Rassegne ADiM-IntoME 2024-2025

European Journal of Migration and Law, 2023, n. 4 – Special Issue: Looking at the Vulnerabilities of Migrants Seeking Protection through an Intersectional Prism

Francesca Raimondo, Luc Leboeuf, Denise Venturi, Looking at the Vulnerabilities of Migrants Seeking Protection through an Intersectional Prism

Hilde Lidén, Young Age, Migratory Vulnerabilities and Temporality. Compounding Inequalities Raised by Age and Legal Status – in Four European Countries

Letizia Palumbo, Vulnerability to Exploitation through the Lens of Intersectionality

Alice Sinon, Julie Lejeune, The Use of Medico-Legal Reports in Asylum Processes in Belgium

Denise Venturi, Beyond the Rainbow? An Intersectional Analysis of the Vulnerabilities faced by LGBTIQ+ Asylum-Seekers

Christine Flamand, Francesca Raimondo, Sylvie Saroléa, Examining Asylum Seekers’ “Other Vulnerabilities”: Intersectionality in Context

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Libri

Hugo Storey, The Refugee Definition in International Law, Oxford UP, 2024

In international law, the refugee definition enshrined in Article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol is central. Yet, seven decades on, the meaning of its key terms are widely seen as unclear. The Refugee Definition in International Law asks whether we must continue to accept this or whether a systematic legal analysis can shed new light on this important term. The volume addresses several framework questions concerning approaches to definition, interpretation, ordering, and the interrelationship between the definition’s different elements. Each element is then analysed in turn, applying Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties rules in systematic fashion. Each chapter evaluates the main disputes that have arisen and seeks to distil basic propositions that are widely agreed, as well as certain suggested propositions for resolving ongoing debates. In the final chapter, the basic propositions are assembled to demonstrate that in fact there is now more clarity about the definition than many think and that considerable progress has been made toward achieving a working definition.

Articoli

Nicholas R. Micinski, Camille Lefebvre, The Geopolitics in the Global Compacts: Sovereignty, Emerging Norms, and Hypocrisy in Global Migration Governance, in Geopolitics, 2024

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCM) were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2018. After nearly five years, it is time for a critical reflection on the geopolitical interests that motivated the negotiations, agreements, and implementation. The purpose of this special issue was to critically examine how states used the Global Compacts to achieve their strategic interests using migration diplomacy. Each article attempts to question and problematise the assumptions, logics, and rhetoric put forward in the Global Compacts and resulting implementation by states and international organisations. The special issue also highlights the emerging norm of state responsibility for well-managed migration within the Global Compacts, and the notable silences around non-refoulement, internal displacement, and climate migration. The authors in this special issue worked to understand the gaps, hypocrisy, and contradictions in the implementation, now five years after the adoption of the Global Compacts. This introduction article lays out the driving questions for the special issue, along with our main themes, concepts, and contributions.

Paolo Morozzo della Rocca, La protezione umanitaria in Italia, a seguito della ‘mutilazione’ della protezione speciale, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2023, n. 3

Law Decree 20/2023 eliminated the administrative procedures for obtaining humanitarian protection (called special protection in Italy) but did not remove this figure from substantive law. In fact, the removal of a foreigner is still limited by compliance with constitutional and international obligations. Respect for these obligations is not adequately fulfilled by the special figures of temporary residence permits specifically provided for. In fact, these figures do not consider all the situations deserving protection according to Articles 2, 10 and 117 of the Constitution and do not ensure sufficient pos-sibilities of integration into Italian society. For this reason, the humanitarian protection guaranteed by the judges must find administrative recognition in other types of residence permits. The residence permit for special protection cannot be used because it prevents integration and preludes the future irregularity or removal of its holder. However, the serious danger of human rights violations in the event of removal may justify the issuance of a residence permit for international protection (in par-ticular subsidiary protection). In other cases, a residence permit for family reasons may be granted both to protect family relations and to protect private life.

Laura Salvadego, L’accesso al ricongiungimento familiare per i titolari di protezione sussidiaria nel caso M.T. e al. dinanzi alla Corte europea dei diritti umani, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2023, n. 3

The judgment delivered by the ECtHR in the case M.T. and Others v. Sweden confirms the restrictive approach as regards the existence of positive obligations for states under Art. 8 of the ECHR with a view on the right to family life. More precisely, the Court finds that restrictions on family reunification imposed to the beneficiaries of subsidiary protection by the emergency legislation adopted by Sweden in 2015 do not violate Art. 8, both taken alone and read together with Art. 14 of the Convention. De-spite numerous calls from a number of international bodies in the direction of substantial convergence in the requirements for the protection of individuals granted a different migratory status, with a specif-ic view to access to family reunification, the Court preserves the wide margin of appreciation tradi-tionally accorded to states in relation to immigration. Consequently, despite all beneficiaries of inter-national protection reveal similar substantive protection needs as regards family unity, disparities in treatment based on migration status are nevertheless possible as long as they are not arbitrary or dis-proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued by the state.

Soledad Álvarez Velasco, Between ‘Trochas’, Orphans and Mourning: Migrant Mobilities and the Effects of US ‘Soft’ Remote Control in Ecuador, in Geopolitics, 2024

This article proposes a two-scale analysis of how US border externalisation is spatially embedded in Ecuador, producing place-making transformations. On a national scale, it has turned Ecuador into a ‘soft’ buffer to halt unwanted global migration to the US. On a cuerpo-territorio scale, it has had at least two effects. On the one hand, it has transformed migrant-sending communities into mourning and orphaned places as a direct effect of Ecuadorean migrant disappearances and deaths en route and the multiplication of child orphanages. On the other, instead of halting illegalised crossings of global migrants heading to the US, it has multiplied them via unlawful river and land border pathways locally known as trochas, which have increased across the Ecuador-Colombia border. Trochas are socially built spaces embodying fear, anguish, pain, struggle and resistance. As the article proves, mourning and orphaned places and trochas are shaped at the convergence of the effects of the geopolitics of externalised control and the politics of life that Ecuadorean families and global migrants continually deploy to sustain their mobilities and lives. These place-making effects derive from Ecuador’s twofold role as a sending and transit country for global migration to the US, an effect which ends up being highly productive to justify the redoubling of US border enforcement across the region and its increasingly overt meddling in security and border control matters in Ecuador.

Luuk van der Baaren, Bridging the citizenship law implementation gap: a typology for comparative analysis, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

While major advances have been made over the past years in comparing citizenship laws globally, most measures remain restricted to the law-on-the-books. Knowledge about the implementation of these laws remains limited. This poses the question to what extent these measures correspond with the law as experienced by targeted populations. In order to overcome the implementation gap when comparing and measuring citizenship law globally, this paper addresses the question of how to gain a coherent understanding of implementation. Developing a comprehensive typology, the paper distinguishes three crucial elements of implementation: (1) the entry into force of legal provisions (capturing the applicable state of citizenship law), (2) the interpretation of law (the specific interpretation of legal provisions used by the authorities responsible for their execution), and (3) the application of law (executing legal provisions in practice by the authorities). Subsequently, the paper illustrates how this typology can be applied to the analysis of citizenship law implementation by a case study of dual citizenship acceptance, focusing on the renunciation requirement for naturalisation and dual citizenship treaties. The paper concludes by outlining directions for a comparative research agenda that better corresponds with the lived experience of citizenship laws.

Dina Gusejnova, Alina Dragolea, Andrea Pető, Andrei-Vlăduț Terteleac, Artemis Photiadou, Rebeka Bakos, Rewarding mobility? Towards a realistic European policy agenda for academics at risk, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

This article maps from a critical and comparative perspective how scholars at risk are currently being integrated into the European research infrastructure, as well as in various EU and non-EU Member States. The focus is on three countries ranging from older to newer EU members to one non-EU member state—Hungary, Romania and the United Kingdom—as well as on EU-level organisations. We draw on twelve in-depth interviews conducted with key stakeholders involved in the process of academic migration (non-governmental organisations, EU and national level actors) to identify key issues concerning academics at risk. Finally, we call for a robust EU-level response to an issue that is currently inadequately addressed by national governments, professional associations and NGOs. As we argue, the focus on mobility as a factor supporting research excellence in the regular European research infrastructure can have negative unintended outcomes for scholars at risk. For many of them, rewarding mobility can entail the threat of losing their legal status in temporary places of migration. What is needed is a nuanced approach for scholars at risk in a diverse range of situations, which should involve closer cooperation between international academic bodies and EU policy makers, and complement support for those who need to escape to third countries with the offer of remote work in the country where they are able to obtain a secure residence permit.

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Alice Donald, Joelle Grogan, Legislating fiction, in Verfassungsblog, 15 gennaio 2024

Members of Parliament in the UK will on 16 and 17 January 2024 debate the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which ‘gives effect to the judgement of Parliament that the Republic of Rwanda is a safe country’ for asylum-seekers. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in November 2023 that Rwanda was manifestly not safe as asylum seekers sent to the country would face a real risk of ill-treatment due to insufficient guarantees against refoulement. The Bill thus aims to use law to determine a factual situation for as long as the law is in force. This blog discusses the risks inherent in creating such a ‘legal fiction’ and how the Bill could be revised to mitigate this risk, before assessing the chances of it becoming law in the currently turbulent political context.

Paula García Andrade, Eleonora Frasca, The Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Tunisia: Issues of procedure and substance on the informalisation of migration cooperation, in EU Migration Law Blog, 26 gennaio 2024

On 16 July 2023, the European Union and Tunisia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) “on a strategic and global partnership” whereby, in short, the EU engages to disburse direct budgetary support and accelerate EU funding with a view to strengthening cooperation with Tunisia in macroeconomic stability, economy and trade, renewable energies and people-to-people contacts, in exchange for Tunisia’s cooperation on migration control. In particular, Tunisia’s commitments relate to the prevention of migrant departures by sea, the fight against migrant smuggling and trafficking as well as the return of foreigners from Tunisia to their countries of origin. In turn, the EU promises to enhance Tunisian citizens’ mobility to the Member States. Regarding its nature, the EU-Tunisia MoU is yet another illustration of the process of informalisation of international law-making to which the EU and its Member States significantly contribute, and of the proliferation of soft law instruments particularly in the external dimension of the EU migration policy.

Meltem Ineli-Ciger, The EU support for alternatives to immigration detention in Türkiye: a curious case at odds with EU’s external migration policy?, in EU Migration Law Blog, 17 gennaio 2024

Over the years, the EU-Turkey Statement of March 2016 and particularly EU funding have notably increased Türkiye’s detention capacities, raising questions about the EU’s support to the establishment and widespread use of alternatives to immigration detention in Türkiye. Türkiye’s recent amendments to its main asylum and migration law introduced seven alternatives to immigration detention, aiming to uphold the rights of migrants and reduce detention reliance. This shift necessitates academic scrutiny. This post provides a brief overview of alternatives to detention in Türkiye and argues that the EU’s support for alternatives to detention in Türkiye is at odds with the EU’s externalisation policies and containment focus in these policies.

Cecilia Pasini, Hotspot e minori stranieri non accompagnati: la Corte EDU condanna l’Italia per il loro illegittimo trattenimento, in Sistema Penale, 16 gennaio 2024

I giudici di Strasburgo tornano a condannare l’Italia per aver trattenuto illegittimamente alcuni minori stranieri non accompagnati nel c.d. hotspot di Taranto, in condizioni considerate lesive del divieto di trattamenti inumani e degradanti. La Corte si esprime ancora una volta sul trattenimento delle persone migranti con alcune considerazioni da tempo condivise dalla dottrina che si occupa del tema e che risultano più che mai attuali, posto che il trattenimento delle persone migranti all’interno dei c.d. hotspot (così come, sotto diverso aspetto, il trattenimento al fine di eseguire le espulsioni nei Centri di Permanenza per il Rimpatrio) pone una serie di quesiti di interesse per il penalista in ordine al rispetto delle garanzie costituzionali e convenzionali a tutela dei diritti umani fondamentali con particolare riferimento alle situazioni di privazione della libertà personale. Infatti, come si avrà modo di evidenziare anche in questo breve commento, sebbene la materia non sia disciplinata dal diritto penale, ci si trova a confrontarsi con situazioni del tutto analoghe alla detenzione negli istituti penitenziari, pur nella totale assenza in questo settore di garanzie sostanziali e procedurali che disciplinino la privazione della libertà personale.

Steve Peers, The New EU Asylum Laws: part 1 – the Qualification Regulation; part. 2 – the Reception Conditions Directive; part. 3 – the Resettlement Regulation, in EU Law Analysis, 30 dicembre 2023 – 2 gennaio 2024

Just before Christmas, the European Parliament and the Council (the EU body consisting of Member States’ ministers) reached a deal on five key pieces of EU asylum legislation, concerning asylum procedures, the ‘Dublin’ system on responsibility for asylum applications, the ‘Eurodac’ database supporting the Dublin system, screening of migrants/asylum seekers, and derogations in the event of crises. I’ll be looking at these agreements for new legislation on this blog when the agreed texts of these five measures are available (and I’ll also update this blog post with links when they are), unless the deal somehow unravels. But for now this series looks at the planned new legal framework for asylum in the EU by looking at texts that are already available: agreements on revised laws on qualification of refugees and people with subsidiary protection, reception conditions for asylum-seekers, and resettlement of refugees from outside the EU.* Part 2 of this series, on reception conditions, is now also published, as is Part 3, on the resettlement Regulation.* These laws, agreed earlier between the European Parliament and the Council, but not yet formally adopted, are intended to be part of a ‘package’ of new or revised EU asylum laws, along with the recently agreed measures.

European Journal of Migration and Law, 2024, n. 1

Julia Kienast, Jens Vedsted-Hansen, Differential Treatment and Temporary Protection Arrangements: Discrimination or Legitimate Distinctions?

Giuseppe Campesi, Defining “Crisis” in Migration Governance: a Critical Legal Mapping of EU Crisis Response Mechanisms

Andrea Romano, The More Favourable Provision Clause in EU Migration Law: Expanding Fundamental Rights through National Discretion?

Matilde Rocca, Rights at Sea: State Interference with Activists’ Search and Rescue Operations

Ermioni Xanthopoulou, Mapping EU Externalisation Devices through a Critical Eye

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Libri

Monika Florczak-Wątor, Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz, Jan Malíř, Max Steuer (ed.), States of Emergency and Human Rights Protection. The Theory and Practice of the Visegrad Countries, Routledge, 2024

Emergencies are ubiquitous in 21st-century societal discourses. From the rise of emergency pronouncements in the United States since 9/11 accompanied by the associated violations of fundamental rights, through talks of ‘crises’ in the EU in relation to the economy, Putin’s occupation of Crimea (as recently amplified by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine) or refugees, to the long-neglected looming climate catastrophe, emergency discourses have been catapulted to the centre of attention by the critical juncture of the COVID-19 pandemic. This volume presents and compares the existing regulations and practices of emergencies and human rights protection in the Visegrad (V4) countries. As such, the analysis covers Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Although these European countries share a common historical experience and are now members of the EU and NATO, they differ in some of their constitutional traditions and, also, in the dynamics of their political regimes. Divided into three parts, the first two comprehensively discuss the constitutional models of emergency and human rights protection in each of the V4 countries, while the third part illustrates how these models and the general framework of rights protection materialised in the limitations of the selected human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. The volume provides a compass for more in-depth, comparative, and interdisciplinary inquiries into the forms and practices of emergencies in one of the EU regions that faces illiberalisation and the consequences of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on its eastern borders. It will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and policymakers working in the areas of Constitutional Law and Politics.

Stefano Zirulia, Il favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione irregolare. Tra overcriminalization e tutela dei diritti fondamentali, Giappichelli, 2023

Cosa si intende per favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione irregolare e quali differenze intercorrono tra favoreggiamento e traffico di migranti? A quali condizioni le finalità di prestare soccorso o assistenza umanitaria possono fondare l’esclusione della responsabilità penale per il procurato ingresso di migranti e richiedenti asilo? Quali limiti incontrano i legislatori, nazionali e sovranazionali, nella predisposizione di strumenti penali e amministrativi finalizzati a proteggere le frontiere dalle condotte agevolatrici dei flussi irregolari, e quali sono i rimedi giurisdizionali disponibili per censurare l’eventuale violazione di quei limiti? Con rigore sistematico e attenzione alla casistica giudiziaria italiana ed europea, incluse le controverse vicende che vedono protagoniste le ONG impegnate nei soccorsi nel Mar Mediterraneo, il volume individua e affronta i più importanti snodi problematici sottesi alle politiche criminali contemporanee in materia di contrasto all’immigrazione irregolare: l’irriducibile complessità empirica delle diverse forme di migrant smuggling; le contiguità tra smuggling e trafficking in human beings e la loro strumentalizzazione da parte dei policy makers; i profili ermeneutici e applicativi degli obblighi di criminalizzazione e delle norme penali che vi dànno attuazione; fino ad arrivare ai vizi di illegittimità che l’autore ritiene affliggano la disciplina vigente e alle conseguenti proposte correttive, individuate tanto sul versante dei rimedi dinanzi ai competenti Giudici delle leggi, quanto sul versante delle riforme legislative.

Articoli

Lisa Marie Borrelli, Didier Ruedin, Towards a precise and reflexive use of migration-related terminology in quantitative research: criticism and suggestions, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

To describe migration-related phenomena, we need to reflect on the terminology and choose the most adequate one that allows us to determine whether migration is the (main) cause of a phenomenon, a consequence, or even unrelated and misattributed. We argue that the use of such terminology in quantitative and experimental research is often flawed because of its differentiated adoption in legal, political, or scientific contexts. To illustrate our argument, we focus on two commonly used terms, ‘second generation’ and ‘migration background’ to show that in many situations these terms do not accurately describe the population we study. In part, the terms imply a false homogeneity, focus on deficits, and perpetuate differences regarding national belonging where there may be structural reasons and other aspects, such as social class, that lie at the heart of observed differences. With a particular focus on quantitative research, we use survey evidence and a principled literature search, to show that both researchers and the general population often identify immigrants in terms of ethnic origin – even though the term has its own pitfalls. We conclude that quantitative research should avoid reproducing state-created terminology and instead look beyond the strict field of immigration to consider other systems of classification like gender, ethnicity, language, or social class to reduce the negative attributes ascribed to non-citizens.

Megan Bradley, ‘We’re an Organization that Does Stuff’: The International Organization for Migration, Logistics and Expert Authority in Migration Governance, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

This article advances accounts of expertise as a source of power in migration governance by examining how the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has cultivated authority as a logistical expert. Analyses of expert authority in global governance have traditionally focused on the production and control of information, particularly research and data. In contrast, this study demonstrates that logistical expertise was pivotal to the organisation’s early successes and long-term survival, and shows how logistical prowess and values associated with the logistical frame – such as efficiency and flexibility – have underpinned IOM’s expansion in significant ways. Drawing on extensive archival research and in-depth interviews, the article illuminate IOM’s logistical operations have diversified over time, from interventions explicitly intended to facilitate the movement of (selected) migrants to a contemporary focus on a much wider range of activities such as humanitarian aid, returns, and data collection, that apply logistical techniques to manage or control mobility. The contribution is two-fold. First, the article advances understanding of IOM as an increasingly influential player in global migration governance by offering a concertedly historicised perspective focused on its logistical activities and identity. Second, by bringing scholarship on expertise and critical logistics into conversation, this work illuminate show logistics functions as a form of expertise, and demonstrates the power, risks and limitations of logistics as a source of expert authority in migration governance.

Teresa Cappiali, Agnese Pacciardi, Reorienting EU Border Externalization Studies: A Decolonial Intersectional Approach, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

This article examines the potential of adopting a decolonial-intersectional approach to reorient the field of EU border externalisation to better analyse the (neo-)colonial, racist and gendered nature of bordering processes, as well as their structural, psychological, and physical violence against black migrants from the the Global South. Grounded in critical theory, this approach acts as an academic intervention against Eurocentric and androcentric biases in research. By applying it to EU border externalisation, scholars can decentralise the field and incorporate alternative knowledges, aligning academic praxis with demands by oppressed groups to decolonise knowledge production and reorient ways of thinking. The article first outlines the key aspects of a decolonial-intersectional approach, showing why and how it enables deeper analysis of EU border externalisation. In light of this approach, it then proposes a critical reading of the literature on EU border externalisation. Finally, it highlights future research avenues that could be further investigated.

Mirko Forti, Addressing Algorithmic Errors in Data-Driven Border Control Procedures, in German Law Journal, 2024

The gradual digitization of EU migration policies is turning external borders into AI-driven filters that limit access to fundamental rights for people from third countries according to risk indicators. An unshakeable confidence in the reliability of technological devices and their ability to predict the future behaviour of incoming foreigners is leading towards the datafication of EU external frontiers. What happens if the supposedly infallible algorithms are wrong? The article aims to understand the consequences of algorithmic errors on the lives of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the European Union. This contribution investigates the socio-political implications of deploying data-driven solutions at the borders in an attempt to problematize the techno-solutionist approach of EU migratory policies and its fundamental rights impact on affected individuals.

Philippe M. Frowd, The ‘Datafication’ of Borders in Global Context: The Role of the International Organization for Migration, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

This article examines the transnational politics of datafication in migration management through a case study of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Datafication, such as the automation of border processes, the use of biometrics and the deployment of large-scale statistical techniques, is increasingly central to the management of migration. Much of the current focus on these processes for migration management is focused on state-level policies or on supranational institutions such as the EU. There is relatively little work on the role of international organisations in this area, despite their well-researched role in setting formal standards and informal expectations around migration and mobility. The article’s first main argument is that focusing on the global level of governance yields new insights on the promotion and diffusion of data-intensive practices of migration management. The second argument is that the emerging global context of datafication around border management fits into a broader managerial agenda in which international organisations seize agenda-setting power and cta s transmission mechanisms for datafication projects and ideas. The third portion of the argument is that the IOM’s projects in this area reinforce its role as a service provider and consolidate its emerging role as an orchestrator of data-driven approaches to migration governance. The article thus contributes to ongoing work on the IOM’s shifting identity as well as interdisciplinary scholarship on the role of data in migration management.

Izabela Grabowska, Louise Ryan, Return migration and embedding: through the lens of Brexit as an unsettling event, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

This introductory paper, reflecting the Thematic Cluster of four papers, brings together two themes that are important for migration studies: return migration and embedding. Beyond any simplistic assumptions of settlement and permanent integration back into the origin country, following return, or notions of ongoing unfettered mobility back and forth over time, this article knits together data from the cluster papers, focusing on Lithuania and Poland, to explore factors that lead to return, or indeed non-return, and subsequent experiences in the ‘home’ country for those who do return. Moreover, using mixed methods, including longitudinal research, we advance a theoretical framework facilitating an examination of how returnees negotiate their lives in the origin society and whether they intend to stay, or migrate again, through the conceptual lens of embedding. While emphasising agency and effort, embedding also recognises structural constraints that may impede migrants’ expectations and aspirations. Hence, return migration may involve parallel processes of re-embedding but also experiences of dis-embedding as the hoped for return project encounters unexpected obstacles and may result in further migration. In mapping the field of return migration, through the concept of embedding, we focus on the impact of Brexit as ‘an unsettling event’.

Gerda Heck & Elena Habersky, Externalising Migration Controls through Development Programs in Egypt, in Geopolitics, 2024

Since the turn of the millennium, development aid has become more and more entangled with border externalization policies by political entities, such as the European Union. Responding to the increased arrival of refugees in 2015, the European Union formed the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), earmarking 3.4 billion Euros to fight “the root causes of irregular migration”on the African Continent. Within the scope of the EUTF, Egypt receives major funds from the program. This paper examines the impact of recently introduced development and livelihood programs, as well as educational and vocational training for migrants and refugees in Egypt under the EUTF. Thereby it shows how the EU aims at transforming Egypt from a so-called transit state to a destination country. The paper further explores how these programs are reshaping the political, humanitarian, as well as migratory landscapes in Egypt, and how EUTF funds are transforming the development, as well the humanitarian sector in the country, beyond its impacts on transit migration stricto sensu.

Daisy Pollenne, Carlos Vargas-Silva, Differences in migrants’ reason for migration and subjective well-being: not so different after all, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

This article uses 2012–2021 UK survey data to explore differences in subjective well-being (i.e. happiness, anxiety, life satisfaction, and having a worthwhile life) between those born in the UK and foreign-born residents who migrated for different reasons to the country (i.e. employment, study, family reunion, and asylum). Previous literature looking at objective indicators such as employment rates and health suggests that migrants’ reasons for migration relate to major differences across groups in these types of well-being indicators. In contrast, our analysis suggests that differences in subjective well-being with the UK-born are relatively similar across those who migrated for different reasons to the country. Moreover, across reasons for migration, there is a clear pattern of convergence to the subjective well-being levels of the UK-born as length of residence in the UK increases. This differs from studies looking at objective well-being indicators, in which some groups (e.g. those who migrated for family or asylum reasons) take longer to converge to the levels of those born in the country.

 Julia Rüdel, Jan-Philip Steinmann, ‘With a little help from my educated friends’: revisiting the role of social capital for immigrants’ labour market integration in Germany, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

This article examines the link between immigrants’ social capital and their labour market access (employment) and success (occupational status) in Germany and contributes to previous research in two ways. Firstly, based on insights from theories of social capital and immigrant integration, we overcome the mere distinction between inter- and intra-ethnic ties. Instead, we approximate resources immigrants can access and mobilize by considering both the ethnic and socioeconomic compositions of their networks. Secondly, by using autoregressive cross-lagged panel models, we properly deal with the methodological challenge of endogeneity inherent to studies concerned with the relationship between social capital and labour market outcomes. Based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel the empirical findings indicate the necessity of considering both the ethnic and socioeconomic compositions of immigrants’ networks—as both have independent effects on immigrants’ labour market integration. We conclude that future research on the relationship between immigrants’ social capital and their economic integration may benefit from approximating resources available through social contacts by considering not only the ethnic dimension but also the socioeconomic dimension of contacts.

