The migration crisis which began in 2014 and reached its climax in 2015-2016 was eased in 2018 through a combination of preventive, deterrent and repressive measures taken individually by the EU’s member states as well as at the level of the European Union’s institutions and agencies. Far from accommodating the potential of migratory flows and effectively handling the root causes of immigration, the EU reached a relative stability in terms of strategic guidelines, the policy framework and methods and instruments of the management of immigration. Concurrently, the volume, structure and directions of the main inflows tended to stabilize according to patterns of migration which emerged during the migration crisis.

Artur Gruszczak

ZBN Analysis no. 8(47) / 2019

12 July 2019

The migration crisis which began in 2014 and reached its climax in 2015-2016 was eased in 2018 through a combination of preventive, deterrent and repressive measures taken individually by the EU’s member states as well as at the level of the European Union’s institutions and agencies. Far from accommodating the potential of migratory flows and effectively handling the root causes of immigration, the EU reached a relative stability in terms of strategic guidelines, the policy framework and methods and instruments of the management of immigration. Concurrently, the volume, structure and directions of the main inflows tended to stabilize according to patterns of migration which emerged during the migration crisis. This analysis aims to offer a general outlook of the main trends and processes which took place in the European Union in 2018. It underlines the dynamics and size of migratory movements and points to these features which probably will be continued in the near future.

In the photo: Thousands of Libya evacuees stranded at the Ras Jedir border crossing

Credit: Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Migrants#/media/File:Am%C3%A9lioration_de_la_situation_%C3%A0_la_fronti%C3%A8re_tuniso-libyenne_(5610363034).jpg