policy within the Union and its Associates.

The main aim of this research is to holistically analyse the content and critically assess the development of EU’s ‘Common European Asylum System’ (CEAS). It is pursued in three consecutive steps. The research first offers a deeper understanding of the CEAS, a notion that despite its centrality to EU’s asylum policy lacks a precise definition. This gap forms the natural starting point of this study. The study advances its own substantial understanding, which includes the modes of implementation of the policy. Hence, it retraces the main modes of implementation in the initial policy design. As a second step, the research focuses on a principle that should be central to the design and implementation of this policy, the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility. It argues that this principle unsettles the initial administration paradigms. The third step is to analyse an element that has not been explored so far by legal literature, namely the administrative governance of CEAS, as it pertains to its implementation. On this basis it examines the institutionalisation of practical co-operation, people-sharing arrangements and EU funding. It is a study of the European administration in action in the area of asylum. I critically assess the adaptations made to the policy design since its inception, including those catapulted by the so-called refugee crisis. On this basis, the research proposes potential avenues for the future development of the asylum policy. / Doctorat en Sciences juridiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

As the most popular destination country for migrants and refugees in the EU since the end of World War II (MPI, 2004), Germany has a history of refugee inflows. In this thesis I focus on the different factors that led to asylum policy change in reunified Germany, from liberal since 1945 to restrictive, after the end of the Cold War in 1992, with the 1992 amendment of Article 16 of the German Basic Law. The study of the factors that account for German asylum policy change is important to understand the future of German asylum policy, and potentially provide a model of asylum policy change in other countries. In this study, I analyze German public opinion that seems to have been affected by large migrant inflows and the declining state of the economy. I argue that electoral pressures by the German public contributed to political party platform changes and asylum policy change. I use data from Eurobaromeer surveys, the World Bank, and the Migration Policy Institute to describe the refugee inflows and the state of the German economy, and how these may have contributed to public opinion, as reflected in Eurobarometer survey results. I examine German political party platforms and campaign tactics based on secondary literature, such as scholarly articles and studies, as well as political speeches and statements. I also consider Germany’s membership in the EU as a factor that may have affected the change in German asylum policy. Germany’s membership in the EU may have been used as a form of leverage by the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), to pressure the Social Democratic Party (SPD), to compromise on asylum policy restrictions, as Germany’s constitutional right to asylum impeded the implementation of EU asylum policy provisions. The findings of my research suggest that German public sentiments may have affected Germany’s political party platforms. Evidently, the SPD, aligned its political platform and policy agenda to align with the changes in the German electoral context and gain electoral support. Also, Germany’s position as a founding member of the EU, may have contributed to the compromise on German asylum policy change, because the right to asylum as explained in Article 16 of the constitution, withheld Germany from utilizing the EU’s asylum procedures and policies, until Article 16 was amended in 1992.

The thesis analyses the evolution of the common European immigration and asylum policy and its similarities or dissimilarities in comparison with the Spanish national immigration and asylum policy. This comparison has been made by using the theoretical base of Europeanization. This concept means bringing the European dimension down to the level of national states. I have come to the conclusion that the EU has an influence mainly on the external part of immigration policy which means above all the protection of the borders of Schengen area. On the other hand, there are areas such as granting permanent residence to the immigrants varies significantly in the EU member states. The process of europeanization does not have a clear and unified influence on domestic immigration and asylum and other domestic policies.

Germany was, is and will be an immigration country. We talk about an asylum policy since the reunification of Germany in 1990. Germany needed immigrants during the whole 21st century, on the other hand struggled with fear of their negative impacts on the economy and society. One hundred and thirty years since the recruitment of seasonal workers from abroad in the German Empire and 50 years from the recruitment of Turkish guest workers undoubtedly indicates a good (and necessary) time to create a more effective immigration and asylum policy. The integration of foreigners, especially Turks, is nowadays the main goal. As the social climate of German society has never been characterized by diversity, the main task of current German government is to create an opened German society towards foreigners and their integration.