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Joyce De Coninck, Shielding Frontex 2.0, in Verfassungsblog, 30 gennaio 2024

When WS and others v Frontex came out in September of 2023, many of us working around questions of legal responsibility of Frontex for complicity in unlawful human rights conduct, were surprised by the brevity with which the General Court (GC) dismissed the action (see here, here, here, here, here and here). The GC left open the question of if, when, and how independent or joint human rights responsibility would arise when Frontex is engaged in shared operational conduct with the Member States. The prevailing sentiment at the time appeared to be that the GC would have another opportunity to clarify these pressing questions in Hamoudi v Frontex. But again, the action is dismissed. This time not on the basis of an obscure re-interpretation of the Applicant’s claim, but instead, on the basis of an unattainably high and unrealistic burden, standard and method of proof. In doing so, the General Court again eschews from clarifying the nature, conditions and consequences of both independent and joint human rights responsibility of Frontex. Taken together, these cases raise the question whether there are any viable forms of judicial recourse for fundamental rights violations committed or contributed to by the EU’s Border and Coastguard Agency.

Lia Gobiet, Should Temporary stay Temporary? An interpretation of the Temporary Protection Directive in line with its rationale, in European Law Blog, 22 febbraio 2024

Nearly 4 million people fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion started in February 2022. Within the territory of the EU, those persons who are unable to return enjoy residence rights derived from the Temporary Protection Directive(TPD). As the name of the Directive indicates, any derived right, such as the right to stay, work and receive medical assistance in the EU, are limited in time. The application of the Directive, and the rights thereof, have been prolonged until the 4th of March 2025. What happens after this time ‘runs out’ is for now – in the Directive’s first-time application – up in the air, or rather: up to the EU legislator and the Member States, with the help of creative scholars.

Giada Grattarola, Il disegno di legge di autorizzazione alla ratifica del Protocollo Italia-Albania: profili di (In)Compatibilità con il diritto dell’Unione Europea, in SIDIBlog, 13 febbraio 2023

Come ormai noto, il Protocollo tra Italia ed Albania per il rafforzamento della collaborazione in materia migratoria, firmato a Roma il 6 novembre 2023, riconosce il diritto dello Stato italiano di utilizzare due aree demaniali, di proprietà dello Stato albanese e site nel relativo territorio nazionale, al fine di costruire delle strutture destinate alla gestione dei migranti, i quali verrebbero ivi trattenuti, nei limiti temporali posti dalla legge italiana, nelle more dell’esame delle domande di protezione internazionale dagli stessi presentate, nonché durante le procedure di rimpatrio, eseguite nel caso in cui si riscontrasse l’insussistenza dei requisiti soggettivi richiesti ai fini del soggiorno nel territorio italiano.

Valsamis Mitsilegas, Reforming the EU ‘Facilitators’ Package’: The new Commission proposal in the light of the Kinshasa litigation, in EU Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy, 13 febbraio 2014

A key feature of the EU policy to prevent migrants from reaching the EU external border has been the criminalisation – and in essence the overcriminalisation- of facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and stay. The EU criminal law framework dates back from over twenty years ago, in the third pillar, pre-Lisbon era. This framework is known as the EU ‘facilitators’ package’ and consists of a (then) first pillar Directive on the facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and residence accompanied by a (then) third pillar Framework Decision on the strengthening of the penal framework to prevent the facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and residence confirming that the conduct defined as facilitation in the Directive will be treated as a criminal offence by EU Member States. The criminalisation of facilitation is very broad.  In terms of the facilitation of irregular entry or transit, criminal sanctions will be imposed on any person who intentionally assists a person who is not a national of a Member State to enter, or transit across, the territory of a Member State in breach of the laws of the State concerned on the entry or transit of aliens (Article 1(1)(a) of the facilitation Directive combined with Article 1(1) of the facilitation Framework Decision.).

Christel Querton, Consolidating Group-Based Refugee Protection, in Verfassungsblog, 12 febbraio 2024

Two pending cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) provide an opportunity for the CJEU to consolidate group-based refugee protection. However, the nature of the preliminary reference questions also demonstrates the persistence of certain flawed assumptions in gender-based violence cases. The request for a preliminary ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court of Austria (C-608/22 and C-609/22) and the corresponding Opinion of Advocate General De La Tour show that gender cases continue to be at the forefront of jurisprudential developments in international refugee law. At the heart of the cases is a concern with granting refugee protection to groups of persons based on their inherent characteristics, in this case women and girls from Afghanistan. However, as the joined cases of AH and FN highlight, this is often due to an apprehension amongst asylum decision makers over the grant of protection to large groups of persons based on sex and misconceptions surrounding gender-based violence and discrimination.

Sarah Tas, Agostina Pirrello, Advancing Accountability, in Verfassungsblog, 16 febbraio 2024

In Alkhatib and Others v. Greece, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has condemned Greece for yet another instance of human rights violations in border management. The case concerned two Greek coast guard officers who shot at a motorboat transporting people near the island of Pserimos. In the course of their patrolling activity, the coastguards discharged seven warning shots and thirteen gunshots targeted at the motorboat’s engine, seriously injuring two Syrian nationals. Tragically, one of them (the relative of the Applicants of the case) died after several months in intensive care. The ECtHR upheld the claims of the Applicants by finding a violation of Article 2 which enshrines the fundamental right to life. On a procedural basis, the Court underscored numerous deficiencies during the investigation of the Greek authorities, which resulted in a significant loss of evidence. Substantively, the Court highlighted the absence of an adequate legislative framework to govern the use of force. It then concluded that the coastguards used excessive force and that they failed to prove that it was absolutely necessary. By underlining the importance of clear regulations and adequate evidence within border operations, the Court showed avenues to enhance the accountability framework for violations perpetrated at Europe’s borders. Its decision contrasts favourably with the approach taken in the EU at large, where both legislators and national and supranational courts generally disregard the opacity in regulations governing border operations and the difficulty of collecting evidence for migrants. In this blog post we highlight how these two conditions create a fertile environment for the perpetuation of an unjust system.

Diritto, Immigrazione e Cittadinanza, 2024, n. 1

Chiara Favilli, Editoriale

Alberto Guariso, D.lgs. 20/2023 e d.lgs. 152/2023: Una nuova fase degli ingressi per lavoro?

Michele Mazzetti, Circular or temporary? Migration models in the EU, Italian and German legislation

Francesca Nicodemi, Tratta di persone, schiavitù, sfruttamento lavorativo. Le diverse forme di protezione e di tutela accordabili in considerazione della varietà delle fattispecie e dei bisogni delle persone

Ornella Fiore, Minori stranieri non accompagnati: dalla tutela alla diffidenza. il cambiamento di prospettiva nelle riforme contenute nel d.l. 133/2023

Roberta Bendinelli, Le norme sul trattamento dei dati personali dei richiedenti asilo nell’unione europea: talune criticità rispetto al caso dell’interessato minorenne

Daniela Vitiello, L’agenzia dell’Unione Europea per l’asilo come strumento di armonizzazione: potenzialità, limiti e prospettive

Eleonora Celoria e Andreina De Leo, Il Protocollo Italia-Albania e il diritto dell’Unione europea: una relazione complicata

Vai all’intero fascicolo

Migration Studies, 2024, n. 1

James Dennison, Emotions: functions and significance for attitudes, behaviour, and communication

Amaia Palencia-Esteban, Coral del Río, Winners and losers from occupational segregation across Europe: the role of gender and migration status

Terje Toomistu and others, Determinants of return migration of Estonian young adults in transnational mobility

Michaela Šedovič, Immigrants’ subjective well-being in Europe: Variation by regional attitudes towards immigrants

Andreu Domingo, Jordi Bayona-i-Carrasco, Second Latin American migratory boom in Spain: From recovery to COVID-19

Vai all’intero fascicolo

Libri 

Federico Gravino, Migrantes. Gli esodi contemporanei tra diritto e religioni, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2024

I fenomeni migratori trasformano le società contemporanee. Si apre una sfida importante per il diritto. L’habitat culturale, religioso e giuridico di appartenenza del migrante incontra quello del luogo di arrivo. Di conseguenza spetta alle scienze giuridiche trovare l’antidoto perché i diversi valori coesistano. L’azione legislativa si traduce spesso in provvedimenti emergenziali. Diventa quindi più complesso il lavoro del giurista nella predisposizione di strumenti efficaci. È infatti necessario formare una cultura giuridica dell’accoglienza che valorizzi l’essere umano, tutelandone la dignità. Primo obiettivo, peraltro, del nostro ordinamento costituzionale. Le religioni in ciò sono valide alleate dello Stato nella creazione di spazi di integrazione. La condivisione dei principi universali di solidarietà e fratellanza, che ispirano i diritti confessionali, diventa uno strumento di promozione della persona a prescindere dal suo status e dalla sua condizione.

Dagmar Rita Myslinska, Law, Migration, and the Construction of Whiteness. Mobility Within the European Union, Routledge, 2024

This book addresses the hidden dynamics of race within the European Union. Brexit supporters’ frequent targeting of European Union (EU) movers, especially those from Central and Eastern Europe, has been popularly assumed as at odds with the EU project’s foundations based on equality and inclusion. This book dispels that notion. By interrogating the history, wording, omissions, assumptions and applications of laws, policies and discourses pertinent to mobility and equality, the argument developed throughout the book is that the parameters of CEE nationals’ status within the EU have been closely circumscribed, in line with the entrenched historical positioning of the west as superior to the east. Engaging current legal, economic, political and moral issues–against the backdrop of Brexit and contestations over EU integration and globalisation–this work opens avenues of thought to better understand law’s role in producing and sustaining social stratifications. Europe is a postcolonial space, as this book demonstrates. By addressing fractures within the construct of whiteness that are based on ethnicity, class and migrant status, the book also provides a theoretically nuanced, and politically useful, understanding of contemporary European racisms. This book will appeal to scholars, students and others interested in migration, EU integration and EU citizenship, equality law, race and ethnicity, social policy, and postcolonialism.

Anthea Vogl, Judging Refugees. Narrative and Oral Testimony in Refugee Status Determination, CUP, 2024

To access state-based refugee protection regimes, refugee applicants must speak. They must narrate the basis of their claims in person, often before a single decision-maker, repeatedly and at length. In Judging Refugees Anthea Vogl investigates the black box of the refugee oral hearing and the politics of narrative within individualised processes for refugee status determination (RSD). Drawing on a rich archive of administrative oral hearings in Australia and Canada, Vogl sets global trends of diminished and fast-tracked RSD against the critical role played by the discretionary spaces of refugee decision-making, and the gate-keeping functions of credibility assessment. Judging Refugees explores the disciplining role of ‘good refugee’ stories within RSD and demonstrates that refugee applicants must be able to present their evidence in model Anglo-European narrative forms to be judged as authentic, credible and ultimately, to be granted access to protection.

Articoli

Leila Hadj Abdou, Eszter Kollar, Why failed asylum seekers should have a conditional right to stay: an ethical guideline for policy debates, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

This article aims to reconcile the moral rights of failed asylum seekers with the integrity of the asylum system. Can the state grant failed asylum seekers a right to stay without undermining the core purpose of the refugee system? Can the state sometimes return those whose asylum claim has failed without violating their moral rights? The article argues that restricting the rights of asylum seekers and reducing the length of the asylum process raise ethical concerns and practical problems. It emphasizes that liberal states should charitably interpret the norms of international protection. It proposes to extend the right to stay on social membership grounds qualified by a good faith condition, and limit returns to those that have lodged their claim in bad faith. Engaging with the good/bad faith distinction the article aims to counteract a culture of suspicion towards asylum seekers by clarifying what it really means to launch a claim in bad faith and to realign its scope in a morally appropriate way.

Marguerite Arnoux Bellavitis, Policy-making as a crisis resolution tool: the normalization of exceptionality procedures at the expense of the rights of migrants, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2024, n. 1

This article aims to explore the impact that policy-making in times of crisis can have on the fundamental rights of migrants. In times of emergency and crisis situations, European institutions tend to bypass fundamental steps of the policy- making procedures, including the collection of evidence on which the legislative proposal will be developed. The permanent crisis situation in asylum and migration has led the EU institutions, particularly the European Commission to work in crisis mode since 2015. The Recast Return Directive Proposal was presented in 2018, and the Screening Regulation Proposal was presented in 2020 as part of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. They were both presented during political crises and are currently under negotiation. Those texts did not go through evidence-based preparatory work within the Commission (such as impact assessments and stakeholders’ consultations), and their contents are emblematic of the securitised and restrictive approach at the EU level, thus making them very symbolic and political policy proposals. This restrictive trend goes against the existing fact-based need, acknowledged by the Commission, to attract migrants to address demographic challenges. This contribution seeks to analyse, through an interdisciplinary approach based on qualitative research methods, the impact that crises have on the EU decision- making, and their consequences for the human rights of migrants, based on two case studies of two legislative proposals currently under negotiation: the Recast Return Directive Proposal and the Screening Regulation Proposal.

Alexis Bibeau, Sophie Schriever, Philippe Bourbeau, Julie Fournier, Parties’ Platforms, Migration, and Security: Patterns and Determinants, in Geopolitics, 2024

The integration of national security concerns in states’ treatment of international migration has become a prominent issue in recent years as global migration is regularly presented as a security threat to host countries. In this paper, we illuminate a number of patterns and determinants of political parties’ treatment of immigration as a security matter–the securitisation of migration–through the comparative study of a new data set of parties’ platforms in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States that spans seven decades. We distinguish between the salience of migration and of security in parties’ platforms and explore the effect of various migration-related domestic-level factors in accounting for both phenomena. Our empirical strategy to assess the extent to which political parties have presented, promoted, and framed the security concerns associated with migration is based on textual data from parties’ platforms. We report three findings. First, parties have increasingly mobilised migration in their platforms regardless of ideological or partisan commitments since the 1990s, and the number of refugees hosted by a country constitutes the primary migration-related explanatory factor for this fact. Second, we show that mainstream right-wing parties account for the increase in the securitisation of migration in parties’ platforms. Finally, among migration-related domestic factors, the number of refugees has (surprisingly) a negative impact on the securitisation of migration in platforms. Overall, this paper illuminates important patterns in how parties discursively link security and migration, and investigates the determinants of this widespread phenomenon.

Giuseppe Niccolò Imperlino, Il trattamento delle persone detenute negli hotspots italiani nella recente giurisprudenza della Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo, in Rivista OIDU, 2024, n. 1

In recent judgments by the European Court of Human Rights, Italy was found to be in breach of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. Specifically, they concern the: prohibition of torture (art. 3), right to liberty and security (art. 5, paras 1, 2 and 4), and prohibition of collective expulsion of migrants (art. 4, Prot. 4 to the Convention). The above-mentioned rulings spotlight violations of critical human rights in the treatment of migrants within Italian hotspots. In particular, these focus on detention conditions, legality of detention, and the expulsion processes for Tunisian migrants from the Lampedusa hotspot. This paper seeks to deepen the analysis of the juridical innovations of the afore- mentioned decisions. Indeed, they represent a key enhancement of migrants’ human rights protection. Furthermore, this paper delves into the recognition of the prohibition of inhumane treatment as absolute right, the legislative loopholes in the Italian system regarding hotspots, and the right to an individual examination prior to expulsion decisions. Finally, it scrutinizes the Italian legislative responses aimed at clarifying the hotspots legal framework and addresses potential concerns arising from the recent agreement on migrant reception between Italy and Albania.

Zsolt Kapelner, Anti-immigrant backlash: the Democratic Dilemma for immigration policy, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

Anti-immigrant backlash has emerged in recent years as a considerable threat to democracy. In many countries illiberal and anti-democratic political forces driven in part by anti-immigrant sentiment have damaged or threaten to damage the proper functioning of democratic institutions. Should policymakers try to avert this threat by implementing more restrictive immigration policy? If they do so, they may expose immigrants to unjust exclusion. If they do not, they may risk democratic dysfunction, even democratic failure. I will call this the Democratic Dilemma for immigration policy. In this paper I argue that this is a hard ethical dilemma that does not lend itself to a straightforward resolution. I propose an analytic and evaluative framework for assessing possible policy responses to the Dilemma to aid policymakers’ as well as the public’s ethical judgement.

Valsamis Mitsilegas, Elspeth Guild, The UK and the echr After Brexit: The Challenge of Immigration Control, in European Convention on Human Rights Law Review, 2024

In this article we will examine the challenges that immigration control related political imperatives in the United Kingdom (UK) have posed for UK compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights (echr or Convention) and evaluate the challenges that the UK’s moving away from echr compliance pose for its post-Brexit relationship with the European Union (EU) and its member states. The contribution will begin with an examination of the constitutional parameters of UK (non-)compliance with the echr in the field of immigration control and the implications of this tendency for the post-Brexit arrangements with the EU and its member states. The contribution will then focus on substantive immigration and refugee law and the impact of the current situation on asylum transfer cooperation within and outside of the EU. Through these areas, we will examine how EU law has infiltrated the interpretation of the echr with the result of raising standards of protection for asylum seekers and migrants and hampering the exercise of state sovereignty in the field. In a UK where the repatriation of state sovereignty has been a constant refrain of Brexit, this apparent interference is increasingly politically unacceptable.

Katharina Natter, Researching the Politics of Knowledge in Migration Policy, in IMI Working Paper, 2024, vol. 179

This paper explores the intricate relationship between knowledge and power in migration policymaking. It challenges the notion that knowledge exists as an objective truth awaiting application by policymakers and argues that bridging the knowledge-policy gap in migration requires a deep understanding of the politics of knowledge. This entails grasping the power relations within migration research and policymaking and recognizing the diverse roles knowledge plays within the policy process. By bringing into dialogue literatures on knowledge use and knowledge production, the paper discusses how knowledge is always inherently intertwined with power dynamics, who is deemed legitimate to produce knowledge on migration, how policymakers employ knowledge either instrumentally or symbolically, and how this is shaped by the politicization of migration issues at stake. The paper ends with introducing four key methodological strategies for analyzing the politics of knowledge in migration policy: backtracking dominant assumptions, tracing issue-specific dynamics, identifying temporal shifts, and critically assessing the links between knowledge production and utilization. These strategies form the foundation for the empirical investigation of migration policymaking in the PACES project, which hopes to offer novel insights into the power-knowledge nexus in the field of migration.

Gisella Pignataro, Il tutore volontario dei minori migranti: una figura nuova ma poco attrattiva, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2024, n. 1

Le difficoltà di governance del fenomeno migratorio in parte sono imputabili a una disciplina disorganica e armonizzata al minimo, per consentire agli Stati membri di bilanciare l’accoglienza con le esigenze di sicurezza. Il disagio è acuito nella migrazione di minori stranieri non accompagnati, fenomeno in crescita per frequenza e intensità. Le pronunce di condanna dei giudici europei per violazione diretta e indiretta dei diritti umani documentano l’inefficacia della funzione di protezione e rappresentanza attribuita al tutore volontario, ufficio distinto dalla tutela civilistica, ma poco attrattivo per la palese contraddizione tra la professionalità della funzione e la natura volontaria dell’ufficio.

Lucia Serena Rossi, The interaction between the directive 2003/86 and the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union in the family reunification of a third country national, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2024, n. 1

This contribution aims to show how the interpretation of Directive 2003/86 on family reunification between third-country nationals is made by the CJEU case- law in the light of the fundamental rights of the EU Charter. On the one hand, the Court recognizes a broad concept of the notion of “family”, not only when it comes to relations between family members, but also to the complex nexus of the legal rights involved. The CJEU asks the referring courts for a case-by-case assessment. As a result of this approach, the concept of effective family life is also interpreted in a broader sense. It requires the intention for family members to see each other and keep in touch rather than live together and provide mutual financial support. On the other hand, the conditions set out by the directive, whose respect is required by the member States to grant the family reunification, are interpreted strictly. As regards the age requirement, the Court states that it corresponds to the time of the application in order to respect the principles of legal certainty and equal treatment. The Court demands an individual assessment regarding the integration in a member State; such a condition is often confronted with contradictory interests or rights (for example family reunification vs the child’s interest). “Economic resources” fall under the exceptions to family reunification, which are interpreted narrowly by the EU Court. Nevertheless, a margin of discretion is granted to the national authorities; the same can be said for exceptions of public order.

Simona Vezzoli, Lucia Mýtna Kureková, Kerilyn Schewel, Researching Decisions to Stay and Migrate: A Temporal Multilevel Analysis framework, in IMI Working Paper, 2024, vol. 178

This paper explores how people make migration decisions. After a review of the rich literature and models that capture the factors, mechanisms, and phases of migration decision-making, this paper presents the Temporal Multilevel Analysis (TMA) framework, which examines how people decide whether to stay or migrate as their personal and societal situations change. The TMA framework explores how people perceive social change, and their role within it, with the goal of identifying under what contextual and personal circumstances people choose to migrate. The framework proposes a two-level comparative model that explores people’s perceptions of their social and personal circumstances, and investigates the role of social norms and values, with the understanding that these are fundamental yet relatively understudied influences on a decision to stay or migrate. The TMA framework also integrates a time dimension to explore how changing views about the past, present, and future influence mobility choices. This document should be read as an introduction to the TMA framework, which will be further refined through its application in empirical research through the PACES project.

Maria Wardale, Sarah Scuzzarello, Caring and building friendships in the UK’s asylum system, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

To care and feel cared for are considered fundamental to what makes us human, and what enables us to live and thrive in this world. Yet for the UK’s asylum-seeking population who is living with uncertainties for the future, care appears absent. In such contexts, it is imperative to understand how care is enacted, experienced, and valued amongst spaces and people often considered to be care-less. Drawing on data collected in four collaborative photographic workshops and photo elicitation interviews with asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs) (N: 7), this study aims to gain insight into how ASRs in the UK care and feel cared for and their relative ability to forge friendships during their migration journey. We show how their relationship to caregiving and care-receiving changes over time and is deeply influenced by asylum policies and the refugee experience more generally. Responding to feminist scholars’ calls to disrupt the normative assumptions about how and between whom care is exchanged, this article highlights the diversity of friendships forged while on the move and seeking asylum as well as the caring practices emerging in situations of precarity, the pervasive impacts of the hostile environment on disrupting and distorting such caring relationships, and cautious but agentic and caring ways that ASRs seek to navigate the ambiguities of friendships in hostility. In doing so, the article provides an important counter-narrative to the dominant portrayal of ASRs as passive recipients of care, by highlighting how their way to approach care and friendship varies across time and circumstances.

Post

Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche, Studying Migrations and Borders from a Pluridisciplinary Perspective, in Verfassungsblog, 22 marzo 2024

Even though my research is that of a EU law professor, I chose for years to consider migrations and borders from a pluridisciplinary perspective, so much so I have to dive into complexity (for an example of a recent publication of mine, see here; see also the MOEBIUS project I am leading as senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France on “Sovereignty Ordering Migrations Inside European Borders: Uses v. Ethics”). Such a pluridisciplinary approach reveals to be demanding: it needs both to be developed with discipline (see Antoine Bailleux’s paper in this series), and to be opened to wanderings (thanks Alain Supiot and François Ost for the advice). You have to accept to be confronted with personal controversies, to be faced with internal discourse on the method.

Cathryn Costello, Stefano Zirulia, Pushing Back, in Verfassungsblog, 29 febbraio 2024

The CJEU has pending before it a crucial case on the criminalisation of seeking asylum and assistance to those seeking protection. In Case C-460/23 Kinshasa the referring court asked the CJEU whether the provisions in the EU Facilitators Package and the Italian implementation measures are ‘precluded’ by EU law, to the extent that they criminalise ‘conduct .. carried out on a non-profit-making basis’ ‘without providing, at the same time, an obligation on Member States to exclude from criminalisation conduct facilitating unauthorised entry aimed at providing humanitarian assistance to the foreign national.’ The questions referred invoke the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (including its right to asylum in Article 18) and the principle of proportionality.

Hanna Eklund, Colonialism and EU Law, in Verfassungsblog, 21 marzo 2024

In 1957, when the Treaty of Rome was signed and founded what later became the European Union (EU), four out of six of the original Member States were colonial powers. An important methodological question for EU law research is how this historical fact has affected the development of EU law. I argue that answering the question of how Europe’s centuries long history of colonialism has shaped EU law is not just a historical exercise but also a starting point for an examination of EU law of today. Examining the ways in which colonialism determined the drafting of early EU primary law, the implementation of secondary legislation, or how EU law never managed to eradicate colonial era legal practices on the national level is not merely a way of judging the past but could be, as has been the case in international law, a way of critiquing continuities between then and now.

Anuscheh Farahat, Re-Imagining the European (Political) Community through Migration Law, in Verfassungsblog, 4 marzo 2024

The constant portrayal of migration as an exceptional and problematic phenomenon fuels public anxieties and makes deterrence and harshness seem like the only effective political approaches to managing global migration. By contrast, positive visions of how a society of immigration needs to look like for all members of society to benefit are scarce. Yet to counter apocalyptic scenarios, we need not only such a positive vision but also a theory of societal action that helps to realize it. This blog post offers such a vision and theory that is grounded in the normative and legal framework of the European Union. It argues that we should conceptualize the European society as an inclusive, participatory, and self-reflexive community that is based on constitutional principles as enshrined in Art. 2 TEU. To realize this vision, we must understand practices of claiming and defending human rights not as an overreach into the political latitude of the legislator but as a joint practice of (political) community-building. What is more, contrary to the timid approach it currently displays, the Court of Justice of the EU should take seriously its role as an inclusive facilitator and forum of constitutional self-reflection. To conceptualize the European society as a society of immigration would facilitate a broad constitutional discourse based on pluralism, mutual respect, and interaction. To achieve this goal, we should view migration as an investment in our future, not a threat thereto.

