EU Agrees to Major Deal to Reform Migration System

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Facts

• According to a statement from the EU's Spanish presidency on Wednesday, the EU has reached a deal to overhaul its migration system that will include faster vetting of irregular arrivals, developing border detention centers, accelerating deportation for rejected asylum applicants, and taking pressure off of southern countries experiencing higher numbers of migrants.¹
• Under the proposal, which must now be passed by all individual EU member states and the European Parliament (EP), non-border countries will be required to accept 30K migrants or pay €20K ($21,870) per person into an EU fund.²
• The deal — praised by EP Pres. Roberta Metsola, who said it will 'go down in history' — comes as EU border index Frontex has registered more than 355K irregular border crossings as of the end of November, a 17% jump.³
• While European Commission Pres. Ursala von der Leyen said this will allow 'Europeans' rather than 'smugglers' to 'decide who comes to the EU,' Amnesty International argued that it would 'set back European asylum law for decades to come.'⁴
• Migration in the EU, which allows residents of each country to freely cross other borders, has become tricky due to its external border that stretches from the Mediterranean Sea — which connects to North Africa and the Middle East — all the way to Russia. Furthermore, 22 of the 27 member states are part of the borderless Schengen area, which makes tracking the movement of people even harder.²
• This also comes as the French parliament on Tuesday passed its own immigration law, which strengthens the government's deportation powers and limits access to children's welfare, housing, and citizenship for foreigners.⁵

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²CNN, ³Dw.com, ⁴Washington Post and ⁵Wall Street Journal.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Europarl. This bill is a historic show of international solidarity. As nations throughout the continent struggle to absorb mass numbers of migrants without proper time or resources, this bill will provide the necessary digital screening and physical infrastructure needed to lessen the burden on countries that typically receive migrants first. Once implemented, this law will help Europe take in deserving migrants humanely and effectively while keeping out bad actors like human smugglers.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Amnesty international. This law is far from humane and is instead a codified violation of human rights. With individual countries now allowed to reject asylum claimants due to arbitrary definitions of 'mass' migration, EU states will begin to shuffle vulnerable human beings across the continent like pieces on a chess board. Countries will also be able to decide whether someone is a real asylum seeker or part of a smuggling ring, therefore delegitimizing the asylum status of people fleeing persecution. This is wrong on every front and should be overturned before people get hurt.
• Cynical narrative, as provided by Europeanconservative. European elites are only talking about mass migration now because the public has finally spoken out against it and elections are coming up. After millions of undocumented migrants entered Europe over the past two decades, EU member states are waking up to the fact that they have no national sovereignty or control over their borders. This has affected the politics, culture, and safety of individual states, from sexual assaults in Germany to knife attacks against children in Ireland. Europeans are tired of the patronizing top-down approach to this issue.