Asylum and Migration Glossary
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DOI 10.2758/30607 NE-80-10-207-11-C European Migration Network ASYLUM AND MIGRATION ASYLUM AND MIGRATION GLOSSARY • GLOSSARY The objective of the European Migration Network (EMN) is to meet the information needs of Community institutions and of Member States’ European Migration Network authorities and institutions through the provision of up-to-date, objective, reliable and comparable information on migration and asylum, with a view to supporting policymaking in the EU. It will provide this information also to the wider public, including via publications like this one, which presents the EMN’s Glossary of asylum and migration terms. ccouve_V2.inddouve_V2.indd 1 110/02/20100/02/2010 114:07:334:07:33 Disclaimer This EMN Glossary has been developed by the European Migration Network (EMN). The European Commission and the National Contact Points, who collectively constitute the EMN, accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the use made of the information contained in this glossary or of the content of the websites from which some terms are extracted. Copyright clause Reproduction is authorised, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged and the following text accompanies any reproduction: “This EMN Glossary has been developed by the European Migration Network (EMN). The European Commission and the National Contact Points, who collectively constitute the EMN, accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the use made of the information contained in this glossary or of the content of the websites from which some terms are extracted.” ASYLUM AND MIGRATION GLOSSARY - A tool for better comparability - produced by the European Migration Network January 2010 The purpose of this EMN Glossary of terms relating to Asylum and Migration is inter alia to improve comparability between EU Member States through the use and common understanding of the terms and de nitions contained herein. The European Migration Network (EMN) serves to meet the information needs of Community institutions and of Member States’ authorities and institutions by providing up-to-date, objective, reliable and comparable information on migration and asylum, with a view to supporting policymaking in the European Union in these areas. The EMN also serves to provide the general public with such information. Following the introductory text, giving an overview of the EMN, how the glossary was developed and its format, the terms are presented in tabular form. The glossary is intended to serve as a useful reference document for EMN National Contact Points (EMN NCPs) and their national network members, as well as for other practitioners in the eld of asylum and migration. Further information on the EMN, including its other outputs, as well as this glossary, may be obtained from http://emn.sarenet.es. 2 Preface The need for the exchange of up-to-date, objective, reliable and comparable information to support the development of policy in asylum and migration was already identi ed in the 1999 Tampere European Council conclusions and still remains today an important objective. Indeed, the Stockholm Programme contains many elements for the better exchange of information between Member States across the wide range of asylum and migration policy developments. To achieve this most e ectively, the information needs to be comparable between the Member States. The European Migration Network (EMN) is one instrument developed by the European Commission, in co- operation with EU Member States, towards this goal. Its establishment through a Council Decision in May 2008, along with the previously adopted Regulation for Migratory Statistics in 2007, now provide a rm basis upon which the e cient exchange of information to support policymakers can be achieved. One of the many activities undertaken by the EMN is the development of this multilingual asylum and migration glossary. The use and common understanding of consistent terminology presented herein serves to provide the means by which policymakers and practitioners in the Member States, as well as EU institutions, can better compare their national situation and experiences and harmonise policy concepts. This is further facilitated by the translations of the glossary terms into many other Member State languages. The signi cant number of terms, currently totalling some 300, also re ects the complex nature of asylum and migration and this publication serves also as a common reference guide. Given the potential of the EMN Glossary, and knowing that it has been developed through the extensive e orts of EMN National Contact Points from the di erent Member States in a highly co-operative manner, I have no hesitation in encouraging its widespread use by policymakers and practitioners alike at both Member State and EU level. Jean-Louis DE BROUWER (Acting) Deputy Director-General DG Justice, Freedom and Security 3 1. Introduction The purpose of this European Migration Network (EMN) Glossary of terms relating to Asylum and Migration is inter alia to improve comparability be- tween EU Member States through the use and com- mon understanding of the terms and de nitions contained herein. The glossary is intended to serve as a useful reference document for EMN National Contact Points (EMN NCPs) and their national net- work members, as well as for other practitioners in the eld of asylum and migration. The glossary has been developed by the EMN with- in the context of a Glossary and Thesaurus Working Group. It is the rst stage of the development of this glossary, since other terms will be introduced, re nements made to de nitions, and updates pub- lished accordingly. The glossary shall also be used in the development of an EMN Thesaurus, the purpose of which is to facilitate structured searching of the documents contained within the EMN’s Information EMN Glossary – Exchange System1. a tool for better In the subsequent sections, an overview of the EMN is rst given, followed by an outline of the method- ology used to develop the glossary. The glossary comparability terms themselves are then given, consisting of some 300 terms discussed and developed in a highly co- operative manner by the EMN NCPs constituting the Glossary and Thesaurus Working Group. The EMN would like to acknowledge the extensive e orts of the working group members and its ap- preciation for the permission given by other entities, speci cally the ILO, IOM, OECD and UN to the use of terms and de nitions which they had developed previously and which are duly referenced in the glos- sary. Likewise, the contributions permitted by the European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizen- ship (EUDO), funded via the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals,2 and the To- wards Harmonised European Statistics on Internation- al Migration (THESIM) project, which was supported by the EU’s 6th Research Framework Programme,3 are also much appreciated. 1 See http://emn.sarenet.es 2 See http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/funding/integration/ funding_integration_en.htm 3 See http://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/index_ en.html 4 2. The European Migration Network 3. EMN Glossary and Thesaurus (EMN) Development The need to exchange information on all aspects of One of the activities undertaken by the EMN, within migration, in order also to contribute to the devel- the context of improving the comparability of in- opment of policy, was identi ed already in the ini- formation between Member States, is the develop- tial development of a common EU Asylum and Mi- ment, rstly of an EMN Glossary, and then of an EMN gration Policy.4 This was further emphasised under Thesaurus. The purpose of the Glossary is to provide the current Hague Programme,5 which reinforced common de nitions and understanding of terms the need for common analysis of migratory phe- in the eld of asylum and migration which are then nomena (the collection, provision, exchange and used, for example, in the formulation of queries and e cient use of up-to-date information). The Euro- undertaking of studies according to common speci- pean Migration Network (EMN) is one means to- cations by the EMN NCPs. The glossary shall also wards this goal. More recently, the successor Stock- be used to develop further the EMN Thesaurus, the holm Programme6 contains many elements for the purpose of which is to permit the structured search- better exchange of information between Member ing of documents within the EMN’s Information Ex- States across the wide range of asylum and migra- change System. tion policy developments. To achieve this most ef- fectively, the information needs to be comparable As the EMN is shaped through both a multinational between the Member States. environment and the multidisciplinary background of the complex eld of migration and asylum, de - Council Decision 2008/381/EC7 of 14th May 2008 nitional and interpretative di erences of certain established a legal base for the European Migration terms are encountered, depending on various lin- Network (EMN). The purpose of the EMN is to meet guistic contexts and di erent approaches (politics, the information needs of Community institutions law, sociology) in which the terms are used. Because and of Member States’ authorities and institutions of the lack of universally accepted de nitions, di er- by providing up-to-date, objective, reliable and ent groups of interest and bodies (e.g. governments, comparable information on migration and asylum, police and border authorities, governmental and with a view to supporting policymaking in the Eu- non-governmental organisations) tend to use their ropean Union in these areas. The EMN also serves own de nitions, according to their perspective. To to provide the general public with such informa- further complicate matters, there are not only within tion. It is co-ordinated by the European Commission the same Member State di erent approaches fol- in co-operation with National Contact Points (EMN lowed, but also the usage of migration terms varies NCPs) from each EU Member State.