Elspeth Guild, Valsamis Mitsilegas, “Get that judge out of my sight”: The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, in EU Migration Law Blog, 4 marzo 2024

The Rwanda policy to send asylum seekers from the UK to a country in Africa for reception and determination of their claims is a perverse result of Brexit. As long as the UK was part of the EU, the Dublin system of allocating responsibility for asylum seekers across the then 28 Member States diminished the possibility of secondary movements within the area (notwithstanding the generally weak application of the system). The UK’s departure from the EU and its inability to enter into a new similar agreement with France has resulted in those asylum seekers applying in the UK but who have travelled through France to be able to have their claims determined in the UK without the risk of being sent back to France. The UK Government’s ‘solution’ to this ‘problem’ is to send them to Rwanda. The project is not original nor a concoction of UK politics. A similar project was contemplated in Denmark in 2021 but abandoned in 2023 for reasons which were never fully fleshed out (about the policy of Denmark see here). It seems that Rwandan officials had been suggesting to a variety of EU states (and clearly the UK) the possibility as early as 2020.

David Owen, Humanitarian Externalisation, in Verfassungsblog, 29 febbraio 2024

Why are the reasons given in support of the declared aim of the current asylum policies in the UK, EU and USA of breaking the business model of smugglers expressed in humanitarian terms?

Steve Peers, Resistance is futile: the new Eurodac Regulation – part 4 of the analysis of new EU asylum laws, in EU Law Analysis, 21 marzo 2024

Just before Christmas, the European Parliament and the Council (the EU body consisting of Member States’ ministers) reached a deal on five key pieces of EU asylum legislation, concerning asylum procedures, the ‘Dublin’ system on responsibility for asylum applications, the ‘Eurodac’ database supporting the Dublin system, screening of migrants/asylum seekers, and derogations in the event of crises. These five laws joined the previously agreed revised laws on qualification of refugees and people with subsidiary protection, reception conditions for asylum-seekers, and resettlement of refugees from outside the EU. Taken together, all these laws are intended to be part of a ‘package’ of new or revised EU asylum laws.

Dana Schmalz, The Place of Numbers in Migration Debates, in Verfassungsblog, 4 marzo 2024

The governance of migration, in particular of asylum migration, is caught in the contrast between the political relevance of numbers, and the individuum-based structure of the law. For politics, it matters how many persons arrive, require shelter, enter procedures. For the legal assessment, however, numbers mostly do not matter: The right not to be rejected at the border, the right to access an asylum procedure and to shelter during that procedure are individual rights that are independent from the overall number of arrivals. This contrast is visible in periodical debates about a maximum number of asylum seekers per year, or proposals to abolish the individual right to protection altogether. Such proposals disregard that individual rights to protection are enshrined not just in constitutional law, but also in European and international law, and for good reason. However, it is worth taking the perspective of numbers seriously – while respecting the individual right to protection.

Lionel Zevounou, For a Postcolonial reading of the EU, in Verfassungsblog, 21 marzo 2024

The use of the terms “decolonial”, “postcolonial” and “race” has become fashionable, particularly in Anglo-American legal scholarship. However, outside the field of migration and labor studies, few legal scholars (e.g., M.-B. Dembour, J. Silga or S. Larsen) in recent years have ventured into postcolonial approaches to European Union law. Although its definition is hotly debated by F. Adébísí, postcolonial refers to all the traces left by the multiple experiences of colonial domination. I will argue that one cannot understand the history and law of the European Union if one fails to understand and acknowledge colonialism.

International Journal of Law in Context, 2024, Special Issue – Law, Migration and Vulnerability: From the Margins to the Centre

Violeta Moreno-Lax, Niovi Vavoula, Vulnerability’s Legal Life: An Ambivalent Force of Migration Governance

Ben Hudson, Asylum Marginalisation Renewed: ‘Vulnerability Backsliding’ at the European Court of Human Rights

Maja Grundler, ‘Route Causes’ and Consequences of Irregular (Re-)Migration: Vulnerability as an Indicator of Future Risk in Refugee Law

Malak Benslama-Dabdoub, Epistemic Violence and Colonial Legacies in the Representation of Refugee Women: Contesting Narratives of Vulnerability and Victimhood

Francesca Ippolito, Environmentally Induced Displacement: When (Ecological) Vulnerability Turns into Resilience (and Asylum)

Moritz Baumgärtel, Sarah Ganty, On the Basis of Migratory Vulnerability: Augmenting Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Context of Migration

International Journal of Refugee Law, n. 3

Maja Janmyr and Charlotte Lysa, Saudi Arabia and the International Refugee Regime

Berfin Nur Osso, Unpacking the Safe Third Country Concept in the European Union: B/orders, Legal Spaces, and Asylum in the Shadow of Externalization

Cristina Saenz Perez, The Securitization of Asylum: A Review of UK Asylum Laws Post-Brexit

Margit Ammer, Monika Mayrhofer, Cross-Border Disaster Displacement and Non-Refoulement under Article 3 of the ECHR: An Analysis of the European Union and Austria

Libri

Antonio Ciniero, Le politiche dell’esclusione. Centri di accoglienza, ghetti agricoli e campi rom in Italia, Meltemi, 2024

Qual è la genesi dei centri di accoglienza per i migranti? Come sono nati i ghetti agricoli in Italia? Cosa hanno in comune con i campi rom? Come si vive in questi luoghi? Che effetti hanno sulle traiettorie di vita delle persone che li abitano e, più in generale, sul resto della società? Antonio Ciniero prova a rispondere a queste domande a partire dalle attività di ricerca condotte negli ultimi dieci anni, interrogando le politiche migratorie e gli interventi pubblici in tema di accoglienza: strumenti ispirati a una perenne logica emergenziale che hanno contribuito a determinare spazi fisici e sociali nei quali hanno preso forma dinamiche di esclusione e inclusione differenziale di un numero sempre crescente di persone.

Berna Şafak Zülfikar Savcı, Ludger Pries, M. Murat Erdoğan, Forced Migration in Turkey Refugee Perspectives, Organizational Assistance, and Political Embedding, Routledge, 2024

Turkey hosts more refugees than any other country in the world, with forced migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and other countries converging, either with hopes to settle in Turkey or to continue onwards to the European Union (EU). This volume addresses the specific experiences and trajectories of forced migrants in Turkey in the context of local and national contexts and the future of EU-Turkey relations. It presents the demographics of forced migrants, the biographies and future plans of refugees, and their interactions with civil society, states, and international agencies. A focus is on organized violence and corresponding experiences in countries of origin, during transit, and at current places. Based on extensive quantitative and qualitative research, this book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the fields of migration, human security, and refugee studies, as well as of sociology, political sciences, and international relations.

Anna Triandafyllidou, Handbook of Migration and Globalisation, Elgar, 2024

This thoroughly revised and updated Handbook brings together an international range of contributors to highlight the deep interdependence between migration and globalisation, and explore the impact of economic, social, and political globalisation on international population flows. It provides an interdisciplinary perspective on a discussion that has been intensifying and diversifying over the past 25 years.

Articoli

Patrick Birkinshaw, The Rwanda Bill, Boat People and International Law, in European Public Law, 2024, n. 2

Migration has become a fomenter of extremist politics. A particular aspect of migration has been the alarming sight of asylum seekers risking perilous journeys in small boats to get to Europe and the United Kingdom (UK). In the UK, governments have sought to counter this by resorting to measures which appear to undermine the UKs obligations in international law. The most recent example is the Rwanda bill under which illegal entrants to the UK will be relocated to Rwanda as a ‘safe country’ for processing of claims. The bill poses the most serious of challenges to the role of the courts, human rights protection under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECTH), the separation of powers and the rule of law.

Marco Borraccetti, Il contrasto alla tratta di persone e la prospettiva di riforma del 2024: alcune riflessioni, in Quaderni AISDUE, 2024

Il contrasto alla tratta di persone risulta per l’Unione europea strategico e riveste primaria importanza. Della tratta di persone, del resto, è riconosciuta la gravità visto che è tra le forme di reato di dimensione europea espressamente richiamate dal TFUE, in particolare all’art. 83. Il quadro giuridico dell’Unione ha per caposaldo la dir. 2011/36, adottata con l’obiettivo di prevenire e contrastare il fenomeno, oltre che per proteggerne le vittime. La strategia 2021-2025 aveva individuato alcuni punti critici nell’azione europea e, coerentemente con quanto in essa descritto, la Commissione europea ha presentato una proposta che, modificando la direttiva, sembra innovare – almeno parzialmente – gli strumenti attualmente in essere. Il presente contributo, dopo aver rapidamente riepilogato lo stato dell’arte, guarderà: i) alle novità in vista; ii) alle discussioni in sede istituzionale; iii) agli effetti che conseguirebbero dall’approvazione del testo di riforma, anche in relazione all’applicazione di altre rilevanti disposizioni di diritto dell’Unione.

Thom Davies, Arshad Isakjee, Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik, The Politics of Injury: Debilitation and the Right to Maim at the EU Border, in Geopolitics, 2024

Borders are sites of mass injury. This article questions the necro-consensus that has emerged within migration studies, and explores the political role that less-than-deadly violence plays at contemporary borders. By withholding from outright killing, and thus avoiding the optics of public scrutiny, EU states are deploying a carefully calibrated politics of injury designed to control racialised groups through debilitation. The injuries produced through this border regime—typified by illegal ‘pushbacks’ and deplorable camp conditions—exist beneath a threshold of liberal acceptability. In short, EU states routinely deny the right to asylum by imposing the ‘right to maim’ (Puar 2017). This article draws upon long-term research along the ‘Balkan Route’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, including interviews with medics, activists, EU officials, and people on the move, as well as analysis of a large border violence database. We argue that mass injury has become a politically tolerated form of violence that perversely provides the EU with the illusory conceit of humanitarian “care”. In dialogue with postcolonial scholarship that has questioned the centrality of death within biopolitics, we assert the importance of interrogating not only the necropolitical logics of migration policy (i.e death), but also the politics of non-lethal violence: the strategic and attenuated delivery of injury, maiming, and incapacitation that shapes contemporary borders. Contributing to geographies of violence and critical border studies, we suggest that greater attention is needed towards less-than-deadly harms that underpin contemporary political geographies.

Patrizia De Pasquale, Tra il dire e il fare c’è di mezzo il mare: il Nuovo (ma non troppo) Patto per la migrazione e l’asilo, in Diritto pubblico comparato ed europeo, 2024, n. 1

Quando il 20 dicembre scorso, a chiusura del semestre di presidenza spagnola, è stato annunciato il raggiungimento di un accordo tra Consiglio e Parlamento europeo sul “Nuovo Patto per la migrazione e l’asilo” (d’ora in avanti Nuovo Patto), gli osservatori hanno tirato un sospiro di sollievo, sperando che la lunga aspettativa fosse (almeno in parte) soddisfatta. L’accordo, infatti, è arrivato dopo sette anni di discussioni (considerando anche il precedente “pacchetto” presentato nel 2016) e una notte di negoziati. Ma, già dopo una veloce e superficiale lettura, la speranza si è tradotta, prima, in perplessità e, poi, in delusione. L’intera operazione può essere racchiusa, invero, in una triste e proverbiale frase: la montagna ha partorito un topolino!

Ivan Ingravallo, Gli strumenti di controllo sul rispetto dei diritti fondamentali nelle attività operative di Frontex, in Quaderni AISDUE, 2024

Il contributo si occupa dell’Agenzia europea della guardia di frontiera e costiera (Frontex). Creata nel 2004, essa aveva inizialmente un ruolo limitato di assistenza e coordinamento, ma nel corso degli anni, ha acquisito importanti funzioni operative e sono state aumentate le sue risorse umane e finanziarie. Tuttavia, l’esercizio di queste funzioni ha sollevato preoccupazioni sul rispetto dei diritti umani durante le operazioni, soprattutto nei respingimenti e nei salvataggi nel Mediterraneo. Sono esaminati i meccanismi di controllo interni all’Agenzia progressivamente introdotti attraverso i numerosi regolamenti di riforma, che integrano quelli esterni alla medesima, come il Mediatore europeo, il Parlamento europeo, la Corte dei conti e l’OLAF. Viene anche considerato il ruolo della Corte di giustizia dell’UE, anche se i ricorsi proposti hanno incontrato un’interpretazione restrittiva da parte del Tribunale. Nel complesso, questi meccanismi di controllo hanno migliorato la trasparenza di Frontex e il suo atteggiamento nei confronti della tutela dei diritti fondamentali.

Giuseppe Niccolò Imperlino, Il trattamento delle persone detenute negli hotspots italiani nella recente giurisprudenza della Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo, in Rivista OIDU, 2024, n. 1

In recent judgments by the European Court of Human Rights, Italy was found to be in breach of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. Specifically, they concern the: prohibition of torture (art. 3), right to liberty and security (art. 5, paras 1, 2 and 4), and prohibition of collective expulsion of migrants (art. 4, Prot. 4 to the Convention). The above-mentioned rulings spotlight violations of critical human rights in the treatment of migrants within Italian hotspots. In particular, these focus on detention conditions, legality of detention, and the expulsion processes for Tunisian migrants from the Lampedusa hotspot. This paper seeks to deepen the analysis of the juridical innovations of the afore- mentioned decisions. Indeed, they represent a key enhancement of migrants’ human rights protection. Furthermore, this paper delves into the recognition of the prohibition of inhumane treatment as absolute right, the legislative loopholes in the Italian system regarding hotspots, and the right to an individual examination prior to expulsion decisions. Finally, it scrutinizes the Italian legislative responses aimed at clarifying the hotspots legal framework and addresses potential concerns arising from the recent agreement on migrant reception between Italy and Albania.

Giulia Mori, The Impact of Covid-19 on NGOs’ Provision of Primary Healthcare and Its Utilisation by Irregular Migrants in Italy, in IMI Working Papers, 2024

This paper examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on non-governmental organisations’ (NGOs) provision of primary healthcare services and its utilisation by irregular migrants in Italy. Through 30 semi-structured qualitative interviews with key informants – NGO members and healthcare professionals – and migrants, the study highlights the critical role of NGOs in bridging healthcare gaps for irregular migrants, particularly during the pandemic. The study also identifies challenges irregular migrants face in accessing public healthcare in Italy, including bureaucratic barriers in obtaining special healthcare registration cards (STP and ENI codes). Policy implications include facilitating regularisation processes, increasing funding for public healthcare, and harmonising interpretations of norms governing healthcare access across regions. Networking among NGOs and associations is encouraged to enhance comprehensive support for irregular migrants. At the same time, information improvement is vital to mitigate disparities in healthcare access and utilisation among different regions and to empower migrants in seeking timely and relevant healthcare. Overall, the study contributes to understanding the dynamics between NGOs, irregular migrants, and healthcare services during crises, advocating for an inclusive healthcare system based on the human right to health.

Christina Oelgemöller, Audrey Lenoël, Richard Black, ‘Beneficiary-Ownership’? Redemptive Knowledge and Policy-Making on Migration in West Africa, in Geopolitics, 2024

West Africa sees major activity in the development of migration policies, promoted by international organisations, funded by governments mainly of Europe. Policy development is couched in terms of ‘beneficiary-ownership’, stressing the participation of West African governments. This is problematised as playing down the influence of European and international organisations. We argue that policy-making on migration in West Africa is better understood through the lens of ‘subjectional diplomacy’, a one-sided yet complex relationship between national and international actors that consolidates particular discourses of the ‘problem’ of migration. We find interview and documentary evidence from NGOs and governmental actors across Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea as well as ECOWAS Headquarters and international governmental organisations in Abuja that the logic of beneficiary-ownership is not symmetric. We show how the IOM holds ‘redemptive’ knowledge that turns the civilising mission of old into a professionalising mission embedding neo-colonial relations.

Allison Östlund, A Review Review: Mapping Judicial Scrutiny in the Fields of Migration, Trade and the EMU, in European Public Law, 2024, n. 2

This article explores judicial review within the European Union, with a view to the role of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in overseeing the political branches. Judicial review assumes significance in upholding political accountability and preventing the potential abuse of power. To shed light on the practical aspects of the CJEU’s practices, the article conducts an empirical analysis of rulings in three policy fields: trade, migration, and the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), focusing on variables such as legality, review standards, assessment of legal bases, and competence. The findings reveal varying standards of scrutiny, with both policy area and the intensity of review being associated with the CJEU’s de facto strike-down rates. This study highlights the evolving nature and function of judicial review, where the tension between discretion, democratic accountability, and the separation of powers persists.

Parvati Raghuram, Markus Roos Breines, Ashley Gunter, De-migranticizing as methodology: rethinking migration studies through immobility and liminality, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024, n. 12

De-migranticization is becoming a core strategy for overcoming the fetishization of migrants in migration studies. However, this shift in perspectives raises questions about what categories to use instead. This paper contributes to these debates by considering the potential of studying immobility as a tool for de-migranticization. It looks at immobility through the lens of liminality: as a transitory phase, as a transformative stage and as one which enables epistemological subversion. In doing so, it goes beyond other border spanning terms to offer methodological insights into using immobility and liminality to de-migranticize. The paper suggests that these qualities of reading immobility through theories of liminality has implications for when, where and how to study migration. The empirical case draws on 165 semi-structured interviews with distance education students from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Nigeria studying at the University of South Africa (UNISA).

Lukas Schmid, Responding to unauthorized residence: on a dilemma between ‘firewalls’ and ‘regularizations’, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024, n. 12

Residence of unauthorized immigrants is a stable feature of the Global North’s liberal democracies. This article asks how liberal-democratic policymakers should respond to this phenomenon, assuming both that states have incontrovertible rights and interests to assert control over immigration and that unauthorized residence is nevertheless an entrenched fact. It argues that a set of liberal-democratic commitments gives policymakers strong reason to implement both so-called ‘firewall’ and ‘regularization’ policies, thereby protecting unauthorized immigrants’ basic needs and interests and officially incorporating many of them in society. It then explains that the background imperative of immigration control creates a dilemmatic tension between these policies, as regularization is envisaged alongside the removal of the ineligible, which is in turn hindered by the implementation of firewalls. This creates a dilemma between the pursuit of two policy goals that are both underwritten by the same value commitments. Though it cannot be entirely dissolved, I argue that the best way to mitigate this dilemma is to design regularization policy in a way that leaves only a small number of unauthorized immigrants subject to removal.

Cecilia Siccardi, La legge di ratifica ed esecuzione del Protocollo Italia-Albania per il rafforzamento della collaborazione in materia migratoria: problematiche costituzionali, in Osservatorio AIC, 2024, n. 2

L’articolo mira ad analizzare le principali problematiche costituzionali relative alla legge di ratifica ed esecuzione del Protocollo Italia-Albania, che consentirà di trasportare e trattenere in Albania persone migranti al fine di accertarne i requisiti di ingresso. Nello specifico, il lavoro si interroga sull’effettività dei principi costituzionali nei centri albanesi, indagando in particolare la conformità della legge di ratifica con le garanzie accordate al diritto d’asilo, alla libertà personale e al diritto di difesa.

Ubaldo Villani-Lubelli, Cittadinanza e denatalità: le sfide della politica. Una comparazione tra Germania e Italia, in Diritto pubblico comparato ed europeo, 2024, n. 1

The aim of the essay is to illustrate how streamlining the process of acquiring citizenship can serve as an effective short-term instrument strategy to mitigate the impact of demographic decline. Italy and Germany have both witnessed comparable demographic shifts. Nevertheless, Germany has been actively reforming its citizenship acquisition procedures since 1999, with ongoing effort to make them even more accessible. In contrast, Italy’s process remains notably inflexible. The findings emphasize the success of policies adopted in the German Federal Republic and underscore the difficulties in addressing a phenomenon as intricate as the birth rate in Italy.

Post

Merijn Chamon, A Rejoinder to Citizenship for Sale (Commission v Malta), in Verfassungsblog, 15 aprile 2024

In his piece on Citizenship for Sale of 14 April 2024, Joseph Weiler criticizes the European Commission’s infringement procedure against Malta’s golden passport scheme. The reason why the Commission should (or could) not have brought the case and the Court should not uphold it, essentially seems to come down to the triple argument that: – The EU does not have competence to regulate national citizenship, as a result of which the Commission should not be allowed to circumvent this lack of competence by going to the Court pursuant to Article 258 TFEU; – The fundamental status of EU citizenship (which would provide the basis to argue that Malta can be restricted under EU law as to whom it grants national citizenship) was created ex nihilo; – The Commission focuses on golden passport schemes although it recognizes that golden residence schemes (of other Member States) are qualitative as problematic but quantitatively more significant. While the present reply does not argue that the Court will necessarily find in the Commission’s favour, the Commission’s legal claim and strategy do not seem to be as (constitutionally) problematic as Weiler make them out to be.

Maciej Grześkowiak, Pushbacks From Europe’s Borders Enter the Mainstream, in Verfassungsblog, 24 aprile 2024

The Polish reckoning with the illiberal turn of the past years (Transition 2.0, as it was recently branded) seemingly does not apply to the unlawful practice of pushbacks on the Poland-Belarus border. This post frames this realisation as another signal that restrictive, oftentimes unlawful practices related to border management, best exemplified by (but not limited to) pushbacks, have come to be accepted, if not desirable, in the European mainstream. Together with the adoption of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum by MEPs a few days ago, the fact of pushbacks becoming commonplace at Europe’s borders is indicative of a profound erosion of the right to seek asylum across the EU. The post claims that this erosion runs deeper than retreats from safeguards for asylum-seekers, which the Pact will codify at the EU level. The humanitarian crisis on the Poland-Belarus border and its handling by the new government, together with its decision to vote against the Pact, vividly illustrates this point.

Falk Matthies, Schengen’s Paper Pushbacks, in Verfassungsblog, 22 aprile 2024

Expulsions without procedural safeguards have become common practice at internal borders throughout the EU. The Readmission Agreement relied on at the EU’s internal border between Croatia and Slovenia, for instance, has been criticized for facilitating “paper pushbacks,” enabling collective expulsions without access to an asylum procedure, no legal protection, no identification of vulnerabilities, and only providing documentation individuals are forced to sign in a foreign language. At the German-Austrian border, a remarkably low number of asylum applications, despite recognition rates of over 99 percent with regard to the main countries of origin, has indicated that many are denied the opportunity to submit an asylum application. In France, the lack of return procedures at the French-Italian border was successfully challenged by civil society organizations. The proposed regulation raises concerns over its unclear resolution of potential conflict with EU secondary and primary law, particularly its incompatibility with children’s rights standards, and its application in practice.

Violeta Moreno-Lax, Solidarity Crimes, Legitimacy Limits, in Verfassungsblog, 17 aprile 2024

The criminalisation of humanitarianism has become pervasive in the EU over the last two decades. Overbroad definitions of the crimes of facilitation of irregular entry, transit and stay produce well known noxious effects on the human rights of migrants and civil society organisations. Nevertheless, the tendency has been to tighten the rules rather than contesting the EU’s failure to pursue a migration control system that is ‘fair towards third-country nationals’ and constructed ‘with respect for fundamental rights’ (Art 67 TFEU). The Commission is in fact currently considering a reform that risks exacerbating the overcriminalization trend. The process normalises hostility and ignores that what human rights defenders do is not only morally laudable, harmless and blameless conduct, but also aligns with the founding principles of the EU (Art 2 TEU); their interventions are examples of ‘civil obedience’ and adherence to the constitutional framework provided for by the Treaties.

Claudio Panzera, Considerazioni sparse intorno al Nuovo Patto UE su migrazioni e asilo, in Lettera AIC, Aprile 2024

Pochi giorni fa il Parlamento europeo ha varato un pacchetto di misure legislative volte a ridefinire la politica comune in materia di asilo e immigrazione. Giunge quasi al traguardo il progetto di riforma presentato nel settembre 2020 dalla Commissione von der Leyen (il New Pact on Migration and Asylum, che sostituisce integralmente la precedente proposta della Commissione Junker del 2016), dopo un travagliato percorso che ha subito una decisa accelerazione solo a metà del 2023 e portato, lo scorso dicembre, al raggiungimento di un’intesa politica fra Parlamento e Consiglio su cinque pilastri della riforma (le nuove discipline in materia di screening, di rilevamento dei dati biometrici, di procedure per il riconoscimento della protezione, di gestione dell’asilo e della migrazione, delle situazioni di crisi e forza maggiore).

Deniz S. Sert, Why Türkiye matters for Europe’s migration challenges, in Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung EU, 24 aprile 2024

While the European Union is poised for alteration, it becomes important more than ever to remember why Türkiye matters for Europe’s migration challenges. The EU needs a stable Türkiye. A country in severe economic and political conditions, lacking sufficient support for refugees and migrants, perfectly illustrates the push factors that drive further migration where the EU is a near destination. A stable Türkiye benefits the EU, the population in Türkiye, and the surrounding region. This cannot be achieved with unfair policies.

Joseph H.H. Weiler, Citizenship for Sale (Commission v Malta), in Verfassungsblog, 14 aprile 2024

The Maltese “passports for sale” (Golden Passports) was big news a year or two ago but has now disappeared below the radar of public attention. Yet, the mills of justice might grind slowly, but grind they do. The case brought by the Commission against Malta is scheduled to be heard by the CJEU sometime later this year.

