The European Refugee Crisis: Burden Sharing in the United Kingdom and in Germany
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The European refugee crisis: Burden sharing in the United Kingdom and in Germany 84 Sara Rodrigues Peixoto Bachelor Thesis - European Public Administration/European Studies BSc (B-BSK/EPA) Examination Committee: 1st Supervisor: Dr. M.R.R. Ossewaarde 2nd Supervisor: Dr. L. Marin University of Twente School of Management and Governance The Netherlands 1 Abstract In 2015 the European Union (EU) was confronted by the biggest inflow of refugees since World War II. This event triggered an intense debate on a European level. The main point for political discourse was in particular the uneven distribution of refugees among Member States (MSs). This disproportionate share of the costs and burdens reopened the discussion on burden sharing measures. Such measures have been considered by scholars and some MSs as an effective measure to deal with the refugee crisis. Therefore, this paper will analyze in what ways the parliamentary debates on burden sharing have developed in the light of the refugee crisis in Germany and in the United Kingdom in 2015. For this purpose, a qualitative content analysis will be conducted in order to reconstruct the parliamentary debates on this topic during the refugee crisis. All legislative speeches on this matter which have been made in 2015 will be analysed based on a coding scheme. At first, this thesis will reveal the government’s perspective on burden sharing measures. Since national interests and concerns vary widely from country to country, this part will not only uncover the perceptions and opinions regarding burden sharing measures, but it will also provide explanations of their point of view. Furthermore, this thesis provides a broad picture on the government’s perspective on burden sharing by revealing insights about how burden sharing in the light of the refugee crisis should be acquired. This thesis will demonstrate that finding a compromise on reactive measures is as expected, rather complicated. However, this thesis will show that a consensus on securing European borders and proactive measures as a way to share the burden caused by the refugee crisis can be found. These findings can be considered as a good starting point in finding a compromise on how to deal with refugees on a European level. 2 Table of contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Research Question ............................................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Research Approach ........................................................................................................................... 8 2. Conceptualisation .................................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Definition of Terms: Refugee Protection ........................................................................................ 9 2.2 Burden Sharing ............................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.1 Burden Sharing, a Collective Action .......................................................................................... 11 2.2.2 Burden Sharing Regime ............................................................................................................. 15 2.3 Concluding Remarks ....................................................................................................................... 16 3. Methodology .......................................................................................................................................... 17 3.1 Research Design ............................................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Case Selection .................................................................................................................................. 18 3.3 Data Collection ................................................................................................................................ 20 3.4 Method of Data Analysis ................................................................................................................. 22 3.4.1 Coding Scheme .......................................................................................................................... 23 3.5 Concluding Remarks ....................................................................................................................... 27 4. Analysis .................................................................................................................................................. 28 4.1 Parliamentary debates in the UK on burden sharing in light of the refugee crisis ................... 29 4.1.2 Burden sharing approach ............................................................................................................ 29 4.1.2. Burden Sharing Regime ............................................................................................................ 34 4.2 Parliamentary debates in Germany on burden sharing in light of the refugee crisis ............... 42 4.2.1. Burden sharing approach ........................................................................................................... 43 4.2.2.Burden sharing regime ............................................................................................................... 46 4.3 Concluding remarks ........................................................................................................................ 52 5. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 53 6. References .............................................................................................................................................. 58 7. Appendix ................................................................................................................................................ 64 3 1. Introduction In 2015, the European Union (EU) was confronted by the biggest inflow of refugees since World War II (OECD, 2015). This is now commonly known as the refugee crisis. By mid-2015, Eurostat (2015) had recorded more than 400,000 people registered as asylum seekers. Compared to the previous year, this amount was twice as much. As a result, the EU was confronted with the question of how to manage this massive influx. However, instead of compromising, the EU seems to be incapable of finding a satisfactory response at a European level (Bordignon & Moriconi, 2017; Roots, 2017). Particular, the uneven distribution of refugees among Member States (MSs) implies that there is a disproportionate share of the costs and burdens. This was a main focal point for political discourse. It reopened the discussion on the importance of sharing the burdens related to asylum policies, which triggered intense discussions clearly revealing the discrepancies among MSs on this matter in 2015. For a long time, burden sharing was acknowledged as an important aspect in European politics, whether in regard to NATO contributions, climate policy or other policy sectors (Thielemann, 2003b). In the mid-1980s, burden sharing became an important aspect in regard to refugee protection/asylum (Thielemann, 2005, p. 3). As Thielemann (2005) explains, burden sharing is not only an expression of European solidarity, but also an opportunity to provide benefits for governments “in terms of increased security, lower costs, ensured adherence to international obligations, etc.” (p. 22). Consequently, the EU’s efforts towards a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) emphasize the importance of “burden- or responsibility-sharing” (Thielemann, 2008, p. 2). Notwithstanding the EU’s efforts to achieve a balance of costs among MSs in this policy sector, the refugee crisis demonstrated that a reconsideration of burden sharing in the current European asylum system is inevitable. The Dublin regulation sets out that the Member State through which refugees have entered first must deal with the particular application (also known as “the country of first entry”) (Angenendt, Engler & Schneider, 2013). In 2015, almost 90% of all refugees used the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkans routes to reach Europe (OECD, 2015). Together it led to an uneven distribution of refugees, in which the external EU border countries bear the most responsibility. Besides from providing evidence that this system failed in providing a fair distribution of burdens, the refugee crisis shows the inconsistencies among MSs regarding burden sharing on the European level. In 2015, the president of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker, stressed the fact “that the Member States where most refugees first arrive – at the moment, these are Italy, Greece and Hungary – cannot be left alone to cope with this challenge“ (European Commission, 2015c). Therefore, the European Commission proposed burden sharing measures to relocate refugees by creating the emergency relocation scheme in order to “alleviate pressure from Member States most affected” (European Commission, 2015b). 4 This proposal proved extremely divisive among the EU MS. Europe seemed to be divided into two parts; one in which countries as Sweden, Germany and France supported such types of measures, while, in contrast, the Visegrád-