Tackling the migrant wave: EU as a source and a manager of crisis

Abstract

The response of the EU and Member States to the current migration wave is an interesting case of building collective management for coping with a trans-boundary crisis. The present article analyses and assesses the EU response to the migration wave in a wide perspective that encompasses the existing knowledge about the drivers of increasing migration and about Europe’s political and social approach towards regular and irregular migrants in the past decades; the analyses of the response of the European leaders to the demand of the citizens to close off the borders and prevent migrants from getting in; and the assessment of the EU management of the crisis. The closing section checks the EU response against the drivers of the on-going migration wave and draws a picture of the main weaknesses of the EU response.