Stefano Zirulia, Refoulement As A Crime, in Verfassungsblog, 2 aprile 2024

Last month, the Italian Court of Cassation upheld the (suspended) sentence of one year’s imprisonment of the shipmaster of the Italian ship Asso28. He was convicted of two offences of abandonment for returning and handing around 100 migrants over to the personnel of a Libyan patrol boat, including some unaccompanied minors and pregnant women, whom he had previously rescued in international waters within the Libyan SAR zone. The case constitutes the first time an individual was held criminally responsible for failing to fulfil the duty of non-refoulement. Although there is no specific offence in the Italian legal system that penalizes the violation of the principle of non-refoulement, the Court of Cassation held that its violation may constitute the criminal offences of abandonment provided for by the Penal Code (Article 591) and the Code of Navigation (Article 1155). As a result, the principle of non-refoulement has acquired a novel role in the criminal law context. Until recently, it was taken into account just in order to exclude the liability of shipmasters who had complied with it, whenever they were accused of facilitating irregular immigration. Now, a new and even more far-reaching function of the principle seems to be emerging, namely that of grounding the criminal liability of those who violate it.

Libri

Marco Benvenuti, Paolo Morozzo della Rocca (a cura di), Università e studenti stranieri, Un’analisi giuridica dell’accesso all’istruzione superiore in Italia da parte dei cittadini di Paesi terzi, Editoriale Scientifica, 2024

Emma Dunlop, Access to Courts for Asylum Seekers and Refugees, State Obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, OUP, 2024

In Access to Courts for Asylum Seekers and Refugees, Emma Dunlop focuses on the scope and content of article 16 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Under this article, States are obligated to provide asylum seekers and refugees with access to courts. This obligation entails a requirement to ensure ‘effective’ access, which may call for accommodations to be made to address individual vulnerabilities -where, for example, a person does not speak the language of the court or lacks easy access to a lawyer. It also guarantees additional rights to those who have attained ‘habitual residence’ in the host country. Access to courts is a critical gateway right, the denial of which can prevent a person from defending other rights under domestic law. Yet, until now, article 16 has not received extensive scrutiny. In the first dedicated monograph on article 16 of the 1951 Convention, Dunlop positions the article within the broader context of international human rights law, customary international law, and general principles of law, presenting a comprehensive account of asylum seekers’ and refugees’ right of access to courts. Taking an evolutionary approach to treaty interpretation, the book interrogates the scope and content of the article, evaluating the extent of its obligations. Despite developments in international human rights law since the article’s adoption, Access to Courts for Asylum Seekers and Refugees argues that it remains a relevant and robust source of protection. Offering rigorous and reasoned analysis of this critical provision, Dunlop advances a principled approach to interpreting article 16.

Engin Isin, Citizenship. New Trajectories in Law, Routledge, 2024

This book outlines a critical theory of citizenship, with an emphasis on how citizenship institutes power relations and organises the rights and obligations of those who become its subjects. Whether it is the question of the rights of animals, children, migrants, minorities, mothers, or mountains, and whether such rights are protected or guaranteed by national law, international law, or human rights law, the issue of citizenship has already indelibly marked the 21st century. As an institution, citizenship governs the relationship between a polity and its peoples by dividing them into citizens and noncitizens, with differentiated rights and obligations. So necessarily, this book argues, citizenship is an institution of domination and emancipation that brings into play the struggles of those who want to protect certain privileges and the struggles of those who are against being caught in either second-class or noncitizen categories. Deconstructing dominant theories and practices of citizenship, a critical theory of citizenship must, therefore, not only analyse intersecting rights, but also connect citizenship to these broader social struggles. For it is these struggles, the book maintains, that give meaning to citizenship itself. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in sociolegal studies, sociology, politics, and as well as those working in citizenship, migration, and refugee studies.

Articoli

Umberto Castagnini, Massimiliano Sturiale, Procedure accelerate e mancato rispetto dei termini: intervengono le Sezioni Unite, in Questione Giustizia, 2024

Con la sentenza n. 11399 del 9 aprile 2024 le Sezioni Unite della Corte di Cassazione – su rinvio pregiudiziale sollevato dal Tribunale di Bologna – prendono posizione in ordine al tema delle conseguenze derivanti dal superamento dei termini nelle procedure c.d. accelerate. La pronuncia, nel risolvere il contrasto sviluppatosi tra le varie Sezioni Specializzate, apre numerosi spunti di riflessione.

Carla Di Martino, La tutela degli stranieri contro le discriminazioni nella giurisprudenza costituzionale più recente, in federalismi.it, 2024, n. 11

L’articolo esamina i nuovi spunti che provengono dalla più recente giurisprudenza costituzionale sull’accesso degli stranieri alle provvidenze sociali. Tale questione è valutata alla luce dell’evoluzione dell’indirizzo del Giudice delle leggi sulla c.d. «doppia pregiudizialità» e sulle ipotesi di «legame univoco» tra Carta di Nizza e diritto derivato dell’Unione europea. In particolare, l’articolo mette in rilievo la formulazione di un nuovo protocollo operativo che i giudici comuni possono utilizzare allorquando sia esperita un’azione civile contro la discriminazione. Quest’ultimo intende osservare la logica della «massimizzazione delle tutele», purtuttavia solleva alcune riflessioni sugli equilibri relazionali tra potere legislativo e potere giudiziario e sul rapporto tra formanti di matrice legislativa e di matrice giurisprudenziale.

Hein de Haas, Changing the Migration Narrative: On the Power of Discourse, Propaganda and Truth Distortion, in IMI Working Paper, 2024

Despite huge improvement in data and research on migration, most scientific knowledge about migration is ignored in polarized public debates about migration. Migration policies are frequently ineffective or backfire, because they are not based on a scientific understanding of the nature, causes and consequences of migration. ‘Talking truth to power’ will not solve this problem, because politicians, international organizations, and mass media routinely ignore evidence that challenges dominant narratives or actively distort the truth about migration. Four narratives dominate public debates: the (1) Mass Migration Narrative, the (2) Migration Threat Narrative, the (3) Migrant Victim Narrative and the (4) Migration Celebration Narrative. These powerful narratives are one-sided, misrepresent the true nature of migration, and largely disregard migrant agency. This reveals the need for researchers to communicate their insights directly to the general public based on a long-term vision of migration as an intrinsic part of global change and development instead of a priori as a ‘problem to be solved’ or a ‘solution to problems’. The goal should not be to prescribe a particular policy agenda, but to equip the largest possible audiences with knowledge that will enable them to critically scrutinize claims made by politicians, pundits, and interest groups, and see through the various forms of misinformation and propaganda that abound on this subject.

Mariana Gkliati, Shaping the Joint Liability Landscape? The Broader Consequences of WS v Frontex for EU Law, in European Papers, 2024, n. 1

The Insight delves into the CJEU judgment of WS et al. v Frontex, the first action for damages against the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, for human rights violations at the EU’s external borders. Despite the prevalence of systemic violations and heightened attention to the agency’s accounta- bility, the Court, applying a stringent causality threshold, dismissed the claim, sidestepping crucial questions of positive obligations and responsibility attribution. The analysis critiques the judgment’s shortcomings in causality assessment, emphasising its broader repercussions for EU law, particularly con- cerning liability frameworks and accountability dynamics within the new multi-actor reality of EU integrated administration. The Insight underscores the pressing need to reevaluate the existing competence model of determining liability in EU law to address its limitations and introduces the classification of these limitations as the binary of causality and the binary of jurisdiction. The CJEU’s reluctance to establish an effective framework for joint liability not only perpetuates contested accountability gaps but also risks establishing precarious areas devoid of accountability, thereby compromising the foundational principles of the Rule of Law in the European Union. The Insight concludes with a call to address these shortcomings, emphasising that rectification is not merely a matter of procedural refinement but a crucial step towards ensuring robust accountability mechanisms in EU law.

Elżbieta Karska, European Paradigm of the Protection of Aliens: Categorisation of Foreigners Seeking International Protection in the European Union, in International Community Law Review, 2024, n. 3

This article aims to present an analysis of the categorization of foreigners (aliens) seeking international protection in the European Union from the perspective of the European paradigm of the protection of aliens. Firstly, semantic issues related to understanding the concept of ‘foreigners’ will be presented. This element of the analysis will be crucial for further considerations, as by delineating definitional boundaries, it will determine the picture of identifiable categories of foreigners. Secondly, an outline of European Union legislation forming the legal basis for the main analysis will be presented. Attention will be focused on legal acts from which general and specific categories of foreigners seeking international protection in the European Union can be interpreted. Thirdly, general categories will be presented along with an explanation of their functions in law. Fourthly, specific categories will be presented along with an explanation of their functions in law at the stage of qualification, reception, and procedure. This paper will conclude with a concise summary containing recommendations and other conclusions.

Ronald Kwon, William J. Scarborough, Roberto Gallardo, Configurations of attitudes toward immigration in Europe: evidence of polarization, ambivalence, and multidimensionality, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024, n. 12

Scholarship on immigrant stereotypes suggest that individuals’ viewpoints toward immigration may be differentiated across the dimensions of culture and economics. In this study, we use latent class analysis, which avoids the assumption that attitudes are unidimensional, scalar, and polarized, to examine configurations of immigration attitudes in Europe from 2002 through 2010, a period of time leading up to and within the Great Recession. Analyzing a set of items capturing different aspects of immigration attitudes, we discover that although there are substantial segments of the European population who hold polarized anti- or pro-immigration attitudes, the most common viewpoint is ambivalence. Specifically, those with ambivalent attitudes feel that immigration enriches national culture but also believe that immigration has less benefits for the economy. Using an interrupted time series design, we explore how attitudinal configurations shifted with the onset of the Great Recession. The crisis coincided with a rise in ambivalent attitudes as economic threat grew more than concerns about culture.

Valsamis Mitsilegas, Elspeth Guild, Bartłomiej Oręziak, The UK and the echr After Brexit: The Challenge of Immigration Control, in European Convention on Human Rights Law Review, 2024, n. 1

This article examines the challenges that immigration control-related political imperatives in the United Kingdom (UK) have posed for UK compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights (echr) and evaluates the challenges that the UK’s moving away from echr compliance pose for its post-Brexit relationship with the European Union (EU) and its member states. The contribution begins with an examination of the constitutional parameters of UK (non-)compliance with the echr in the field of immigration control and the implications of this for the post-Brexit arrangements with the EU and its member states. The contribution then focuses on substantive immigration and refugee law and the impact of the current situation on asylum transfer co-operation within and outside of the EU. Through these areas, the article examines how EU law has infiltrated the interpretation of the echr with the result of raising standards of protection for asylum seekers and migrants and hampering the exercise of state sovereignty in the field.

Denard Veshi, Enkelejda Koka, Kristel Haxhia, Comments on the Albanian Constitutional Court V2-24: Is the Italy-Albanian Protocol Regarding Irregular Migration Constitutional?, in Rivista OIDU, 2024, n. 2

Irregular migration in the EU is becoming a “hot” political debate. Although the EU aims to develop a common policy on migration – Chapter II TFEU – in November 2023, after more than six months of discussions, the Italian and Albanian Governments signed a protocol regarding illegal migration. According to it, two areas in Albania are given to the Italian authorities for use without compensation for five years, with the possibility of silent renewal for another five years, to host not more than 3.000 illegal migrants who do not have the right to enter and stay in Italy. This paper examines the Albanian constitutional reaction to this Protocol since Albania is not an EU-Member State. In other words, Albania offers the use – understood in this context, from a private law approach – of its territory for externalizing the screening asylum process of irregular migrants arriving in Italy. Before the Albanian parliamentary approval, thirty deputies argued the unconstitutionality of this Protocol by filing a request to the Albanian Constitutional Court. According to them, this protocol deals with human rights and Albanian territory. As a result, the President should have been involved. While they underlined that this is also a political agreement, most of the Constitutional Court disagreed. In addition, this contribution also uncovers the dissenting opinions and suggests an innovative proposal since Albania has ratified Protocol No. 16 ECHR.

Cristina María Zamora-Gómez, The Best Interests of Refugee Girls Victims of Forced Marriage in the European Justice: Family Reunification and Private Life, in Rivista OIDU, 2024, n. 2

This paper focuses on the analysis of forced marriages that take place outside the European territory. Specifically, it analyses the right to family life and family reunification of child victims of forced marriage who are recognized as refugees in Europe. It raises as a research problem the dilemma between fighting against child marriages and the recognition of refugee girls’ privacy. It raises the question of whether, under the Model of Individual Child approach, in some cases it is advisable to recognize child marriage in the best interests of girls so that they can exercise their right to private and family life. For this purpose, two judgments will be taken as analysis, one from the Court of Justice of the European Union that resolves a preliminary question on the Directive on family reunification; and another from the European Court of Human Rights against Switzerland whose case focuses on the right to private and family life recognized in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Post

Gabriella Carella, Procedura di confine e procedura ai confini della realtà nel protocollo Italia-Albania in materia di migrazione, in SIDI Blog, 17 maggio 2024

Il vasto arsenale delle misure che gli Stati occidentali hanno elaborato ‒ con impegno e creatività degni di miglior causa ‒ al fine di aggirare il divieto di refoulement di persone che fuggono da gravi situazioni di pericolo, si è arricchito di recente di un nuovo meccanismo, introdotto con il Protocollo tra Italia e Albania in materia di migrazione del 6 novembre 2023 (Protocollo) e con la relativa legge 21 febbraio 2024 n. 14 che dispone autorizzazione alla ratifica, ordine di esecuzione e norme di attuazione (legge di ratifica) (v., in questo blog, i commenti di De Leo e Grattarola). Come in genere accade nelle innovazioni di ultima generazione, il sistema creato fa tesoro delle esperienze precedenti e realizza quindi una sorta di sincretismo tra le varie tattiche di elusione del refoulement, dando l’impressione di riuscire ad epurarle degli aspetti suscettibili di critica.

Vincent Chetail & Mariana Ferolla Vallandro do Valle, The Asylum Procedure Regulation and the Erosion of Refugee’s Rights, in EU Migration Law Blog, 23 maggio 2024

The images of boats packed with people arriving on the shores of Europe has fixed public imagination and continues to frame the political debate. According to the rumor spread by mass media and politicians, there is an invasion of ‘economic migrants’ who are abusing asylum procedures to enter into the EU territory irregularly. Although this rhetoric is all but true, it represents the main premise of the Pact on Migration and Asylum. A complicated array of regulations and directives has been adopted in April 2024 to address the ‘increased pressure resulting from the arrivals of mixed flows with a high proportion of those with low chances of receiving international protection’.

Philippe De Bruycker, Genealogy of and futurology on the pact on migration and asylum, in EU Migration Law Blog, 6 maggio 2024

Alleluia! The white smoke that rose above the European quarter in Brussels early in the morning of 20 December 2023, same as for the election of the Pope, was a signal that the EU policy makers would receive the New Pact on Migration and asylum as a Christmas gift. Following sleepless nights of negotiations under pressure to succeed, combined with fear of failure because there is “no agreement on anything as long as there is no agreement on everything”, the EU remained true to itself with the dramatic method it uses to adopt a broad compromise along a package of measures.

Chiara De Capitani, Hope is like the sun: Court of Justice ruling extends right to family reunification for refugee minors, in EU Law Analysis, 8 maggio 2024

At the time of writing, the European Parliament recently voted in favour of the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum, amidst warnings from over 50 Civil Society Organisations. According to Amnesty International, the agreement is “a continuation of a decade of policy that has led to the proliferation of rights violations in Europe [and] will have devastating implications for the right to international protection in the bloc and greenlight abuses across Europe including racial profiling, default de facto detention and pushbacks”. These agreements for new legislation have been analysed in this blog in several posts (1,2,3) with the post on the new Eurodac Regulation aptly titled “resistance is futile”. However, “hope is like the sun” and a ruling from the 30th of January reminds us of the judicial lawmaking role the Court of Justice of the European Union can play setting higher human rights standards than the ones negotiated at political level – in this case, on the right to family reunification.

Serena Greco, Protocollo Italia-Albania: sull’extraterritorialità del diritto UE e della tutela dei diritti costituzionali, in Diritti Comparati, 13 maggio 2024

Il 23 Febbraio 2024 è entrata in vigore la Legge 14/2024 di ratifica ed esecuzione del Protocollo Italia-Albania per il rafforzamento della collaborazione in materia migratoria, siglato il 6 novembre 2023 tra la presidente del Consiglio Giorgia Meloni e il premier Edi Rama. Dopo la sospensione del procedimento su richiesta di 30 deputati e previa verifica della Corte Costituzionale albanese, si è concluso anche in Albania il procedimento di ratifica del Protocollo.

Holger P. Hestermeyer, The UK Parliament, the UK-Rwanda Agreement and the CPTPP, in Verfassungsblog, 3 maggio 2024

On April 1, 2024, the Ponsonby Rule, the constitutional convention that set the standard for Parliament’s role in how the UK makes treaties, turned 100. But the procedure for Parliament’s involvement in treaty-making (which really only amounts to treaty scrutiny) is no longer fit for purpose and Parliament is increasingly unhappy with it.

Colin Murray, We’re all trying to find the Guy who did this … The Disapplication of the Illegal Migration Act in Northern Ireland, in EU Law Analysis, 15 maggio 2024

The courtroom was anything but packed on a grey Monday morning in Belfast. There were no camera crews outside. And yet, for a small band of cognoscenti who gathered to hear Humphreys J’s decision, something significant was about to happen. The UK Government’s keystone migration legislation, the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (providing for the “outsourcing” of asylum claims to third countries), was about to be confronted with the fact that it had made extensive rights commitments specific to Northern Ireland within the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement. Either these immigration measures were going to be found not to apply to Northern Ireland, or some violence was going to be inflicted upon the rights commitments made to Northern Ireland.

Colin Murray, Steve Peers, High Trust Arrangements in a Low Trust Context: The Rwanda Policy’s impact on the Common Travel Area, in EU Migration Law Blog, 30 aprile 2024

The latest spat between the UK and Ireland over the knock-on consequences of the UK’s Rwanda policy exposes the tangled web of EU law and Common Travel Area (CTA) arrangements which now cover the interactions between both countries’ immigration policies. This post considers these interactions and proposals of the Irish Government to legislate in light of the Irish High Court decision in A v Minister for Justice.

Steve Peers, Restoring the Borderless Schengen Area: Mission Impossible? Summary of a new report, in EU Migration Law Blog, 8 maggio 2024

My European Policy Analysis report on the amendments to the Schengen Borders Code, published today by the Swedish Institute of European Policy Studies (SIEPS), assesses the likely impact of the recently agreed amendments to the Schengen Borders Code. This blog post is a summary of the main points of the report. The context of the report is the concerns about the reintroduction of border checks at the internal borders of Schengen countries in recent years for long periods by a number of Member States. The EU has embarked upon a strategy to ‘save Schengen’, in part by amending the Schengen Borders Code to change the rules on internal border checks (among other changes), but also by agreeing major changes to EU asylum law alongside a number of other measures, for instance in the area of further police cooperation. The amendments to the Borders Code, along with most of the other proposals (including the asylum law changes), have now been agreed (on the asylum law changes, see the series of analyses on this blog beginning here). The report assesses the details of the Border Code amendments in the broader context, analysing whether they are likely to ‘save Schengen’ and whether they raise human rights concerns in the process.

Agostina Pirrello, Nigeria as a Safe Country of Origin?, in Verfassungsblog, 23 maggio 2024

On May 7th 2024 Italy updated its list of safe countries of origin (SCO) for the second time after the introduction of the notion in the national legal system in 2019. Notably, the latest update retained the most contentious addition to the list from last year, Nigeria. Until then, only Cyprus considered Nigeria as generally safe. The legal issues underlying this designation illustrate how country of origin information (COI), largely provided to Member States by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), is (mis)used to produce policy-based evidence rather than evidence-based policies. Even though EUAA’s expertise should in theory lead to fairer and more harmonized decisions on asylum matters, the case at issue shows why the converse is true. This is because knowledge produced by the Agency can be used by national administrations at their convenience: the Agency’s opinions are neither binding nor is there a mechanism in place to oversee how the information provided is used by national authorities.

Pia Lotta Storf, Bend it like Britain?, in Verfassungsblog, 14 maggio 2024

Is the current UK government “cowardly [and] reckless,” forcing its civil servants to implement ministerial decisions which violate human rights? This is the claim of the FDA, a trade union for British and Northern Irish public service staff. What happened? After months of parliamentary ping-pong, the UK Parliament passed the “Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act” in late April. Not even two weeks later, 66 persons were detained to be deported to Rwanda, and the FDA launched an unprecedented legal action before the High Court, claiming the Act conflicts with the Civil Service Code obligation to “uphold the rule of law and administration of justice”.

Martijn van den Brink, 3½ Myths about EU law on Citizenship for Sale, in Verfassungsblog, 7 maggio 2024

The sale of national and European Union citizenship understandably remains highly controversial. It seems arbitrary, perhaps even abject, to grant nationality in exchange for a monetary investment, when most people must wait years and overcome considerable hurdles before they can naturalize. Moreover, citizenship by investment (CBI) is associated with money laundering, tax evasion, and other security risks. But does that make it illegal under EU law? As evidenced by three recent posts on the Verfassungsblog by Joseph H.H. Weiler, Merijn Chamon, and Lorin-Johannes Wagner, this question continues to divide EU law scholars. It is also a question that is still plagued by several myths about how EU law and, relatedly, international law, apply to CBI practices. This post discusses 3½ such myths.

Kris van der Pas, Litigating the EU-Turkey Deal, in Verfassungsblog, 16 maggio 2024

On 8 April 2024, three Dutch NGOs, supported by a Dutch human rights law firm, sued the Netherlands for approving and carrying out the EU-Turkey deal. They argue that the Dutch government should be held responsible for the dire conditions under which asylum seekers have been held under on Greek islands since the deal has been concluded, which have repeatedly been found to violate human rights. The legal proceedings were initiated after an earlier warning last year by the same NGOs. This warning is required under Dutch procedural law, as proceedings cannot be initiated if the matter has not been attempted to be resolved otherwise.

Jens Vedsted-Hansen, Harmonisation of types of asylum procedures: new Regulation, old dilemmas, in EU Migration Law Blog, 17 maggio 2024

In light of the tremendous aspirations for the future of harmonisation of EU Member States’ asylum procedures when the process of reforming the Common European Asylum System was launched, it seems indispensable to examine whether and how the Asylum Procedure Regulation (EU) 2024/xx now adopted by the EU co-legislators is likely to fulfil the aims underlying the initial proposal for a Regulation. In the following, we shall attempt to elucidate the degree of harmonisation achieved with the new Regulation. Particular attention will be paid to the ‘special procedures’ according to Section IV of Chapter III of the Regulation which concerns the administrative procedure.

Libri 

Jonathan Blitzer, Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis, Penguin Putnam Inc., 2024

An epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported history of the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the southern border told through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate, by New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer. Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Hundreds of thousands of people who arrive every year at the US-Mexico border travel far from their homes. An overwhelming share of them come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, although many migrants come from farther away. Some are fleeing persecution, others crime or hunger. Very often it will not be their first attempt to cross. They may have already been deported from the United States, but it remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. Their homes have become uninhabitable. They will take their chances. This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time. Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience. With astonishing nuance and detail, Blitzer tells an epic story about the people whose lives ebb and flow across the border, and in doing so, he delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital and remarkable story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.

Articoli

European Journal of Migration and Law, 2024, vol. 26, n. 2 – Special Issue: Asylum for Containment: The contradictions of European external asylum policy

Gamze Ovacık, Thomas Spijkerboer, The Contradictions of European External Asylum Policy

Gamze Ovacık, Meltem Ineli-Ciger, Orçun Ulusoy, Taking Stock of the EU-Turkey Statement in 2024

Hiba Sha’ath, Fatma Raach, Cooperation within Reason: Tunisia’s Approach to Asylum and Readmission

Rados Djurovic, A Normative View from the Periphery: Serbia and the EU Asylum Acquis

Sara Benjelloun, The Influence of Diplomatic and Foreign Policy Considerations in the Making of Migration and Asylum Policy in Morocco

El-Sayed, The Elusive “Collectivised Refugee Protection”: The Case of the EU-Egypt Migration Cooperation

David Cantor, Bruce Burson, Brian Aycock et al., International Protection, Disasters and Climate Change, in International Journal of Refugee Law, 2024, vol. 20

Environmental factors contribute significantly to human movement. Even the earliest migrations from Africa into Eurasia reflected the “push” of environmental factors. Yet, since at least the 1970s, terms like “environmental refugees” and “climate refugees” have been increasingly used as (legally inaccurate) labels for people forced to leave their homes due to disasters and the adverse effects of climate change. It is certainly true that the scale of displacement in disaster situations can be substantial. Sudden-onset disasters linked to natural hazards, such as storms, flooding, volcanic eruptions and wildfires, triggered an estimated 336.7 million incidents of internal displacement between 2009 and 2022 worldwide. Slow-onset disasters, such as drought and desertification, also add significantly to internal migration and displacement trends. Moreover, although displacement in disaster contexts appears mainly to take place within countries, international mobility dynamics are also documented in the context of both sudden-onset and slow-onset disasters.5 Unchecked global climate change is likely only to exacerbate all these displacement trends.