As a country that is highly affected by the changing nature of international migration due to transformative forces of globalization, Turkey is now being defined as a country of both immigration and emigration. This thesis analyzes Turkish state&rsquo / s international migration politics and policies with regard to recent global trends in migratory movements. It examines the underlying dynamics that govern the policy making processes and tries to identify the problems stemming from them. The primary goal of the thesis is to make an elaborate assessment of the existent institutional framework and to detect the presence of securitization paradigm in the political and legal setting of international migration in Turkey by means of qualitative research methods. It investigates how international pressures and trends, national interests, political considerations and especially the dynamics of fragmented institutional structure have affected policy making strategies. In view of these factors, the thesis suggests adopting a humanitarian approach towards refugees, asylum seekers and migrants that leaves political concerns behind and avoids securitization of the issue.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how asylum-seeking refugees manage their lives in the situation they are in, a situation in which they are dependent and have to wait for decisions on whether or not they will get to stay in the country in which they have made their application for asylum.  The elaboration upon these questions and the purpose of the study is approached through a field study of asylum-seeking refugees from Afghanistan in Sweden. The thesis presents a background of international migration, refugee migration, refugee migration from Afghanistan and the reception of asylum seekers and refugees in the EU and Sweden, which tells us both that asylum seekers and refugees are not welcome in the countries of the ‘North’, where policies of containment and repatriation are the most common features of treating the refugee ‘problem’ and that the long period of waiting and uncertainty creates a situation of passivity and ill-health among the asylum seekers. Employing grounded theory methodology in different forms based in data from fieldwork, including participant observations and informal conversations, the study applies a constructionist grounded theory approach in the analyses of the situation and the management thereof. Steered by this constructionist grounded theory approach, strengthened by a situational analysis, the thesis presents a situational frame pointing to the situation for the asylum-seeking refugees as temporal and dependent on Swedish national discourse, racism and paternalism. With this background and frame and generated by data from the field study, the thesis goes on to present the situation as disempowering. The disempowering processes are illustrated through looking at dependence and inhospitality, and are characterised by the asylum-seeking refugees’ oscillation between feelings of hope and despair. It becomes, however, also evident that the asylum-seeking refugees take action and that they are supported by latent empowering processes. The actions taken are categorised as actions of empowering in opposition to the processes presented as disempowering. The actions of empowering are connected to keeping oneself occupied, searching for and maintaining social contacts and in the asylum-seeking refugees’ representations of themselves. From the presentation of the situation as disempowering and the actions taken by the asylum-seeking refugees in response to this situation as actions of empowering, a process characterised as seeking empowerment is presented. In this process empowerment is discussed as the establishment of power to resist. During the discussion of the concept of seeking empowerment it is shown how the asylum-seeking refugees in this study, through their actions of empowering, try to resist the disempowering situation. By seeking to establish power to resist, they are seeking empowerment.

In the light of the current refugee crisis in the European Union, and the remarkably critical stance the East Central European states are taking in Brussels, this research contributes to a broader understanding of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland's policies towards refugees. By scrutinizing the process of developing refugee policies during the 1990s and 2000s, the research will demonstrate that the countries united in the V4 platform in their first years of transition generously contributed to international refugee protection. Steep increase of asylum applicants and negotiation talks with the EU in the late 1990s brought various changes to the refugee policies in the region, marked by more closely defining and the enhancing of asylum seekers' and recognized refugees' rights, but also by lower refugee recognition rates. Accession to the European Union ultimately resulted in more complete and comprehensive asylum policies in line with the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). However, the V4 states maintained rather restrictive interpretations of the European policy, explained by the pressure the CEAS places on the states at the EU's external border and lower economic capacity to accommodate large numbers of refugees. Recent developments are mostly the result of political exploitation...

This study is focusing on the comparison of the asylum and immigration policy of Austria and Switzerland. The time frame chosen for this study are the first two decades of the new millennium. The study captures the breaking point in asylum and immigration policy which the European migration crisis had been in between the years 2015 and 2016. The securitization theory and the concept of national identity are used in explaining the shifts in adopted policies. The study grasps the process of securitization taking place thorough the chosen time frame with concentrating on what impact national identity had have in constructing security threads. The paper concludes that securitization of migration had indeed taken place in the chosen time frame. However, the specifics of each countries national identity have had very little impact on adoption of new legislation.

The goal of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of the controversial issues surrounding the offshore asylum policy by concentrating on the political debates and arguments that are for and against the policies' activation. This will be done by  following the structure of a Political Discourse but applying an Argumentation Analysis to the study. Furthermore, the thesis critically examines the application of liberal norms in the offshore policy of Denmark and the United Kingdom and explores the tensions that occur when liberal principles such as human rights, humanitarianism, and the rule of law overlap with the nation's concerns of immigration and border control. This will be done by analysing the historical changes, legal framework, and the implementation of the policy in Denmark and United Kingdom. Using a comparative case study approach, the thesis analyzes the Rwanda Asylum Plan in relation to similar offshore asylum policies implemented in other countries such as the Australian offshore processing policy.