Dimitrios Efthymiou, Between meeting quotas and following the duty-bound heart: navigating the formidable dilemma of refugee protection in the EU, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024, vol. 12

The provision of refuge to those fleeing persecution and danger is a complex matter that cannot be reduced to simply meeting admission quotas. While numerical targets for refugee admissions may seem like a straightforward way to ensure states are doing their fair share, an overemphasis on numbers risks obscuring the deeper moral issues at play. A truly robust approach to refugee protection requires that states act from the right kinds of reasons – a genuine commitment to the duty to provide safe haven to all refugees, regardless of their country of origin or the political expediency of admitting them. The worry is that if a state’s willingness to accept refugees fluctuates based on domestic political preferences and perceptions of national interest, rather than an unwavering recognition of the moral claims of the forcibly displaced, then the protection provided to refugees becomes contingent and precarious. A disposition to selectively protect only certain refugees undermines the very concept of refuge. However, in our non-ideal world, a commitment to the principle of robust refugee protection can run up against the hard reality of state non-compliance. If the only way to get some states to fulfil their duties is to allow them leeway in choosing which refugees to admit, we face a serious moral dilemma. Relaxing the demands of robustness may enable larger raw numbers of people to access refuge in the near term. However, it also risks eroding the norm of impartial consideration and creating a two-tier system of refugee protection. Ultimately, I argue, the dilemma between refugee numbers and robustness has no fully satisfying solution – it is an unavoidable product of our current circumstances of injustice and non-compliance. The best we can do is seek arrangements that ease this tension over time. This requires taking a nuanced, context-sensitive approach attuned to real-world constraints and trade-offs while still keeping sight of the moral lodestar of genuinely unconditional refuge for all who need it.

Francesco Luigi Gatta, The If and the How: Losing the EU Citizenship, but with Due Regard to the Due Process of (EU) Law, in European Papers, 2024, vol. 9, n. 1

The judgment in Stadt Duisburg, concerning the loss of German (and, thus, EU) citizenship in the context of naturalization proceedings, adds a new chapter to the “judicial saga” of loss of a Member State’s citizenship and compatibility of its national measures with EU law. This Insight focuses on such a case-law of the Court of Justice (“ECJ” or “the Court”), which reflects the compromise between the “untouchable” State sovereign competence in nationality matters and the gradual consolidation of a “procedural armour” assisting the loss of the EU citizenship and the rights attached thereto. Building on this assumption, the Insight retraces and examines the main principles of EU citizenship law elaborated by the Court via its case-law, inaugurated with its 2010 leading case Rottmann, and complemented with the latest additions of the 2024 judgment in Stadt Duisburg. The main idea emerging from this jurisprudence is that, essentially, the competence to establish criteria for the loss of nationality is, and remains, firmly in the Member States’ hands. Its exercise, though, is increasingly made contingent on the respect of basic, legal principles of EU procedural law, i.e., proportionality, effectiveness and due process of law. In other words, the ECJ does not intervene on the substantial side of the Member States’ competence (the “if”), but rather on the procedural one (the “how”), thereby influencing its concrete exercise.

Ilaria Roberti, Questioni connesse alla determinazione delle “quote massime” dei migranti economici dopo l’emanazione del c.d. “Decreto Cutro” (D.L. n. 20/2023), in federalismi.it, 2024, n. 12

Il contributo analizza alcune questioni connesse alla disciplina della migrazione economica dopo l’emanazione del D.l n. 20/2023. In particolare, si esaminerà l’“accorpamento” del Dpr nel Dpcm, il ruolo delle Commissioni parlamentari sulle “quote massime”, fino ad arrivare ad analizzare la governance a cui si ispira l’attuazione dell’art. 79 Tfue. Scopo del presente lavoro è comprendere se tali interventi normativi siano finalizzati a garantire il rispetto del numero di ingresso di tali soggetti nel territorio nazionale oppure se sottintendano anche una tutela della “dignità umana” dei migranti economici.

Giacomo Boffi, Eduard Suari-Andreu, Olaf van Vliet, The net fiscal position of migrants in Europe: trends and insights, in Transeuroworks Working Papers, 2024, n. 2

In this study, we measure and compare the net fiscal positions of native-born individuals, intra-EU migrants, and extra-EU migrants in 15 EU countries from 2007 to 2018. We do so by employing repeated cross-sectional data from the EU-SILC on personal income and welfare benefits (contributory and noncontributory). We combine these with OECD information on personal income taxes and social security contributions at the national and local levels. For most countries and years, we find that all three population groups are net fiscal recipients. However, natives receive larger amounts of contributory benefits than migrants, while the opposite is true for non-contributory benefits. As a contribution to the literature, we examine trends in the net fiscal positions of three population groups over time. In earlier years (2008-2011), the net fiscal positions of all three groups are negatively affected by the global financial crisis. However, by 2017 migrants recover their pre-2008 net fiscal position while natives remain at a considerably lower level. As a result, natives have the relatively most negative net fiscal position across most countries and years, with a growing fiscal gap with migrants. This finding is more accentuated in Southern European countries, where migrants are often net fiscal contributors.

Andrea Fiorentino, L’art. 80 della Costituzione alla prova della prassi: brevi note e spunti comparatistici a partire dal caso del Protocollo italo-albanese in materia migratoria, in Osservatorio AIC, 2024, n. 3

Il contributo intende far luce sul trattamento procedurale riservato al Protocollo sulla cooperazione in materia migratoria firmato da Italia e Albania il 6 novembre 2023, rispetto al quale si è assistito a una divaricazione tra l’itinerario inizialmente ipotizzato dal Governo (la conclusione in forma semplificata) e quello infine prescelto (la ratifica previa autorizzazione delle Camere ai sensi dell’art. 80 Cost.). La ricostruzione di questo caso offre un’occasione utile per riflettere sul modello costituzionale di ripartizione del treaty-making power e sulla sua debole prescrittività, ripetutamente compressa e nullificata da prassi governative elusive della sua lettera e del suo spirito. Tenendo anche conto delle indicazioni che emergono dal panorama comparato, e in modo particolare dal Regno Unito e dall’Albania, il saggio tenta di tracciare le direttrici di un auspicabile recupero della prescrittività dell’art. 80 Cost., soppesando tanto le soluzioni interne al circuito politico, quanto i rimedi giudiziari possibili de iure condito e de iure condendo.

Valentina Mazzucato, Diversifying analytical categories for studying youth with and without migration background: an example of mobility-based categories, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024, vol. 12

This article develops mobility-based categories for studying young people with and without a migration background. Most research on migrant youth uses the category of ethnicity, defined by a young person’s country of origin or that of their parents, or the category of generation, with migrants defined as first, second or 1.5 generation. But these categories hide the mobility that young people engage in, both for those youth who have migration in their biographies and those who do not. Mobility can entail migration, but also other kinds of trips such as study abroad, vacations, gap years, and family visits. In a globalising world the ability of young people to move is increasingly a marker of difference and therefore needs to be considered when studying young people’s lives. Using insights from the transnational and mobilities turns in the social sciences, this article argues that we need to develop new analytical categories that capture the various ways in which young people are mobile. Such mobility-based categories promise to shed light on young people’s lives in three ways. First such categories allow investigation of various elements of commonality and difference between youth, irrespective of where they or their parents come from. They allow us to go beyond the nation-state lens that still guides most large-scale migration research and to explore within-group differences. Second, mobility-based categories take young people’s past and present mobilities into account, allowing a temporal understanding of how mobility affects their lives. Finally, mobility-based categories are a way to operationalize the notion that mobility entails a process rather than a one-time move. The article explores what mobility-based categories could look like, based on a recent, large-N, primary data collection project on secondary-school student’s mobility in three European countries and one African one.

Sarah Perret, Violent Ends for Violent Devices? Non-Knowledge and the ‘Unreflexive’ Practices of EU’s Border Security Design, in Geopolitics, 2024

Since the early 2000s, the EU has funded many R&D projects on border security. However, devices developed through these programmes have met ‘violent ends’: firstly, by appearing to face abrupt ends after EU funding ceased; secondly, by materialising to serve as violent border devices. This article traces the fate of devices funded by the EU’s 7th Framework Programme for managing human and non-human movements. Theoretically, it adds to the literature on ignorance by approaching debates on non-knowledge through a Bourdieusian analytical lens, and methodologically, it proposes to mobilise the concept of ‘symbolic violence’ to investigate and compare what is acknowledged and what is not, what is obscured or obfuscated in and through R&D projects. Empirically, the paper examines several projects that aim to manage people and things on the move, and which have materialised in more or less overt ways. The article argues that projects focused on border security play a precursory role in the enactment of violent devices, and simultaneously obfuscate the non-knowledge of ‘violent ends’ that shape the future of the EU’s border governance. It shows that even if these projects do not apparently materialise, they nevertheless find ways of achieving their violent ends.

Piergiorgio Rafaiani, Tempi del trattenimento e “prassi applicative distorte”: la Corte costituzionale “sfiora” la disciplina della detenzione amministrativa dei migranti. Nota a Corte cost., sentenza n. 212 del 2023, in Osservatorio AIC, 2024, n. 3

La sentenza n. 212 del 2023 interviene in materia di trattenimento del richiedente asilo, nell’ipotesi in cui il soggetto formuli una domanda di protezione internazionale quando si trovi già in stato di detenzione e il Questore disponga la sua permanenza nel centro, valutando la domanda come strumentale ad impedire o ritardare l’esecuzione del rimpatrio. La Corte costituzionale, chiamata a valutare la legittimità della disciplina che stabilisce i tempi della convalida del nuovo provvedimento di trattenimento così disposto, pur dichiarando inammissibile la questione di legittimità per incompleta ricostruzione del quadro normativo rilevante, individua il momento da cui far decorrere i termini della convalida in quello dell’adozione del provvedimento formale che dispone il trattenimento in base al nuovo titolo. Inoltre, vengono avanzate alcune indicazioni pro futuro al giudice ordinario sulla valutazione della norma omessa dal rimettente, al fine di evitare l’indeterminatezza dei tempi del trattenimento. In questo contesto il riferimento a «prassi applicative distorte» sembra costituire un argomento a favore di una più precisa definizione dei tempi della procedura in questione, che tuteli la libertà personale del soggetto da indebite dilazioni temporali dovute ai ritardi dell’amministrazione di pubblica sicurezza.

Stephan Scheel, The Deportation Gap as a Statistical Chimera: How Nonknowledge Informs Migration Policies, in Geopolitics, 2024

Since the 2015 ‘migration crisis’, various measures have been introduced in Europe to enforce deportations. They include detention in prison-like facilities, unannounced executions of deportations at night-time and the scraping of legal safeguards like medical reasons prohibiting deportations. These evidently violent measures are justified with alarmist reports which suggest, supported by statistical knowledge, an ever-widening ‘deportation gap’. The term refers to the divergence between the number of migrants issued with a return order and the much smaller number of deportations. Illustrated through the case of Germany, this article combines insights from ignorance studies with a sociology of translation to show that the claim of a widening deportation gap is a statistical chimera that is based on various kinds and sources of nonknowledge. Contrary to actor-based approaches in ignorance studies, it is argued that this nonknowledge is not reducible to the production of ‘strategic ignorance’ (McGoey 2019) by policy actors seeking to advance their agenda. Rather, the production and circulation of nonknowledge appears to be dispersed and messy as it is facilitated by complex and fragile sociotechnical networks. In this way, a sociology of translation allows scholars to avoid the impression of entertaining a conspirational logic in the study of strategic ignorance and other forms of nonknowledge.

Anna Talbot, Anthea Vogl, Sara Dehm, The Gender- and Sexuality-Based Harms of Refugee Externalization: A Role for Human Rights Due Diligence, in International Journal of Refugee Law, 2024, vol. 20

Refugee externalization arrangements are increasingly common in refugee-receiving global North States. Such arrangements have broad-ranging and significant human rights implications, especially (but not only) for refugee women and LGBTQI refugees who may be at increased risk of gender- or sexuality-based harm. This is particularly the case where refugees are placed in situations of risk or harm as a result of a ‘sending’ State’s extraterritorial regime, or where domestic laws in receiving States outlaw certain practices such as pregnancy termination or same-sex sexual activity. There has been limited scholarly analysis of the gendered impacts of externalization policies, and States rarely take into account the gendered implications of externalization when implementing these policies. This article examines the possibilities and limits of international human rights law to protect refugees at risk of gender- and sexuality-based harms through a focus on States’ positive due diligence obligations. While there is limited jurisprudence on the scope of such obligations in the context of refugee externalization, the article emphasizes that due diligence human rights obligations require sending States to adopt effective measures to protect people from unlawful discrimination and from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Due diligence obligations also offer a vital accountability mechanism for violations in extraterritorial settings through their potential preventative, remedial, and visibility functions. Using the case study of Australia’s extraterritorial asylum regime in the Pacific, the article argues that such obligations encompass identifying and addressing foreseeable risks of gender- and sexuality-based harm, both prior to forcibly transferring refugees abroad and on an ongoing basis. Further, it argues that the gender- and sexuality-based human rights impacts of Australia’s externalization regime have immediate and urgent relevance as other States consider or implement similar policies.

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Gavin Barrett, Rule of Law Chickens Coming Home to Roost. The Ruling in Case C-123/22 European Commission v Hungary, in Verfassungsblog, 21 giugno 2024

Ongoing assaults by Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz administration on the rule of law in Hungary have produced manifold reactions, generally of depressingly limited effectiveness. Last week, on 13 June 2024, in Case C-123/22 European Commission v Hungary, the Court ordered a record lump sum payment of €200,000,000 and a penalty payment of €1,000,000 per day of delay until an earlier 2020 Court ruling is complied with. Hungary thus received a stinging reminder that the Court of Justice is not toothless when it comes to the rule of law.

Meltem Ineli-Ciger, Navigating the Labyrinth of Derogations: A Critical Look at the Crisis Regulation, in EU Migration Law Blog, 10 giugno 2024

Regulation (EU) 2024/1359 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 addressing situations of crisis and force majeure in the field of migration and asylum and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1147 (hereinafter Crisis Regulation) establishes a legal framework for Member State responses to exceptional migration-related circumstances, including mass influx of refugees and migrants, force majeure situations such as pandemic, and even politically motivated manipulation of migratory movements. The extensive amendments the Parliament introduced, as well as the merging crisis and instrumentalisation issues, have arguably rendered the Crisis Regulation a labyrinthine framework. The numerous references to other EU Regulations further contribute to its complexity. This post makes a critical, up-to-date legal analysis of the Crisis Regulation, particularly its derogation regime applicable in crisis and force majeure situations (instrumentalisation will be covered in another post by Iris Goldner Lang).

Francesco Maiani, Responsibility-determination under the new Asylum and Migration Management Regulation: plus ça change…, in EU Migration Law Blog, 18 giugno 2024

“Solidarity” and “responsibility” were dominant themes in the discussions that led to the new Pact. During the crisis, responsibility foundered amidst falling standards and wave-through practices, while solidarity was shown to be tenuous indeed. After the crisis, failure to find an agreed balance between responsibility and solidarity sealed the fate of the 2016 Commission proposals. In 2020, the Commission went so far as to state that “[t]here is currently no effective solidarity mechanism in place, and no efficient rule on responsibility”, and promised a “fresh start” entailing the “aboli[tion of] the Dublin Regulation” and the institution of a new solidarity mechanism. The new Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (EU) 2024/1351 (hereafter “the Regulation” or “AMMR”) keeps both promises, formally speaking: on July 1, 2026, it will abolish the Dublin III Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 (hereafter “DRIII”) and introduce new rules on responsibility as well as a new governance framework and permanent solidarity mechanism (see Art. 1 and 83ff AMMR). Will this have a “transformative impact” and “[set] the stage for fair, efficient, and sustainable migration management over the long term” as claimed? While the proof of the proverbial pudding will be in the eating, I will attempt to gauge the main innovations – or lack thereof – introduced by the Regulation. In this post, I will address the new Dublin rules. A forthcoming post will examine the solidarity mechanism and the governance framework intimately linked to it.

Barbara Mikołajczyk, The maze of legal support in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, in EU Migration Law Blog, 3 giugno 2024

Third-country nationals (TCNs) arriving at the borders of the European Union and seeking international protection may well be unfamiliar with the language, culture, customs and, above all, the law. Therefore, accessible information, legal counselling, assistance, representation and exemptions from fees and costs (in general, legal support) are sine qua non conditions for the enjoyment of the human right to asylum and access to justice. The sources for providing legal support for asylum seekers are embedded in Article 16 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the international human rights law. The Geneva Convention guarantees refugees equal treatment with nationals in matters of court access. However, given that recognising refugee status is a declaratory act (UNHCR Handbook, 28),  migrants seeking international protection should also enjoy this right. The Geneva Convention does not mention asylum procedures or administrative procedures, which precede the court stage and are of principal importance on the way to international protection.

Steve Peers, Recent asylum case law of the CJEU: Distinction, Integration or Extension from ‘Mainstream’ EU law?, in EU Law Analysis, 18 giugno 2024

While attention has been focussed on the overhaul of EU law on asylum – which I have analysed in an upcoming article, reflected in an 8-part series of blog posts, starting here – the CJEU has been delivering a number of judgments on important asylum law issues. There have been no fewer than ten asylum law judgments since the start of the year, including five in June alone. The following blog post is an overview of these judgments, and also discusses recent Advocates-General opinions in pending asylum cases. Also, to give an idea of future developments, it discusses whether the new EU asylum laws would change the outcome of recent judgments, and other asylum cases pending before the CJEU are listed in an annex. Finally, this blog post develops a framework for analysis of the extent to which EU asylum law fits within the application of EU law more generally: is it distinguished from the ‘mainstream’, integrated into it, or used to build upon it?

Tilman Rodenhäuser, Padmaja Menon, Does international law prohibit ‘constructive refoulement’?, in EJIL:Talk!, 20 giugno 2024

Earlier this month, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that 43.4 million people worldwide are refugees – many of whom flee the over 120 ongoing armed conflicts. While voluntary repatriations are the preferred durable solution for the largest number of refugees who dream of going home – in safety and dignity – one day, the UNHCR has long cautioned that “for many refugees a decision to return is dictated by a combination of pressures due to political factors, security problems or material needs.” So, when are returns voluntary? From Lake Chad Basin, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe and Australia, reports of the last years reveal instances of refugees and other persons protected against refoulement being pushed to return, purportedly ‘voluntarily’, through a range of measures, including payments to facilitate return, deprivation of economic opportunities, restriction of access to essential services, limitations of freedom of movement, confiscation of property, threats from armed groups and militias, or arbitrary arrests.

Meltem Ineli-Ciger, Legal landmine: the risky proposition of extending the application of the EU Temporary Protection Directive beyond March 2025, in EU Law Analysis, 31 maggio 2024

What should follow once the deadline for the application of the Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 (Temporary Protection Directive) to those fleeing the invasion of Ukraine expires in March 2025 is an important issue that has been analysed by many commentators including but not limited to myself (here and here), ICMPD, ECRE, Meijers Committee, Ergin,  Guild and Groenendijk, Bilousov and Woolrych and recently the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) Briefing (written by Luyten). The Temporary Protection Directive provides that once temporary protection ends, temporary protection beneficiaries should access asylum procedures but not much else on what should happen once the regime is terminated. There are different academic and policy proposals on what should happen next ranging from offering various residence permits to Ukrainians to granting international protection as a group. I argued that the most preferable solution would be the transition of Ukrainians under temporary protection to a form of residency (preferably long-term residency) or international protection status as a group in the EU. But this blog post is not about what should happen next but when the temporary protection regime in the EU must end.

Türkan Ertuna Lagrand, Salvo Nicolosi, A Further Step to Gender-Sensitive EU Asylum Law: The Case of ‘Westernised Women’, in EU Law Analysis, 13 giugno 2024

Gender-based asylum claims have been gaining momentum in EU law. On 11 June 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published its most recent judgment in the case of K, L v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (C-646/21) concerning the interpretation of ‘membership of a particular social group’ under Article 10 (1) (d) of the Qualification Directive with reference to ‘westernised women’ who, because of the identity and lifestyle they have acquired in the host country, namely the Netherlands, fear persecution if they were returned to the home country, namely Iraq. The judgment follows the ruling in WS (C‑621/21) in which the Court last 16 January 2024 recognised that women in a country as a whole may be regarded as belonging to ‘a particular social group’, leading, as analysed here, to the recognition of refugee status.

Libri

Lydia Morris, Citizen Rights, Migrant Rights and Civic Stratification, Routledge, 2025

This book explores the concept of civic stratification and examines its contemporary relevance for analysis and understanding of the functioning of rights in society. David Lockwood’s (1996) concept of civic stratification outlines the way in which the rights associated with citizenship can be a source of inequality by virtue of their formal granting or denial by the state, or by informal impediments to their full realisation. The purpose of this book is to explore the meaning and significance of this concept, and elaborate its potential in offering a framework for understanding the dynamic nature of rights. Lockwood’s model reverses Marshall’s (1950) view of citizenship as guaranteed inclusion in society and is linked to the way that the differential entitlement and the qualifying conditions associated with certain rights can be harnessed as a means of control. While both Marshall and Lockwood were principally concerned with the rights attaching to citizenship, this book extends the insights of these two authors to show how such controls apply in various ways to both citizens and non-citizens alike. Building on Lockwood’s conception of ‘moral resources’ the book set out a theoretical framework and empirical illustration of how the position of different groups within society is subject to shifting perceptions of social worth and is engaged both in claims to fuller access to rights and in justifications of their denial or removal. This book will appeal to scholars and higher-level students with relevant interests in sociolegal studies, sociology, social policy and politics.

Frosa Pejoska – Étrangéisation. Littérature et anthropologie, Classiques Garnier, 2024

The phenomena of emigration and genocide upend the human condition and our perception of it by foreignizing them, creating a new imaginary. Based on the study of work in various domains, this essay defines the conventions and methods of a new literary genre: the roman de l’étrangéisation, or foreignizing novel.

Ludger Pries, Stephanie Schütze, Ximena Alba Villalever, Berna Safak Zülfikar Savci, Forced Migration in Transit. Migrant Experiences of Organized Violence in Mexico and Turkey, Routledge, 2024

This book compares the life courses of forced migrants in two of the world’s most important transit countries: Turkey and Mexico. It examines the local, regional, and global contexts of their experiences, trajectories, and biographical projects, caught between return, stay, and forward movement. Forced migration has increased rapidly around the world in recent years, with Mexico and Turkey experiencing particularly high numbers of migrants, as conflict, violence, authoritarian regimes, environmental disasters, economic instability, lack of opportunity, and generalized violence have driven people to leave their homes in search of a better life. With a special focus on organized violence, this book analyzes the specific impact of organized violence on the trajectories and biographies of forced migrants, situating these life courses in the political, economic, cultural, and social contexts of the countries of origin (Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria; El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) and in the country of transit (Turkey and Mexico). Using extensive original empirical data and analysis, it argues that forced migration is a long-lasting social process based on everyday actions and social practices throughout the migration trajectory. Systematically comparing two of the world’s most important transit countries, this book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of migration, politics, international relations, and sociology.

Articoli 

Diritto, Immigrazione e Cittadinanza, 2024, n. 2

Chiara Cudia, Sindacabilità e disapplicazione del decreto ministeriale di individuazione dei “Paesi di origine sicuri” nel procedimento per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale: osservazioni su una attività del giudice ordinario costituzionalmente necessaria

Giulia Perin, Abbiamo iniziato a discriminare i familiari dei cittadini italiani? Il mistero dell’art. 23 d.lgs. n. 30/2007

Fabiana Santarsiero, Diseguaglianze intorno all’accesso all’edilizia residenziale pubblica

Daniele Camoni e Paola Pannia, Tutelare i diritti oltre i confini: il ruolo dei giudici di fronte alle politiche statali di controllo dell’immigrazione

Roman Lehner, Labour migration law and employment access for migrants in Germany: General principles and new developments

Livia Stamme, Nota a margine della sentenza della Corte di Giustizia del 16.01.2024 nella causa C-621/21: la Corte di Giustizia riconosce la violenza sulle donne come forma di persecuzione contro un determinato «gruppo sociale»

Vai al fascicolo

Maciej J Dańko, Arkadiusz Wiśniowski, Domantas Jasilionis, Dmitri A Jdanov, Emilio Zagheni, Assessing the quality of data on international migration flows in Europe: The case of undercounting, in Migration Studies, 2024, n. 2

Undercounting is a critical issue in migration statistics, resulting in bias. This typically arises from insufficient reporting requirements and problems with enforcing such requirements. The main sources of information on undercounting are the metadata accompanying official statistics and expert opinions. However, metadata and arbitrary expert opinions may be limited by overlooking important details in migration data shared by various countries. This includes potential oversight of changes in methodologies, definitions, or retrospective updates to the data following censuses. This work presents a methodological solution with three objectives to address undercounting in international migration data. First, we provide an overview of available metadata and expert opinions on undercounting in European migration flows. Secondly, we propose a novel data-driven approach that incorporates year-specific and duration-of-stay-adjusted classifications. The proposed methodological solution relies on comparisons of flows in the same direction reported by a given country with high-quality data reported by another set of countries. We use bilateral migration data provided by Eurostat, United Nations, and selected national statistical institutes. Duration-of-stay correction coefficients are derived through an optimization model or borrowed from the literature. Metadata and expert opinion scores can also be integrated to classify undercounting. Finally, we provide a dynamic classification of undercounting for thirty-two European countries (2002–21), accessible through an online Shiny application, offering flexibility and adaptability. The findings highlight significant undercounting in new European Union Member States, particularly Bulgaria, Latvia, and Romania. Interestingly, other European countries, including those presumed to maintain reliable population statistics, also exhibit notable periods of undercounting.

Henriet Baas, Jorrit Rijpma, Schengen Purgatory or the Winding Road to Free Travel, in European Papers, 2024, n. 1

This Article looks at the practical and legal implications of the Schengen “waiting room”. It examines the rules that apply to the verification of readiness in preparation of a Council decision on full accession and the extent to which the rules of the Schengen acquis apply to Schengen Candidate Countries prior to the lifting of internal border controls. It pays particular attention to the legal regime that applies at the borders between “old” and “new” Member States, more specifically Schengen members and Schengen Candidate Countries, and the borders between the Schengen Candidate Countries and third countries. It is argued that the prolonged exclusion from the Schengen area has resulted in a de facto duplication of the EU’s external border, accompanied with an incremental, near full application of the Schengen acquis, short of lifting internal border controls. As a result, for already well over fifteen years, Romania and Bulgaria have been part of the accompanying measures that should allow for free travel, yet its nationals have not been able to enjoy the benefits of their EU citizenship in full.

Violeta Moreno-Lax, Crisis as (Asylum) Governance: The Evolving Normalisation of Non-access to Protection in the EU, in European Papers, 2024, n. 1

This Article problematises the role of crisis in the governance of asylum in Europe. It unveils its nature, predominance, and implications as a structural component of EU law and policy in this domain. The main point I intend to convey is that crisis, in and by itself, constitutes a system of governance producing very problematic effects. The association between (unwanted) migration and refugee flows with crisis in the European context has allowed for the exceptionalisation of rights and legal safeguards, with the pre-emption of unauthorised arrivals becoming the main concern. The danger, instability, and abnormality connected with crisis pervades law and policy, justifying mechanisms that contravene minimal rule of law standards, including due process guarantees and effective judicial protection. The incremental normalisation of exceptions has led to a position where the suspension of (rule of law-based) governance has become a form of governance. The prorogation of “normal” (rule of law-compliant) arrangements has given way to “exceptional” means of managing asylum, starting with the 2015 “refugee crisis” and the relocation-plus-hotspots scheme, which have now been streamlined as part of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum reforms. The resulting generalisation of derogations, the proliferation of legal fictions and rights negations that the envisaged amendments involve, is progressively normalising a situation of non-access to international protection in the EU, with deleterious consequences not only for asylum seekers, but for the integrity of the EU legal order and fundamental rights at large.

Giuseppina Pizzolante, Alcune riflessioni in tema di violenza domestica correlata alla libera circolazione e al diritto di soggiorno dei coniugi o dei partner extra UE, in FSJ European Studies, 2024, n. 2

L’articolo, partendo dalla ricostruzione della giurisprudenza della Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo in tema di violenza domestica, intende affrontare l’interrelazione tra tutela delle vittime di violenza domestica e mercato interno dell’UE utilizzando la particolare lente delle donne provenienti da paesi extra UE. Essere migranti difatti accentua i rischi delle donne rispetto a varie forme di violenza che appaiono il risultato di disuguaglianze strutturali e di genere. Lo scopo dello studio è dimostrare che, in mancanza di una interpretazione del diritto dell’Unione europea volta a ricomprendere gli strumenti internazionali rilevanti, le esigenze del mercato interno dell’UE finiranno sempre con il prevalere rispetto alla tutela delle vittime migranti. Appare assai incoraggiante a questo fine non solo l’adesione dell’Unione europea alla Convenzione sulla prevenzione e la lotta contro la violenza nei confronti delle donne e la violenza domestica (Convenzione di Istanbul), avvenuta senza riserve grazie all’intervento decisivo del Parlamento europeo, ma anche la recente giurisprudenza della Corte di giustizia dell’UE nel caso C-621/21, Femmes victimes de violences domestiques, che si è aperta ad una lettura globale e sistematica delle convenzioni internazionali sulla violenza contro le donne.

Piergiorgio Rafaiani, Tempi del trattenimento e “prassi applicative distorte”: la Corte costituzionale “sfiora” la disciplina della detenzione amministrativa dei migranti. Nota a Corte cost., sentenza n. 212 del 2023, in Osservatorio AIC, 2024, n. 4

La sentenza n. 212 del 2023 interviene in materia di trattenimento del richiedente asilo, nell’ipotesi in cui il soggetto formuli una domanda di protezione internazionale quando si trovi già in stato di detenzione e il Questore disponga la sua permanenza nel centro, valutando la domanda come strumentale ad impedire o ritardare l’esecuzione del rimpatrio. La Corte costituzionale, chiamata a valutare la legittimità della disciplina che stabilisce i tempi della convalida del nuovo provvedimento di trattenimento così disposto, pur dichiarando inammissibile la questione di legittimità per incompleta ricostruzione del quadro normativo rilevante, individua il momento da cui far decorrere i termini della convalida in quello dell’adozione del provvedimento formale che dispone il trattenimento in base al nuovo titolo. Inoltre, vengono avanzate alcune indicazioni pro futuro al giudice ordinario sulla valutazione della norma omessa dal rimettente, al fine di evitare l’indeterminatezza dei tempi del trattenimento. In questo contesto il riferimento a «prassi applicative distorte» sembra costituire un argomento a favore di una più precisa definizione dei tempi della procedura in questione, che tuteli la libertà personale del soggetto da indebite dilazioni temporali dovute ai ritardi dell’amministrazione di pubblica sicurezza.

Francesca Rondine, L’istituzionalizzazione di un regime frontaliero “dell’ammissione” dei cittadini di paesi terzi nello spazio giuridico europeo: tra norma e eccezione, in FSJ European Studies, 2024, n. 2

Il contributo si propone di esaminare, a partire dalla nuova “procedura integrata di frontiera” istituita dal Nuovo patto sulla migrazione e l’asilo, l’affermarsi di un “regime frontaliero dell’ammissione”, basato non già sulla regolarità del soggiorno del cittadino di paese terzo, ma sul concetto di autorizzazione all’ingresso sul territorio. Tale “regime dell’ammissione” si fonda sul ricorso a finzioni giuridiche di “non presenza” dello straniero in frontiera sinora residuali nel diritto dell’Unione che, a loro volta, consentono una diminutio nel godimento e nell’accesso ai diritti degli stranieri ad esso sottoposti. Il contributo esamina, dunque, la questione dell’ammissione sul territorio, e delle sue conseguenze sullo status giuridico del cittadino di paese terzo, nella giurisprudenza della Corte EDU e nel diritto dell’Unione, prima e dopo il Nuovo patto.

Monica Spatti, Violenza contro le donne e appartenenza a “un determinato gruppo sociale” nella determinazione dello status di rifugiato. Riflessioni a margine della sentenza WS (C-621/21) della Corte di giustizia, in FSJ European Studies, 2024, n. 2

L’esame delle richieste di protezione internazionale presentate da donne che fuggono da violenze fondate sul genere sono perlopiù ricondotte alle persecuzioni per “appartenenza a un determinato gruppo sociale”. Questo motivo di persecuzione è però ingabbiato in criteri rigidi, che si prestano a interpretazioni arbitrarie, che la Corte di giustizia nella sentenza WS (C-621/21) ha di fatto finito per confermare. Tuttavia, al contempo, qualificando la Convenzione di Istanbul come strumento interpretativo della politica comune europea in materia di asilo e di protezione sussidiaria, la Corte ha imposto una lettura della disciplina dell’Unione europea più attenta alle questioni di genere, che dovrebbe portare a una migliore tipizzazione delle situazioni in cui le donne migranti vittime di violenza debbono trovare protezione.

Philipp Stutz, Florian Trauner, Democracy Matters (To Some Extent): Autocracies, Democracies and the Forced Return of Migrants from the EU, in Geopolitics, 2024

This article analyses whether the European Union returns more irregular migrants to democratic or autocratic states. It establishes the EU’s return rates with the whole world over a period of twelve years (2008–2019) and connects it to non-EU countries’ democratic credentials. Democracy mattered to some extent in the sense that the EU had generally fewer return orders and higher return rates with democratic states. Yet, a macro perspective indicates that the EU was driven by an interest to maximise returns to non-EU countries, irrespective of the regime type. Some autocratic regimes – and those that became more autocratic – had high return rates and were actively targeted for achieving more returns. A non-EU country’s change towards more or less democratic standards had a comparatively minor likelihood of impacting the EU return rate.

Post

Marcella Ferri, The exercise of the discretionary clause in the Dublin system and its justiciability after the AHY judgment: it is only a matter of national law…but at what price!, in BlogDUE, 7 luglio 2024

Nella sentenza AHY, resa il 18 aprile 2024, la Corte di giustizia è tornata a pronunciarsi sulla giustiziabilità della clausola discrezionale prevista dal regolamento Dublino III. Il contributo si sofferma, in particolare, su due profili particolarmente problematici della sentenza. In primo luogo, il ragionamento svolto dalla Corte non risulta pienamente coerente con la propria precedente giurisprudenza in materia, in particolare con la sentenza MA che viene ad essere significativamente reinterpretata (se non, addirittura “riscritta”). In secondo luogo, la soluzione cui la Corte è giunta in AHY circa il rapporto tra la clausola discrezionale e l’ambito di applicazione dei diritti fondamentali nel diritto UE presenta numerosi profili di criticità. Dopo aver analizzato tali aspetti, il contributo evidenzia che la sentenza AHY rappresenta il momento culminante di una giurisprudenza tendente a riconoscere un crescente margine di discrezionalità agli Stati membri sia in relazione alle condizioni di esercizio della clausola che con riguardo alla sua giustiziabilità. Il post si conclude con alcune brevi considerazioni circa l’impatto di tale giurisprudenza negli ordinamenti nazionali e sul sistema comune europeo di asilo.

Giulia Raimondo, Beyond Protection. Gender Equality in K, L (C 646/21), in Verfassungsblog, 5 luglio 2024

Whether and how gender-related violence can constitute a ground to claim and receive asylum has long been a subject of debate in refugee law. While feminist legal scholars have long sought to alleviate the gender-blindness of the original text of the Refugee Convention, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) only started taking some steps in this direction earlier this year. In WS, the Court recognised that women may be regarded as belonging to ‘a particular social group’ (PSG) in a country as a whole, leading to the recognition of their refugee status (for further analysis, see here and here). Its recent decision in K,L raised a different question. While WS asked whether women could seek protection in the EU based on their well-founded fear of being persecuted by reason of gender-based violence, K,L concerned two young women who, during their stay in the EU, had embraced European fundamental rights standards and values and for that reason faced the risk of persecution upon return.

Amelia Süsserott, To leave or not to leave? Is it time to reconsider the role of State intent within ‘constructive refoulement’?, in EJIL:Talk!, 9 luglio 2024

The aim of international refugee law is ultimately to ensure those fleeing their country of origin due to persecution can seek refuge elsewhere. This is a key difference between refugees and internally displaced persons – with the former needing to flee beyond their country of origin’s borders to obtain safety. Having an “elsewhere” (i.e., another State) to flee to is therefore fundamental to one’s ability to seek asylum. What happens, then, when this “elsewhere” is no longer a safe haven, but yet another hostile land? This is the reality many refugees and asylum seekers face today, often fleeing persecution only to be confronted with ongoing dismal treatment in their country of asylum. This has led to a growing, though largely unsettled, body of law exploring how host State treatment of asylum seekers and refugees is governed by international refugee law.

Daniel Thym, Safe Third Countries: the Next ‘Battlefield’, in EU Migration Law Blog, 5 luglio 2024

The spectre of asylum procedures in third states has been haunting EU asylum policy since its inception. The London Resolutions of 1992 promoted the idea. Ten years later, the British government under Tony Blair (Labour) sparked a lively political debate. So far the idea has never been put into practice on a larger scale, with the exception of the EU-Turkey-Statement to which we shall come back. The scarcity of practical experience is one factor explaining the startling mixture of enthusiasm and distrust any debate about the topic inevitably raises. The idea is bound to gather momentum during term of the next European Commission. To prevent confusion, we should distinguish asylum procedures abroad (‘external processing’) from ‘safe third country’ schemes. The former (‘external processing’) concerns regular European asylum procedures in a country outside the EU. The Italian ‘Albania model’ follows that rationale. Two centres are currently being established in Albania where Italian officials will undertake regular asylum procedures, presumably via videoconferencing. Beneficiaries of international protection will be relocated to Italy, as will returnees whenever (voluntary) return fails in practice.

Libri

Nick Gill, Nicole Hoellerer, Jessica Hambly, Daniel Fisher, Inside Asylum Appeals. Access, Participation and Procedure in Europe, Routledge, 2024

Appeals are a crucial part of Europe’s asylum system but they remain poorly understood. Building on insights and perspectives from legal geography and socio-legal studies, this book shines a light on what takes place during asylum appeals and puts forward suggestions for improving their fairness and accessibility. Drawing on hundreds of ethnographic observations of appeal hearings, as well as research interviews, the authors paint a detailed picture of the limitations of refugee protection available through asylum appeals. Refugee law can appear dependable and reliable in policy documents and legal texts. However, this work reveals that, in reality, myriad social, political, psychological, linguistic, contextual and economic factors interfere with and frequently confound the protection that refugee law promises during its concrete enactment. Drawing on evidence from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom, the book equips readers with a clear sense of the fragility of legal protection for people forced to migrate to Europe. The book will appeal to scholars of migration studies, legal studies, legal geography and the social sciences generally, as well as practitioners in asylum law throughout Europe and beyond.

Ludger Pries, Rafael Bohlen, Forced Migration. An Integrative Perspective for the 21st Century, Edward Edgar, 2024

Building on existing debates in international organizations, policy and academia, this insightful book argues for a broader transnational perspective on the concept of forced migration and its multiple contexts and catalysts. It analyzes the different social groups of forced migrants, treating them neither as passive victims nor as activist heroes, but as social actors under highly constrained conditions.

Nuty Cárdenas-Alaminos, Karla Valenzuela-Moreno, Liliana Meza González, Migrant and Refugee Integration in Mexico. Governance, Civil Society, and Public Opinion, Routledge, 2024

Although Mexican emigration to the United States is still relevant, it has also become a return, transit, and recipient country for thousands of refugees. Now, many of these migrants, refugees, and their families stay on Mexican soil territory, trying to integrate within Mexican society. This book brings together leading experts in Mexico and covers the political dimension of integration for migrants in Mexico analyzing integration policies, civil society efforts, and public opinion from various angles. In this context, many questions arise. Among the most relevant: What has the federal government done to assist these migrant groups, who often arrive in conditions of great vulnerability? What policies have been implemented at the subnational level of government to adequately integrate these population groups? What actions have been implemented by other local actors, such as civil society organizations? What do Mexicans think about newcomers?

Ricard Zapata-Barrero, Daniela Vintila, How to Do Migration Research. How to Research Guides, Edward Elgar, 2024

This book provides a toolkit for tackling the fundamental questions and challenges in planning and conducting migration research. It illustrates not only how to develop rigorous methodological procedures, but also how to effectively disseminate research findings to both academics and practitioners.

Articoli

European Journal of Migration and Law, 2024, n. 3

Gareth Davies, When Do Union Citizens and Their Families Have the Right to Equal Treatment on Grounds of Nationality in EU Law?

Francesca Rondine, The Fiction of Non-entry in European Migration Law

Vasiliki Apatzidou, Derogations in Exchange of Increased Responsibility: How Can This Fix the Broken Promise for More Solidarity in the EU?

Åsa Gustafsson, The ‘Border Security’ Concept in EU Law

Galina Cornelisse, EU Boots on the Ground and Effective Judicial Protection against Frontex’s Operational Powers in Return: Lessons from Case T‑600/21

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ASGI, Il rispetto delle articolazioni procedimentali nell’ambito delle procedure accelerate. Nota a commento di SS. UU. 11399/2024, in ASGI, luglio 2024

Con la sentenza n. 11399 del 29/04/2024 le Sezioni Unite della Corte di Cassazione – a seguito del rinvio pregiudiziale sollevato ai sensi dell’art. 363 bis c.p.c. dal Tribunale di Bologna con ordinanza n. 5751-1/2023 dell’11 giugno 2023 – si sono pronunciate su una questione procedurale – estremamente controversa e da tempo oggetto di divergenti interpretazioni da parte delle diverse Sezioni distrettuali specializzate – inerente la domanda di protezione internazionale. Il giudizio ha infatti riguardato la corretta procedura per l’esame della domanda presentata dal richiedente proveniente da Paese di origine sicuro e le relative conseguenze in fase di impugnazione giudiziaria in caso di rigetto della stessa per manifesta infondatezza; fattispecie che, ai sensi dell’art. 35-bis, co. 3 del D.Lgs. n. 25/2008, rappresenta una delle tassative ipotesi di deroga al principio generale della sospensione automatica del provvedimento impugnato.

Clara Bosch March, The recent backsliding on the interpretation of article 4 of Protocol No.4 ECHR in “pushback” cases: a questionable attempt to redress the Hirsi “overstretch”?, in European Human Rights Law Review, 2024, n. 4

This paper focuses on the interpretative backsliding of art.4 of Protocol No.4 in the context of pushbacks, and critically analyses it from different perspectives. It argues that the backsliding in the interpretation of the provision in the last few years may have been a questionable attempt to implicitly undo (or, at least, to limit the impact of) Hirsi Jamaa v Italy , but that it might have more in common with it than initially thought. The paper is structured in four parts. Part I contextualises this backsliding. Part II reviews it through selected jurisprudence from the period 2016–2022 and examines it from a substantive point of view. Part III approaches the topic from a methodological perspective. Part IV places the whole discussion in its appropriate theoretical framework. The paper concludes with some reflections on State influence and the limits of an expansive reading of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

João Carvalho, Les Identitaires’ Impact on French Foreign Policy During the 2015 Crisis of the European Asylum System, in Geopolitics, 2024

In 2015, the Common European Asylum System and the Schengen regime were placed under unparalleled strain by the mass arrival of 1.2 million asylum seekers. This event was followed by the failure of the EU Commission to promote a common approach. Within this context, this in-depth investigation explores the impact of the far-right social movement Les Identitaires on French foreign policy in the mid-2010s. Since the Front National contains clear roots in far-right social movements, Les Identitaires’ impact is closely entangled with Marine Le Pen’s party. Whereas past research concluded that the far right failed to directly influence key decisions in foreign policy, this study suggests that the French far right’s indirect impact fostered President Hollande’s unwillingness to welcome the refugees and France’s inactivity at the EU level. Thus, France’s cooperation with Germany foundered to unprecedented levels following President Hollande’s U-turn, with significant repercussions on EU integration on migration policy.

Antoine Pécoud, Mapping Global Migration Governance, in IMI Working Paper Series, 2024

The concept of global migration governance is widely used but remains quite confusing and often poorly defined. This paper attempts to provide a mapping of this notion, in order to understand its different meanings, its usefulness and weakness, and the key questions it raises in terms of understanding and analysing migration politics. It starts by examining matters of definition, before reviewing the multi-actor and multi-level nature of global migration governance. It then moves to a critical discussion around several difficulties raised by the reliance on this notion. The last section provides a tentative historical perspective, to contextualise the concept of global migration governance.

Bishawjit Mallick, Lori M Hunter, Environmental migration and non-migration: Learning through an intergenerational lens, in Migration Studies, 2024, n. 4

Although migration–environment scholarship has experienced tremendous advancement in the past two decades, it continues to lack a historical perspective. This article proposes an integration of historical context into a conceptual framework to examine contemporary migration and non-migration decision-making as related to aspects of environmental context and change. We mainly engage the potential for intergenerational aspirations and capabilities enhancement as lessons are passed on to subsequent generations to improve coping strategies in the face of environmental stress. We apply a historical lens to a case study in coastal Bangladesh to illustrate this perspective’s potential. Ultimately, we urge interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars of contemporary migration–environment associations and environmental historians, as the resulting historically informed research would have important implications for research, theory, and policy.

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Jonas Bornemann, Could Hungary be suspended from Schengen?, in Verfassungsblog, 8 agosto 2024

In early July, the Orbán government announced that it would extend a program that grants third country nationals simplified access and stay to work in Hungary to Russian and Belarussian nationals. This extension of the so-called ‘national card’ scheme has EU and Member State officials up in arms. Critics argue that this policy will create a loophole for individuals who are tasked to commit hostile acts in the territory of Schengen Member States. Commissioner Ylva Johansson sent a letter to the Hungarian minister of interior, seeking clarification on some aspects of the policy so that the Commission could ‘draw the appropriate consequences’. This not so subtle threat has been spelt out more explicitly by other prominent actors at EU level, who have called for the suspension of Hungary’s Schengen membership. This blogpost maps the ways in which Hungary’s policy might undermine the security of the Schengen area and surveys the tools Member States and EU institutions have at their disposal to counter it. Should the Hungarian government fail to cooperate and dispel the concerns raised by its extension of the national card system, these mechanisms should be activated to safeguard the security of the Schengen area.

Eugénie Delval, Humanitarian Visas for International Protection Purposes, in Verfassungsblog, 31 luglio 2024

It is no revelation that access to the European Union is almost illusory for many third-country nationals in need of international protection. On the one hand, irregular channels are rendered more and more difficult as externalized migration controls proliferate. On the other hand, the very few safe and legal pathways that exist are utterly underdeveloped and are set up on a complete voluntary and discretionary basis. When feasible, third-country nationals have applied for “derogatory” humanitarian visas. They request, within EU Member States’ diplomatic or consular representations, a visa on the basis of their need of international protection, in order to be granted legal access to the issuing State’s territory precisely to apply for international protection upon arrival. The focal point is whether States can be required to issue these visas in order to comply with their human rights obligations. Following the same path as the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case of X and X v. État belge (2017), the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) found that States do not hold any obligation in the context of humanitarian visa proceedings, in the case of M.N. and Others v. Belgium (2020). This contribution demonstrates that the ECtHR’s reasoning is unconvincing.

Brianna Hernandez, Christine Bianco, Zenel Garcia, Refugees without Recognition: Climate Change and Ecological and Gender Inequality, in EJIL:Talk!, 15 agosto 2024

Despite recognizing that “climate change is the defining crisis of our time,” the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) has not endorsed the concept of “climate refugees.” This lack of recognition, which extends to other international legal bodies as well as national governments, compounds the vulnerability of those displaced by climate change. In particular, it exacerbates ecological and gendered asymmetries that disproportionally affect already marginalized peoples. In essence, the current international legal regime undermines the recognition of climate refugees. Furthermore, its ecological and gender-blindness render it ill-equipped to mitigate the growing harm to marginalized communities. Collectively, these reproduce structures of inequity and violence.

Salvo Nicolosi, ‘One, No One, One Hundred Thousand’, in Verfassungsblog, 29 luglio 2024

International migrants seek protection or better opportunities in foreign States.  Once they arrive in the territory of these States, they are entitled to various protections, including the prohibition of collective expulsion and the assurance of at least some human rights. In an attempt to control migratory flows and curb irregular migration, States have progressively ‘externalised’ migration controls through several mechanisms that eventually prevent human rights safeguards from being applied. States use mechanisms such as visas, maritime interdiction operations, pushback practices to unsafe countries to prevent migrants from reaching their shores, applying for asylum, or invoking fundamental rights guarantees.

Nicolas Angelet, Due Diligence in International Law, in Verfassungsblog, 30 luglio 2024

Before international human rights law came into being, the protection of individuals under international law was governed by the minimum standard for the treatment of aliens. The exercise of state sovereignty with extraterritorial consequences was subject to the international law obligation of due diligence, the no harm principle or the principle sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas. This contribution determines to what extent these obligations can be relied upon today to advance extraterritorial obligations of states towards migrants. Crucially for this purpose, the due diligence obligation is not limited to individuals within the jurisdiction of a State. Rather, States must ensure that activities within their jurisdiction do not cause serious harm to individuals in the territory of another State or to common interests of the international community.

Joyce De Coninck, Relationalizing the EU’s Fundamental Rights Responsibility, in Verfassungsblog, 31 luglio 2024

Human rights law traditionally governs a three-part relationship which connects the individual, the state, and its territory. It endows the individual (regardless of status) with a myriad of enforceable rights and imposes on the State several enforceable obligations to respect (negative obligation), protect (positive obligation) and fulfil (positive obligation) these rights within its territory. The design of the EU’s Integrated Border Management (IBM) governance model eschews the applicability and enforceability of international and European human (fundamental) rights law by significantly reconfiguring the relationship between each of these three prongs. Concretely, ongoing IBM transformations challenge and evade conventional human rights law by enacting its policies beyond the territory of the State, through cooperation with non-state actors and by sublimating individual claims. This contribution maps how these three traditional triggers for the applicability of human rights law are increasingly evaded in EU IBM policies, the responses to these evasion techniques and how a relational turn in the determination of human rights responsibility may be inevitable.

Wouter Vandenhole, Allocating Duties and Distributing Responsibilities in a Post-Territorial Human Rights Paradigm, in Verfassungsblog, 1° agosto 2024

Migration is one of the frontier areas for rethinking the way in which human rights obligations are typically allocated. Not only is migration externalised and privatised, it is also a consequence of structural global inequalities. So how does human rights law respond to human rights violations in which more than one state is involved, or when a state outsources migration control to another state (Turkey, Libya, Rwanda, Tunisia)? What if private actors are deployed? And how to deal with the structural drivers of migration, ranging from poverty to climate change? Complexity cannot be an excuse for lack of human rights accountability. Nor is there an unchecked mission creep: if human rights are indeed universal, there is no other option but to fill post-territorial gaps in human rights protection.

Maksym Vishchyk, Jeremy Pizzi, Nationality as the basis of protected status under Geneva Convention IV: A mysterious case of mistaken death, in EJIL:Talk!, 23 agosto 2024

For a civilian caught up in the crossfire of an international armed conflict, determining protected status under international humanitarian law (‘IHL’) represents more than a theoretical exercise of distant intellectualisation by jurists. It takes centre stage in the trenches of suffering, and is arbiter in deciding who receives the full protection of the Fourth Geneva Convention (‘GC IV’) or who is limited to the residual guarantees of Additional Protocol I reserved to those “who do not benefit from more favourable treatment under the Conventions” (Art. 75(1)).

Ruben Wissing, Common but Differentiated Responsibility in Climate and Genocide Cases, in Verfassungsblog, 30 luglio 2024

The search for a more equitable and legally binding responsibility distribution mechanism in global refugee protection starts with the question what responsibility states bear for the protection of refugees and other forced migrants outside of their territory. I addressed that question in the publication Allocating Responsibility for Refugee Protection to States: Actual and Potential Criteria in International (Case) Law, in which I examined potential avenues within international law. Here I discuss two of those: the operationalised international law principles of cooperation and solidarity, based on their application in climate cases; and the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) doctrine from international humanitarian law. The distribution mechanism they both apply might be useful to establish and define extraterritorial protection obligations of states towards refugees.

Ruben Wissing, Ellen Desmet, Beyond Borders, in Verfassungsblog, 29 luglio 2024

The question of extraterritoriality has found a very particular application in contexts of migration. More than any other global common challenge, migration inherently involves an element of non-territoriality: a migrant is by definition leaving the territory of their country of nationality or origin, and with it the original bearer of legal responsibility for the fulfillment of their human rights. After all, the fundamental principle in international law is territorial jurisdiction: states are responsible for the respect of human rights treaties on their territory. This renders the questions of which state has to fulfil human rights obligations while a migrant is on the move and to what extent very pressing ones.

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Ellen Desmet, Milena Belloni, Dirk Vanheule, Jinske Verhellen, Ayse Güdük, Family Reunification in Europe. Exposing Inequalities, Routledge, 2024

This book provides a multi-disciplinary investigation of family reunification laws, policies and practices across the European Union. Family reunification – the possibility for family members to (re)unite in a country where one of them is residing – has been high on the political agenda. Building on original empirical research with families and practitioners as well as in-depth doctrinal analyses, the book explores the fragmentation of legal rules, the gaps between formal regulations and practices, and their consequences for families across borders. Different contributions in the volume point to the growing inequalities among and within applicant families, based on residence status, gender, location, citizenship and socio-economic resources, due to the family reunification regimes currently in place.The book enhances interdisciplinary dialogue by providing clear insights into the specific contribution of migration law, private international law and social scientific analyses to the study of family reunification. The book is aimed at researchers working on the topic of family reunification, as well as students of law and socio-legal studies and practitioners in the field of migration.

Laura Planas Gifra, Law, Security and Migration. The Nationalistic Turn in the International Order, Routledge, 2024

This book analyzes the impact of the increasing securitization of migration within the international legal and political order. Migration has increasingly become a security issue. Examining this tendency towards the securitization of migration around the world, this book argues that it is indicative of a shift in the international order towards geopolitical and security strategies, and away from cooperation and multilateralism. States are now more inclined to produce national legislation in the fields of countering terrorism, migration, and security, than dealing with such global issues through international cooperation and international norm-making. As such, this book demonstrates, they tend to prioritize national rather than international interests in a radical shift away from the universal rights and liberal values that were dominant at the end of the 20th century, to a model based on geopolitical interests. The securitization of migration is a process that not only affects the rights of migrants, but ushers in a new international legal and political order. This book will be of considerable interest to scholars and professionals in the fields of international law, international relations, migration, security, and human rights.

Marjoleine Zieck, Resettlement as Protection. Integrating Resettlement of Refugees in International Refugee Law, Elgar, 2024

This timely book focuses on one of the so-called “durable solutions to the problem of refugees” that UNHCR has been charged to pursue: resettlement. Resettlement consists of the transfer of refugees from their country of asylum to another state in case of severe protection problems in the country of asylum. States are not obliged to offer resettlement places, and in practice that means that resettlement is run as a discretionary immigration scheme. This book attempts to integrate resettlement in international refugee law.

Articoli

Migration Studies, 2024, n. 3

Laura Stielike and others, The Moral Economies of Reflexive Migration Studies

Ana-Maria Cîrstea and Janina Pescinski, ‘Intimacy as method’: Ethnographic reflections on equitable knowledge production in migration research

Rogier van Reekum and Willem Schinkel, Instituting the global: The racial analytics of migration

Anna Lindley and others, Remitting through crisis: Looking beyond resilience in UK migrant and diaspora communities

Selin Siviş and others, ‘Europe was a dream for me. This dream came true but remains unfulfilled at the same time’: Navigating life aspirations among forced migrants in Austria and Italy

Ayan Yasin Abdi and Lise Paulsen Galal, Diasporic Somali migration to Turkey: Exploring the intersection of mobility, place, and geopolitics

Christiane Reinecke and Isabella Löhr, Beyond the present, the nation, and Europe: Three different uses of history in reflexive migration studies

Souad Osseiran and Maissam Nimer, Knowledge production in refugee studies from the South: Theorization of refugee labour in the literature on Turkey

Sarah A Tobin and Salam Kanhoush, Unexpectedly Sudanese Syrians: Issuing passports and the challenges of integration

Aminath Nisha Zadhy-Çepoğlu, Reflexive reciprocity under an ethics of care: Reflections from the field for refugee studies

Tara Fiorito, Beyond research as a dirty word? Searching for ethical and reflexive ways of doing research with and for migrant communities

Irene Gutiérrez Torres, Trapped in Ceuta: Reflexive tactics and methods in Participatory Filmmaking among cross-border women

Wegahta B Sereke, ‘Are you a refugee like us? Oh then we have hope!’ Affective discursive encounters in doing insider Other research

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Adele Del Guercio, Lasciate ogni speranza, o voi che… sperate di entrare. Osservazioni a margine dell’intesa Italia-Albani, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2024, n. 2

This paper focuses on the controversial Protocol agreed by Italy with Albania in November 2023, which, along with law No. 14/2024, will define a sui generis model of externalization of migration and asylum policy. The author will concentrate in particular on problematic aspects of this model, such as the manner by which people rescued at sea are transferred to Albania, their automatic de-tention in Albanian centres, the identification and treatment of vulnerable persons, and the difficul-ty of guaranteeing rights such as the right of defence.

Emanuele Nicosia, Profili penali della riconsegna di migranti soccorsi in mare ad uno Stato ‘non sicuro’, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2024, n. 2

International Human Rights Law and International Law of the Sea, as interpreted by international courts, contribute to clarifying essential elements of some criminal offences punished by Italian Criminal Law and applicable in some circumstances to the conduct of the ship commander who, having rescued people at sea, is accused for having returned the rescued people to the authorities of an ‘unsafe’ State. Once recognized the role of the ship’s commander as in charge of public service, the violation by him of the international rules on the prohibition of delivery to an ‘unsafe’ State can be punished as criminal abuse of power (in case of evidence of an unjust damage) and as criminal unauthorized delivery of people on board. The same conduct, when perpetrated against vulnerable persons (such as minors and pregnant women), can also constitute the crime of abandonment of minors or incapables.

Kelsey P Norman, Leveraging Selective State Capacity: Understanding Changing Responses to Migration and Refugees, in Journal of Global Security Studies, 2024, n. 3

State capacity is seen as one of the central elements determining whether countries have “strong” or “weak” systems of immigration and asylum. An underlying assumption of the global refugee regime is that countries of the Global South—thought to have less state capacity—do not have the ability to respond and host asylum seekers and refugees and must be financially supported by countries of the Global North in order to do so. But how can we understand “strong” migration responses from an otherwise “weak” state, as well as responses that change over time without corresponding alterations to underlying state capacity? This paper analyzes the case of Egypt, which, over the course of a decade, alternated between three types of migration policies requiring a range of state resources. Drawing on more than 70 in-person interviews and an analysis of public documents, this paper presents a theory of selective state capacity and argues that infrastructural weakness does not imply a lack of strategic decision-making in the field of migration, or an unwillingness to expend state resources, when the political incentives are in place.

Claudio Panzera, La cittadinanza come diritto e come problema nello Stato costituzionale, in Rivista AIC, 2024, n. 2

La cittadinanza, istituto “inafferrabile” nei suoi precisi contorni, intrattiene un rapporto stretto e al tempo problematico con la democrazia costituzionale. Negli ordinamenti liberaldemocratici, l’attribuzione dello status civitatis tende – o almeno dovrebbe tendere – a unificare le due classiche componenti della cittadinanza, l’appartenenza giuridica e la partecipazione politica, fra cui sussiste un nesso di implicazione reciproca. Come il cittadino “formale” deve essere messo in grado di partecipare effettivamente al governo della polis, così lo straniero partecipe “sostanziale” della vita della comunità (tramite atti e processi di integrazione civico-sociale) dovrebbe disporre di un ragionevole percorso di accesso a quello status formale, quale fattore indispensabile di realizzazione dell’identità personale.

Waleed M. Sweileh, Analysis and mapping of global research publications on migrant domestic workers, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024

Recognizing the importance of evidence-based research in informing migration policies and empowering migrant domestic workers (MDWs), this study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of MDW research patterns and trends. Using a descriptive cross-sectional study design, research articles on MDWs were retrieved from the Scopus database. The findings reveal a substantial increase in research output in recent years, with notable contributions from journals in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Key contributors include scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, and institutions such as the National University of Singapore and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Journals in the field of migration have prominent role in publishing research on MDWs. At the author level, Yeoh, B.S.A, at the National University of Singapore was the most prolific author. Academic activities were the main driver of research and that funding was suboptimal in this field. Highly cited articles focused on topics such as transnational motherhood, the international division of reproductive labor, and the negotiation of citizenship rights. Major research hotspots in the retrieved articles included mental health aspects, caregiving especially of the elderly, and struggles for legal rights. Specific nationalities, such as Filipina/o and Indonesian MDWs, have been the focus of numerous studies, shedding light on their narratives, challenges, and agency within transnational contexts. Overall, this study underscores the urgency of addressing the needs and rights of MDWs, advocate for human rights, and enhance understanding of occupational health and safety in the unique context of domestic work.

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Paula García Andrade, Cooperation with third countries within the EU legislative reform on migration and asylum, in EU Migration Law Blog, 9 settembre 2024

In spite of its manifest political importance under the New Pact on Migration and Asylum and its constant topicality, cooperation with third countries might not appear as a straightforward subject of attention for this Blog Series, devoted to the internal EU legal acts recently adopted as legislative expression of the Pact. When approaching this external dimension and its contentious partnerships, our focus normally spotlights those international instruments of quite varied form and substance that the EU agrees on with countries of origin and transit. This contribution will however show, in three different steps, how the external dimension occupies, at this occasion, a prominent role in this internal legislative package and how ‘the internal’ and ‘the external’ in these policies seem even more intertwined.

Tesseltje de Lange, The Recast Single Permit Directive: Moving Forward, but Not on More Legal Migration Pathways, in EU Migration Law Blog, 12 settembre 2024

The 2020 Pact on Migration and Asylum made a promise of better regulation of legal pathways into the EU. The Pact called for a “well-managed system”, seeing that migration can “contribute to growth, innovation and social dynamism.” It also said it would contribute to sustainable legal pathways to attract talent to the EU. The European Commission acknowledges that “Key societal challenges faced by the world today – demography, climate change, security, the global race for talent, and inequality – all have an impact on migration.” In its communication of 27 April 2022, the European Commission makes a political and economic case for a sustainable and common approach to labour migration. Indeed, most EU member states face ageing populations who require care, and labour shortages are on the rise jeopardising the green transition. European economies demand migrant workers to address these challenges. Hence the need for more legal migration pathways. Legal pathways may also help to decrease the use of irregular pathways, unsafe and to the benefit of smugglers.

Lenka Dražanová, Martin Ruhs, What makes asylum policies fair? A new study on the public’s view, in EUIdeas, 17 settembre 2024

‘Fairness’ is often cited as a key concern in asylum and refugee protection policies, but what do people actually mean when they talk about ‘fairness’? Is it fairness towards asylum seekers, the host country population, or a mix of both? Results from our recent survey experiments across Italy and Germany reveal that the public cares about both fair procedures for asylum seekers as well as fair outcomes for host communities. Interestingly, where an asylum seeker comes from does not seem to influence these perceptions. In this blog post, we define different types of fairness, how we rigorously tested public views on fairness in asylum decision-making, and what our findings mean for policy and public debate.

Francesco Maiani, The new Solidarity Mechanism: the right “insurance scheme” for the CEAS?, in EU Migration Law Blog, 27 agosto 2024

As the Commission observed in 2020, “[t]here is currently no effective solidarity mechanism in place”. This is the cause of many woes for the Common European asylum system (CEAS): geography, historical legacies and varying levels of attractiveness result in Member States facing highly asymmetrical burdens in implementing EU migration law. Absent an effective scheme guaranteeing a “fair sharing of responsibility”, per Art. 80 TFEU, CEAS law tends to be applied in light of national interests, with dire consequences for its integrity. Member States faced with large and/or indeterminable liabilities may outright defect as evidenced by instances of “waving through” or, more tragically, of illegal push-backs at the external and internal borders. The Dublin system is part of the problem, not the solution, and if anything the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (EU) 2024/1351 (hereafter AMMR) will strengthen its burden-concentrating effects through a mix of anti-secondary movement rules, shortened deadlines for take charge requests, facilitated take backs, and the introduction of longer-lasting, “stable” responsibility.

Franz C. Mayer, Flying Blind. Europe in the German Asylum Debate, in Verfassungsblog, 16 settembre 2024

A quarter of a billion euros. That was the final price tag the last time German politicians and constitutional law professors assured us that a controversial German idea was compatible with EU law. Yet the Autobahn car toll for foreigners only pushed through by the Bavarian regional conservatives (CSU) and passed by the Federal government grand coalition of Conservatives and Social Democrats was – quite predictably from the outset – contrary to European law and cost German taxpayers many millions of euros in contractual penalties following clarification by the ECJ in 2019. And here we go again. The way the current refugee debate in Germany is handled could end up costing Germany, i.e. all of us, much more – not so much in euros, but in trust in the reliability of Germany in general, as an EU Member State, and more generally trust in the reliability of the law.

Tamás Molnár, Monitoring fundamental rights compliance in the context of screening and the asylum border procedure:  putting bricks back into the EU house of rule of law?, in EU Migration Law Blog, 19 settembre 2024

Monitoring compliance with fundamental rights is particularly important for state activities performed in “hidden places” where the public has limited or no access, such as remote areas at European Union (EU) external land borders (e.g. in forests, mountains, swamps) as well as in rough waters at sea (borders) in the Aegean or in the Mediterranean, often in the dark. Over the past decade or so, EU Member States’ border management tools, capacity, resources and infrastructure (including physical barriers) at EU external borders have been significantly enhanced to address ever more complex challenges. However, some of these enhancements have given rise to serious fundamental rights challenges. This calls for more effective fundamental rights monitoring at the external borders through reinforced mechanisms that have the capacity and expertise to monitor respect for the wide range of fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (‘the Charter’) that various state activities at EU external borders affect.

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Kara E. Dempsey, Orhon Myadar, Making and Unmaking Refugees. Geopolitics of Social Ordering and Struggle within the Global Refugee Regime, Routledge, 2024

This book examines the politics of making and unmaking refugees at various scales by probing the contradictions between the principles of international statecraft, which focus on the national/state level approach in regulating global forced displacement, and the forces that defy this state-based approach. It explores the ways by which the current global refugee categorizes and excludes millions of people who need protection. The investigations in this book move beyond the state scale to draw attention to the finer scales of displacement and forced mobility in the various, complex spaces of migration and asylum. By bringing refugees stories to the forefront, the chapters in this volume highlight diasporic activism and applaud the corresponding ingenuity and tenacity. This book also builds upon debates on the critical geopolitical understandings of states, displacement and bordering to advance theoretical understandings of refugee regimes as a critical geopolitical issue. With this collection, the contributors invite a more sustained conversation that draws attention to and focusses on the current global refugee crisis and the violence of exclusion of that same regime. This highly engaging and informative volume will be of interest to policymakers, academics and students concerned with global migration, refugee governance and crises. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Geopolitics.

René Kreichauf, Birgit Glorius, Displacement, Asylum and the City. Understanding Migration Processes through Urban Studies Approaches, Routledge, 2024

This edited volume draws attention to the interlinked yet understudied relationship between the role of cities in dealing with international displacement and forced migration and the influence of forced migration in stimulating spatial, societal, and institutional transformations in and of cities. In 2022, almost 84 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced. More than two-thirds of them reside in urban areas. Displacement and forced migration are an urban experience and an urban story of those seeking protection. This book helps us understanding the conditions of displaced population in cities, and the way cities and urban actors respond to recent migration trends. It applies an urban perspective to the analysis of migration processes, and it provides insights into the urban governance of forced migration and asylum, the production of spaces related to forced migration, and the role of the displaced population as actors of urban change. Thereby, it covers a broad spectrum of topics including migrant dispersal, welfare and social protection, urban humanitarian policymaking and governance, neighbourhood development, migrant solidarity and refugee protest, and new refugee and migrant destinations. Given the increasing mobility and displacement of human populations, this book provides a relevant prerequisite for readers interested in current urban, (forced) migration and asylum trends, and on the intersections of those topics. The book will be of great value to researchers and academics of Geography, Migration and Urban Studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Urban Geography.

Marie Segrave, Stefani Vasil, The Borders of Violence. Temporary Migration and Domestic and Family Violence, Routledge, 2024

This book explores the structural harm of borders and non-citizenship, specifically temporary non-citizenship, in the perpetuation of domestic and family violence (DFV). It focuses on the stories and situations of over 300 women in Australia. The analysis foregrounds how the state and the migration system both sustain and enable violence against women. In doing so this book demonstrates how structural violence is an insidious component of gendered violence – limiting and curtailing women’s safety. The Borders of Violence advances contemporary research on DFV by considering the role of the state and the migration system. It bridges different fields of scholarship to interrogate our knowledge about DFV and its impacts and improve our critical accounts of gender, structural violence and borders. It illuminates the ways in which temporary non-citizens are often silenced and/or their experiences are obfuscated by state processes, policies and practices, which are weaponised by perpetrators in countries of destination and origin, with impunity. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of border criminology, criminology, sociology, politics, sociology, law and social policy. It offers key insights for professionals, policymakers, stakeholders and advocates working broadly to support temporary non-citizens and/or to address and eliminate violence against women.

Regina Serpa, Migrant Homelessness and the Crimmigration Control System, Routledge, 2024

Migrant Homelessness and the Crimmigration Control System offers new insights into the drivers of homelessness following migration by unpacking the housing consequences of ‘crimmigration’ control systems in the US and the UK. The book advances ‘housing sacrifice’ as a concept to understand journeys in and out of homelessness and the coping strategies migrants employ. Undergirded by persuasive empirical research, it offers a compelling case for a ‘social citizenship’ right to housing guaranteed across social, political and civil realms of society. The book is structured around the 30 life stories of people who have migrated to the capital cities of Boston and Edinburgh from Central America and Eastern Europe. The narratives are complemented by interviews with a range of stakeholders (including frontline caseworkers, activists and policymakers). Guided by the tenets of critical realist theory, this book offers a biographical inquiry into the intersections of race, class and gender and provides insight into the everyday precarity homeless migrants face, by listening to them directly. It will be of interest to students, scholars, and policymakers across a range of fields including housing, immigration, criminology, sociology, and human geography.

Shih Joo Tan, Gendered Labour, Everyday Security and Migration. An Examination of Domestic Work and Domestic Workers’ Experiences in Singapore and Hong Kong, Routledge, 2024

Drawing on original empirical research from Singapore and Hong Kong, Gendered Labour, Everyday Security and Migration interrogates women migrant domestic workers’ experiences of work and workplace exploitation. It examines the ways in which these women negotiate everyday security and safe work against the backdrop of affective employment relations and institutional structures of labour and migration law. It challenges the current emphasis on the language of exploitation and legal approaches to identifying, understanding and rectifying poor employment conditions for women migrant domestic workers. This book addresses the limited research literature that examines the extent to which regulatory or criminal justice responses are relevant to, and utilised by, women migrant domestic workers in their everyday negotiation of safe work and offers a unique contribution to the field. An accessible and compelling read, it will be of interest to researchers from across the fields of criminology, sociology, labour migration studies and women’s studies.

Articoli

Diritto, Immigrazione e Cittadinanza, 2024, n. 3

Valentina Carlino, La Tunisia, tra crisi interna e pressioni europee. Messa in discussione della presunta sicurezza di un Paese al crocevia

Paolo Morozzo della Rocca, Fragili volontà, dignità sociale e accesso alla cittadinanza

Susana Borràs-Pentinat e Angela Cossiri, La protezione giuridica dei migranti forzati per causa climatica all’incrocio degli ordinamenti giuridici

Rita Daila Costa e Claudio Costanzo, Uno studio su lavoro e soggiorno anche a partire dall’esperienza della Clinica legale Migrazioni e Diritti dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo

Nicola Cocco, Carolina Di Luciano, Carla Lucia Landri e Giovanni Papotti, La tutela della salute nei CPR: un diritto trattenuto

Milica V. Matijević e Ana M. Zdravković, Breaking the invisible cage: limits of law in structural discrimination

Maurizio Veglio, «Chiamami con il mio nome». La tutela della vita privata degli stranieri in Italia

Alberto Guariso, Incompatibile con il diritto UE il requisito di dieci anni di residenza per accedere al reddito di cittadinanza. Nota alla sentenza della Corte di giustizia del 29 luglio 2024, causa C-112/22

Monica Spatti, Il rischio di persecuzione determinato dalla fede nella parità tra uomo e donna può condurre all’ottenimento dello status di rifugiato: la sentenza della Corte di giustizia dell’11.6.2024 in causa C-646/21

Paolo Morozzo Della Rocca, La clausola di inesigibilità del requisito della lingua nel diritto dell’immigrazione e della cittadinanza, in Rivista AIC, 2024, n. 3

Il saggio analizza in primo luogo la disciplina sulla conoscenza della lingua italiana richiesta agli immigrati per mantenere il diritto di soggiorno e per ottenere la cittadinanza, comparando le soluzioni del legislatore italiano con quelle di altri paesi europei. Vengono poi considerate le misure destinate alle persone con particolari difficoltà nell’apprendimento e alle persone con disabilità. Vengono infine valutati i possibili effetti discriminatori della disciplina sulla cittadinanza nei riguardi delle persone portatrici di disabilità, a causa della mancanza di clausole legali di esonero dalla certificazione di conoscenza della lingua italiana. Le incertezze del diritto vivente nell’interpretazione dell’art.9.1 della Legge n.91 del 1992, nonostante le indicazioni provenienti dalla Sentenza della Corte costituzionale 7 dicembre 2017, n. 258, porteranno presto a un nuovo e utile intervento del Giudice delle leggi.

Maria Chiara Locchi, La regolazione giuridica delle migrazioni trans-mediterranee dalla prospettiva del diritto pubblico comparato: i casi di Tunisia e Marocco, in Diritto pubblico comparato ed europeo, 2024, n. 3

This article examines the evolution of immigration law in Tunisia and Morocco, providing a significant viewpoint for comparative legal studies on the circulation of legal models and forms of State. Tunisia’s and Morocco’s immigration law, as a complex field influenced by diverse internal and external factors, will be studied in three aspects: the multiple forms of belonging and solidarity (based on markers of identity alternative to national citizenship); the pressures from the European Union on transit countries within border externalization policies; and the influence of political regime and form of State. Interdisciplinary research, incorporating political science and critical migration studies into comparative legal analysis, proves to be crucial for a comprehensive understanding of immigration law, especially in post-colonial Global South contexts.

Markus G. Puder, Law and Politics at the Southwest Border of the United States, in Rivista OIDU, 2024, n. 4

As the United States hurtles towards Election Day on November 5, 2024, migration has continued to be a controversial election theme. This Article endeavors to introduce the reader to a host of legal and political questions that have arisen in the context of the border between the United States and Mexico. After offering statistical information with regard to the number of encounters registered at the border, the Article analyzes the federal and state powers in this space. Through the prism of four case studies involving measures taken by the Trump Administration, the Article first discusses the legal authorities conferred upon the executive branch. The Article then highlights scuttled congressional attempts to change the legal landscape at the border. Finally, the Article enquires about lawmaking powersand federal courtroom standing that States have asserted in this regard. The Article closes with a reference to recent executive action by the Biden Administration and an invitation to view migration in a larger, less politically charged, planning context.

Linda Brancaleone, L’Unione Europea davanti all’immigrazione. Scorci di teoria del diritto, in federalismi.it, 2024, n. 23

L’Unione Europea, coinvolta in prima linea nella gestione dei flussi migratori, offre delle soluzioni emergenziali e solo apparentemente securitarie, che in realtà sembrano tradire il disegno europeo originario. La filosofia del diritto offre una finestra sul mondo e sulle problematiche giuridiche: proprio tramite concetti e idee cari alla teoria del diritto, si analizzeranno la governance europea e le principali norme in tema di accoglienza e immigrazione, individuandone i profili critici.

Sebastian Cobarrubias, Paolo Novak, Embedding Externalisation: How Bordering Practices Transform Places, in Geopolitics, 2024

Over the past twenty years, research into border externalisation has developed a rich spatial vocabulary to understand these bordering practices as well as critical analyses that challenge the often North-centric views towards externalisation. In this Special Issue, we emphasise that a place-based gaze can lend new mileage to border externalisation research. We emphasise that the place has been under-theorised and under examined in its relation to border externalisation. Existing work often has an implicit framing that understands externalisation as part of a migrant vs. border dialectic, or as part of geopolitical relations between states. By focusing on place, we argue that border externalisation: generates new contexts by connecting previously disparate sites into a border continuum; is place dependent, as its different forms are contingent on situated dynamics; and is place transformative, the border changes the social dynamics of the places where it is implemented.

Paolo Iafrate, La crisi in Libia: quali prospettive?, in federalismi.it, 2024, n. 24

Come noto, la Libia è da tempo un “paese ponte” nel viaggio dei migranti provenienti principalmente da altre aree dell’Africa, ma anche da paesi asiatici e diretti in Europa. L’elaborato focalizza la sua attenzione sulla gestione in Libia del fenomeno migratorio: sia per quanto riguarda i migranti residenti sia, in misura maggiore, quelli in transito e tutto quello che riguarda il contrasto dell’immigrazione irregolare.

Loren B. Landau, Countering Containment: Chronoscopy and Resistance in an Era of Externalisation, in Geopolitics, 2024

This epilogue offers a blunt response to diverse explorations of varied forms of externalised bordering modalities. It argues that when taken together, such approaches reflect a form of chronoscopic policing that uses data and narrative framing to pre-criminalise potential migrants. Collaboration among agencies, states and researchers visibilise and moralise, framing poor people’s inclinations to move as misguided, dangerous betrayals of law, community, country and self. Wealthy states then use the accounts and materials they produce as foundations for externalised controls that seek to prevent future deviations through current interventions. This short piece reflects on possibilities for addressing this emergent regime in ways that can produce systemic, humane change. More specifically, it considers three potential affronts – alternative narratives and practices – on contemporary border mechanisms at work between and within states: bodily assault on borders or ‘storming the gates’; ‘migration as decolonisation’; and broader practical and narrative efforts to destabilise histories and territories. I propose that this latter approach – informed by notions of ’nomadic power’ and decolonial imaginaries – offers the most potent opportunities for countering the moralising affect underlying the current chronoscopic project.

Alice Massari, Migration agencies’ visual performance within the Border spectacle. The case of EU and Canadian institutions, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024, n. 12

As images of international mobility circulate quickly and widely through digital and social media, they form a fundamental part of the discursive formations around border policies and material migration practices. Through a multi-modal visual analysis of the Twitter images accompanying the post of the four major migration institutions in the EU and Canada, this article explores in a comparative perspective how their visual narratives interact with the broader migration narrative across the two contexts. The study findings show that EUAA, FRONTEX, CBSA, and IRCC participate in the border spectacle as leading actors, and their visual communication while allows them to reinforce some of their respective migration governance key messages and display their multiple organizational identities at the same time enables the concealment of some of the critical themes of the EU and Canada migration governance.

Francesca Mauri, Accesso alle prestazioni sociali e parità di trattamento tra cittadini italiani e cittadini extra-UE ancora al centro del dialogo tra Corti. Corte cost., ordinanza di rinvio n. 29 del 2024, in Osservatorio AIC, 2024, 3

La Corte costituzionale, con ordinanza n. 29 del 2024, ha rinviato alla Corte di giustizia una questione in materia di accesso dei cittadini extra-UE al beneficio dell’assegno sociale. Tale ordinanza consente di ragionare in maniera più approfondita su uno dei filoni più cospicui e controversi della recente giurisprudenza costituzionale, la cui delicatezza, nonché appartenenza al sistema multilivello di tutela dei diritti, lo rendono oggetto di un fitto dialogo tra Corti, secondo la regola della doppia pregiudizialità.

Andrés Besserer Rayas, Victoria Finn, Luisa Feline Freier, Building paper bridges: adapting citizenship and immigration regimes to international displacement, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2024, n. 12

Implementation gaps in the areas of naturalization and immigrant regularization emerge through a mismatch between the documents a residence country requires, and the documents that refugees and migrants can realistically provide. Those caught in this gap may live undocumented or risk statelessness. Residence countries can close such paperwork gaps by adapting legal interpretations and easing administrative requirements. When Colombia faced large-scale international displacement from Venezuela, state actors identified documentation-based implementation gaps in its nationality law and regularization procedures; they then took an innovative – yet not faultless – approach by adapting its citizenship and immigration regimes to accommodate displaced Venezuelans. These changes strengthened access to essential rights and increased the well-being of many. In this article, we develop the concepts of paperwork gaps and paper bridges and discuss the actors, impact, and limitations of Colombia’s policy innovations in the areas of nationality by birth, naturalization, and regularization based on research conducted from 2020 to 2023. The study advances the literature on government learning regarding policies within citizenship and immigration regimes that target internationally displaced populations.

Post

Iris Goldner Lang, Instrumentalisation of Migrants: It is Necessary to Act, but How?, in EU Migration Law Blog, 15 ottobre 2024

The term “Instrumentalisation” (of people) can be defined as using human beings as a means to achieve certain ends, or, in other words, treating humans as objects to obtain political or other goals. We can probably all agree that instrumentalisation of human beings, no matter whether they are EU citizens or third-country nationals, is morally unacceptable and that this applies also in the context of migration, asylum and border control policies. However, the concept of instrumentalisation has only recently become regulated in EU law, as a reaction to the developments at the EU’s external borders with Türkiye, Morocco, Russia and, most prominently, Belarus. This blog post will first outline the political developments that led to the regulation of the concept of instrumentalisation. It will then analyse the newly adopted EU rules on instrumentalisation of migrants under the New Pact and critically assess their effects and the safeguards they contain to protect fundamental rights. Notably, the post will explore whether the developments at the EU’s external borders legitimise the increasingly securitised approach towards EU border management and whether they jeopardise the right to seek asylum in the EU. Against this background, the concluding part will suggest that EU level regulation of instrumentalisation is a welcome development as it creates an additional legal basis to ensure that national measures are not unilateral and that they respect the principle of proportionality and the right to seek asylum, while granting Member States a legal tool to rely on, when faced with instrumentalisation.

Steve Peers, ‘Safe countries of origin’ in asylum law: the CJEU first interprets the concept, in EU Law Analysis, 14 ottobre 2024

Along with judgments on Afghan women asylum seekers (discussed here) and the status of Turkey as a ‘safe third country’ (discussed here), the Court of Justice of the European Union recently gave its first judgment interpreting the substance of the concept of ‘safe countries of origin’ in EU law. The judgment addressed a number of important points, interpreting the law in ways that may have broad relevance to EU law on asylum procedures going forward.

Daniel Thym, Secondary Movements: Lack of Progress as the Flipside of Meagre Solidarity, in EU Migration Law Blog, 3 ottobre 2024

Complaints about secondary movements lie behind recurrent complaints by ‘Northern’ governments, in the same way as their ‘Southern’ peers express their frustration about the lack of meaningful solidarity. Secondary movements in this sense concern irregular onward movements of asylum applicants and beneficiaries of international protection. Whereas the exceedingly complex and half-hearted provisions on solidarity in the New Pact receive much academic and political attention, the contents and implications of the new rulebook for secondary movements is often neglected despite its practical and political significance. Both themes had been intricately linked during the negotiations: their interaction presented the Gordian knot any compromise would have to cut. The end result fails to deliver much progress. Inspection of the small print will demonstrate that ‘more of the same’ is the motto of the day. The status quo remains essentially intact once we pierce the veil of legislative innovation. That is why the new legislation will be no game changer on secondary movements, mirroring the daunting outlook on solidarity.

Lilian Tsourdi, Funding the New Pact on Migration and Asylum: Symbolic Politics or Structural Shifts in the Policies’ Implementation Design?, in EU Migration Law Blog, 13 ottobre 2024

Initially limited and labelled as ‘symbolic politics’, EU migration funding has steadily grown, and intricate management arrangements have developed for its disbursal and control. Parts of EU migration funding consist of national programs under shared management. Still, several components of EU migration funding, such as emergency funding or the funding that will become available in the future through the newly adopted Solidarity Pool, are essentially crisis response measures trying to cater for structural needs. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum instruments pay greater attention to implementation and governance aspects of the EU’s migration policies, including its funding component. The current Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF 2021-2027) frames the financial aspects of the New Pact instruments. However, the Pact instruments present innovations that seek to both mobilise and boost existing resources. Against this backdrop, I provide, first, a brief critical overview of the funding component of the EU’s migration policies prior to the Pact. Next, I analyse the main elements of the current MFF 2021-2027 that frame the funding component of the EU’s migration policies. This is followed by a scrutiny of two key developments under the New Pact: i) an innovative approach to boosting migration implementation capacities, which is, however, based on a conception of solidarity as counterweight to migration pressures, and, ii) border processing as a potential blueprint for structural forms of EU migration funding. On this basis, I conclude on the interplay between funding and implementation under the New Pact.

Patrick Weil, Sale of Nationality as a Violation of Human Dignity, in Verfassungsblog, 2 ottobre 2024

On 21 March 2023, the European Commission brought action against Republic of Malta for establishing and maintaining a policy and a practice of naturalisation despite “the absence of a genuine link of the applicants with the country, in exchange for pre-determined payments or investments”. Since 2013, Malta has been running an Individual Investor Program that grants individuals Maltese nationality without any residency requirement before, at the time of, or after naturalization in exchange for a payment of 1.15 million euros. In the eyes of the Commission, Malta thereby “compromises and undermines the essence and integrity of Union citizenship in breach of Article 20 TFEU and in violation of the principle of sincere cooperation enshrined in Article 4(3) TEU.” Malta denies any competence to the EU in matters of nationality (in reference to the Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union), while the EU Commission can claim that, since the case Micheletti (1992), each member state has to act in matters of nationality with “due regard to Community Law”.

Shreya Atrey, Why Offshore Processing of Asylum Applications is Actually Racist, in Verfassungsblog, 23 ottobre 2024

In a series of legislative and policy changes including the Illegal Migration Act 2023, Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the New Plan for Immigration, the UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership treaty and the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024, the UK government in April 2024 gave effect to the UK-Rwanda asylum scheme. Under the scheme, asylum seekers in the UK were to be removed to Rwanda for having their asylum claims assessed—those whose claims succeeded were to stay in Rwanda and those whose claims failed could be sent back to their country of origin or ‘safe third countries’. Essentially, the scheme offshored or externalised the processing of asylum applications from the UK to Rwanda.

Viola Bex-Reimert, Giel Heeringa, The Strictest Asylum Policy Ever?, in Verfassungsblog, 18 ottobre 2024

On 13 September 2024, ahead of the presentation of the State Budget, the new Dutch coalition presented their finalized plan to implement what it has labelled as the strictest admission regime ever in the field of asylum law. To implement its Outline Agreement, titled ‘Hope, Courage and Pride,’ the government plans to rely on an derogation provision in the Dutch Aliens Act 2000. This permits derogation from the rules laid down in the Dutch Aliens Act 2000 without the involvement of the Dutch parliament. The government plans to derogate from certain specific rules so it can reverse the burden of proof in asylum procedures and abolish both family reunification for adult children and the indefinite asylum permit. We argue that provision does not apply to the current situation and that the Dutch government therefore does not have the jurisdiction to render parts of the Dutch Aliens Act 2000 inoperative.

Elspeth Guild, Vasiliki Apatzidou, EU Pact Instruments on Asylum and Minimum Human Rights Standards, in EU Migration Law Blog, 21 ottobre 2024

EU law in the field of asylum and protection of refugees has undergone dramatic changes in the first quarter of 2024. The legislator has agreed a new set of EU instruments which cover all areas from arrival on the territory to reception, treatment of claims, rights of those in need of international protection and expulsion of those determined not to need it. Collectively, this set of new instruments constitutes the 3rd phase of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) replacing the 2nd phase instruments adopted in 2013. Moving towards the implementation phase, EU States must ensure that their practices are consistent with human rights standards. This issue is the subject of a recent report by the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies. We will not repeat its contents here. Our objective is to offer a concise yet insightful examination of four key areas in the new CEAS instruments which may have human rights implications: access to the territory, access to a fair procedure, detention and reception conditions including family unity. The aim is to provide a broad understanding of these areas highlighting overarching human rights concerns.

Salvo Nicolosi, Türkan Ertuna Lagrand, Setting Gender-Based Asylum Straight: The Court of Justice’s Landing Point, in EU Law Analysis, 7 ottobre 2024

Just a couple of weeks after the Taliban regime in Afghanistan announced a new decree prohibiting women from being heard when speaking outside their homes, on 4 October, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in the joined cases of AH and FN (C‑608/22 and C‑609/22). The ruling constitutes the landing point of a recent stream of case law through which the Court has developed a gender-sensitive approach to refugee protection. In this regard, it is worth recalling that in WS (C-621/21), the Court recognised that women in a country can be considered ‘a particular social group’, while in K, L (C-646/21), it emphasised the importance of gender equality in defining such group. In AH and FN, instead, the Court addressed the issue of whether women subjected to a series of restrictive, state-imposed or state-supported measures, solely based on their gender, could be granted refugee status without the need for an individual assessment of their personal circumstances.

Salvatore Nicolosi, Getting a Grip on Migration but Mind European Law!, in Verfassungsblog, 23 ottobre 2024

On September 13, the new Dutch government led by Dick Schoof outlined its programme (Regeerprogramma) for the next years. Unsurprisingly, a major point of this programme regards asylum and migration, for which the greatest ambition is to install the strictest regime ever and to include the Netherlands within the category of Member States of the European Union (EU) with the strictest admission rules. In all fairness, such an ambition is shared by several European partners, calling for a tougher EU migration policy. This topic was also featured prominently in the European Council meeting on 17 October, whose Conclusions spotlighted the objective of strengthening control of the EU’s external borders.

Steve Peers, Pyrrhic victory for the Greek government: the CJEU rules on Turkey as a “safe third country”, in EU Law Analysis, 11 ottobre 2024

Remember the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015-16? One part of the EU’s response to it was to negotiate a ‘joint statement’ with Turkey (see comments and criticism here, here and here) that, among other things, led to Turkey agreeing to take back asylum-seekers from the Greek islands. Greece facilitated the application of this process by determining that Turkey was a ‘safe third country’ (ie that asylum-seekers could and should have applied there instead, given that this other country is ‘safe’) under EU asylum law, initially for Syrian asylum-seekers in the eastern Greek islands. Faced with a legal challenge to this determination, the Greek Council of State ruled in 2017 that the determination was legal, deciding by a 13-12 vote not to ask the CJEU to interpret the issue of EU law at stake. For its part the EU General Court (upheld on appeal by the CJEU) rejected legal challenges to the joint statement, on the frankly bizarre ground that the European Council had nothing to do with the EU/Turkey joint statement (which referred to EU law issues such as visa waivers).

Libri

Maria Sophia Aguirre, Antonio Argandoña, The Search for Home among Forced Migrants and Refugees. People on the Move, Routledge, 2024

This book explores the role of “home” in the lives of displaced people, including voluntary and forced migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people and temporary workers. For displaced people, home is something lost, longed for and sometimes found anew. It is a community of people in an environment of relationships and a physical dwelling that provide a sense of safety, security, hope and belonging. Much of the efforts of refugees, migrants and exiles are devoted to rebuilding a home, through a combination of personal effort and collaboration with the political and social environment of the host community. Maria Sophia Aguirre and Antonio Argandoña bring together an interdisciplinary collection of contributors to analyse these challenges through the lenses of economics, law, sociology, psychology, communications, management and political science. The book offers numerous suggestions for assistance aimed not only at the short-term problems of displaced people but also at ensuring their human dignity. This volume will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of the sociology of migration and of public policy related to the handling of migrants.

Giuseppe Gabrielli, Roberto Impicciatore, Children of Immigrants in Southern Europe. Overcoming Ethnic Penalties, Routledge 2024

The goal of successfully incorporating ethnic minorities represents a decisive challenge for modern societies. However, migratory background continues to negatively affect the life trajectories of migrants’ descendants. ‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ barriers determine long-term inequality gaps and low intergenerational social mobility in both longstanding and more recent European immigration countries. This book complements the sparse findings on education, labour market outcomes, and wellbeing relating to immigrant offspring by providing original research in order to individuate strategies for removing the obstacles that the migrants’ descendants face.  Chapters offer in-depth analyses that have been performed for specific Southern European contexts to explore the specific inequality patterns that are emerging in these more recent and unexplored immigration contexts. The main findings suggest that the lower academic performances of immigrants’ descendants can be raised through language-support programmes, mentoring programmes, positive role and disciplinary climate, extra-scholastic activities, and parental involvement. Equality opportunities in education should support school-to-work transitions and better allocate the underutilised human capital reserves of migrants’ descendants. Conversely, long-lasting penalties in educational careers and integration processes may arise when children are physically separated from their parents because of delayed family reunification. This book will be a key resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of sociology, ethnic and racial studies, international politics, and migration studies. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Articoli

Chiara Cudia, Osservazioni sul decreto legge in materia di individuazione dei paesi di origine sicuri nelle procedure per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale, in Federalismi.it, 2024, n. 27

Il decreto legge 58/2024 ha trasferito l’elenco dei paesi di origine sicuri (rilevante nelle procedure per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale) da una fonte di rango secondario (il decreto del MAECI) a una fonte di rango primario (lo stesso d.l. e, in futuro, un atto avente forza di legge). Il lavoro intende verificare la compatibilità del d.l. con la disciplina europea, le effettive conseguenze della sua introduzione e la legittimità costituzionale del ricorso allo strumento legislativo nel caso di specie. Da un lato, si evidenzia come l’elenco paesi sicuri debba continuare a essere conforme alla disciplina europea sotto il profilo della effettiva e aggiornata valutazione del grado di sicurezza del paese di origine, con la conseguenza che, qualora ciò non si verifichi, il giudice deve disapplicare la norma italiana per contrasto con il diritto dell’Unione. Dall’altro, che la legge contenente il predetto elenco rientra tra le leggi-provvedimento e, come tale, richiede di essere sottoposta a un rigoroso scrutinio di costituzionalità.

Valeria Di Comite, La parità di trattamento in materia di prestazioni sociali per i cittadini di Paesi terzi lungo soggiornanti: alcune riflessioni in occasione della sentenza della Corte di giustizia sul reddito di cittadinanza, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2024, n. 3

In order to protect migrants, who are people in vulnerable situations, it is crucial to establish national policies in conformity with International and European Law. To this purpose, it is necessary to find a balance between two different objectives: the integration of third-country nationals in the hosting Member State, on one side, and the national economic and welfare system, on the other. EU Law protects third-country nationals who legally reside in the EU, especially long-term residents. They enjoy the right of national treatment in order to benefit of domestic measures of social assistance and social security, useful for fighting against poverty and assuring better conditions of life. National courts and CJEU have protected the right for social assistance of third-country nationals in several judgments. This paper focuses on the Judgment of CJEU of July 29, 2024 which concerns the interpretation of Article 11, para. 1, d) of Directive 2003/109/CE. The main question deals with the requirement of a previous ten-year residence in the territory of a Member State in order to be entitled to any social benefit. In the case in point, the Court of Naples was wondering whether such ten-year residence requirement to access the basic income was a discrimination for long-term residents and whether it was in conformity with EU Law.

Daniela Mainenti, Barriere giuridiche all’asilo e limiti all’integrazione: un’analisi di diritto processuale penale. Il caso dei rifugiati Hazara in Italia, in Federalismi.it, 2024, n. 28

L’articolo analizza le barriere legali e le sfide sistemiche che i rifugiati Hazara affrontano in Italia, concentrandosi sulle politiche di asilo. Esplora i quadri legali e processuali penali che influenzano la loro integrazione nel sistema giudiziario italiano. Viene sottolineata la necessità di rafforzare le protezioni legali per gruppi etnici vulnerabili. Vengono ampiamente evidenziate le continue lotte degli Hazara, che affrontano non solo le avversità dello spostamento e del conflitto dalla loro natia Afghanistan, ma anche le complessità nell’affermare i propri diritti e assicurare un futuro stabile nel paese ospitante con un appello per riforme politiche che affrontino queste sfide.

Chiara Scissa, Francesco Luigi Gatta, Access to asylum in times of crises, force majeure and instrumentalization in the EU: Restrictive trends in asylum law and in the case-law, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2024, n. 3

Victims of trafficking find themselves in an extraordinarily vulnerable position, having suffered severe violations of their human dignity and personal freedoms. This vulnerability is further intensified for those victims who are in an irregular situation within the European Union, as it complicates their ability to seek protection and support. Consequently, this paper offers a critical analysis of the legislative advancements introduced by instruments stemming from the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, as well as Directive (EU) 2024/1712, which amends Directive 2011/36/EU concerning the anti-trafficking framework in the European Union. The study aims to clarify the interactions and synergies between the trafficking and asylum systems, emphasizing both the – minimum – progress achieved and the persistent challenges in ensuring adequate protection for trafficking victims.

Manuel Mariano Bartiromo, Il Protocollo Italia-Albania per il rafforzamento della collaborazione in materia migratoria: un’indagine sul diritto applicabile nelle aree concesse dall’Albania e sullo status dei migranti ivi trasferiti, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2024, n. 3

This paper analyzes two aspects of the Italy-Albania Protocol for the strengthening of cooperation in migration matters, signed on November 6, 2023. First, having identified the functions of the areas granted by Albania to Italy for the management of migrants, the study questions the applicable law. Based on the extraterritorialization of Italian law put in place through the Protocol the contribution questions whether and to what extent European Union law applies. Secondly, having clarified the list of persons destined to be taken to the “areas” – taking into account for this purpose the very recent jurisprudential developments on the “safe countries of origin,” the outcomes of which could call into question the very raison d’être of the Protocol – the investigation moves on to analyze the legal status they will come to assume, the status of detention, pointing out the conditions of legitimacy and observing its first application.

Teresa Maria Moschetta, Mutuo riconoscimento, leale cooperazione ed effettività dei diritti nel(l’incompiuto) sistema comune d’asilo: spunti critici sulla recente giurisprudenza della Corte di giustizia, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2024, n. 3

Mutual recognition has always been a key element in the process of European integration. Over the years, the application of mutual recognition has found diversified declinations due to the different modulation between “integration and “distinction” between state systems in the areas of EU competence. The paper, through the analysis of recent case law of the Court of Justice, intends to question the role that mutual recognition should have in the common asylum system to guarantee the rights and freedoms acquired by individuals. Indeed, the inapplicability of that principle in a system defined as “incomplete” raises a problem of systemic consistency between a legal qualification of the right of asylum, which is being increasingly defined in the case law of the Court, and the effective enjoyment of rights associated with that status.

Matteo Pignocchi, Il legame con lo Stato, tra residenza e cittadinanza, in Osservatorio costituzionale, 2024, n. 6

Le forme dello Stato, nelle sue evoluzioni contemporanee, sono definite secondo la dottrina costituzionalistica anche per il rapporto che l’autorità pubblica ha con gli individui che compongono la comunità. Se nel XX secolo la cittadinanza ha qualificato l’individuo nel rapporto con lo Stato, l’estensione dei poteri oltre i confini nazionali, la costruzione di dinamiche socioeconomiche globali e l’aumento dei fattori di movimento internazionale per le persone, hanno decostruito il rapporto Stato-individuo. La necessità, infatti, di dare significato al rapporto che lo Stato ha con gli individui non cittadini e con le esigenze degli abitanti delle comunità regionali e locali, sempre più locali quanto globali, ha mutato la rilevanza del “legame di fatto” con l’autorità pubblica, ovverosia la “residenza”, intesa come “dimora abituale” subordinata alla scelta individuale. Da categoria di diritto privato, tale istituto sembra assumere sempre più funzioni giuspubblicistiche. Il contributo si propone di verificare l’ipotesi per la quale la residenza, per la sua forte connessione con la tutela dei diritti fondamentali, stia progressivamente prendendo spazio al quadro giuridico della cittadinanza. Viene descritto il percorso dell’ordinamento nell’interpretazione della giurisprudenza costituzionale dello status della residenza nel confronto con la cittadinanza, nonché i recenti precedenti in materia di “diritti di residenza”, al fine di cogliere delle prime osservazioni conclusive tanto in ottica ontologica che in ottica deontologica.

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Shreya Atrey, Why Offshore Processing of Asylum Applications is Actually Racist, in Verfassungsblog, 23 ottobre 2024

In a series of legislative and policy changes including the Illegal Migration Act 2023, Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the New Plan for Immigration, the UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership treaty and the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024, the UK government in April 2024 gave effect to the UK-Rwanda asylum scheme. Under the scheme, asylum seekers in the UK were to be removed to Rwanda for having their asylum claims assessed—those whose claims succeeded were to stay in Rwanda and those whose claims failed could be sent back to their country of origin or ‘safe third countries’. Essentially, the scheme offshored or externalised the processing of asylum applications from the UK to Rwanda.

Elspeth Guild, Vasiliki Apatzidou, EU Pact Instruments on Asylum and Minimum Human Rights Standards, in EU Migration Law Blog, 21 ottobre 2024

EU law in the field of asylum and protection of refugees has undergone dramatic changes in the first quarter of 2024. The legislator has agreed a new set of EU instruments which cover all areas from arrival on the territory to reception, treatment of claims, rights of those in need of international protection and expulsion of those determined not to need it. Collectively, this set of new instruments constitutes the 3rd phase of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) replacing the 2nd phase instruments adopted in 2013. Moving towards the implementation phase, EU States must ensure that their practices are consistent with human rights standards. This issue is the subject of a recent report by the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies. We will not repeat its contents here. Our objective is to offer a concise yet insightful examination of four key areas in the new CEAS instruments which may have human rights implications: access to the territory, access to a fair procedure, detention and reception conditions including family unity. The aim is to provide a broad understanding of these areas highlighting overarching human rights concerns.

Maciej Grześkowiak, EU Asylum Law in the Face of a Paradigm Shift, in Verfassungsblog, 1° novembre 2024

In April 2024, the European Parliament voted in favour of new EU migration rules, the so-called Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was formally endorsed a month later by the Council of the EU. As I have previously demonstrated on this blog, the consistent enforcement of some aspects of the Pact remains highly questionable as it seemingly does not go far enough to satisfy the demand for harshness in response to irregular migration. In the context of this symposium on the legal challenges of European security, I delve deeper into this theme by demonstrating the implications of an overarching securitization of asylum law. Implications which, I claim, amount to frustrating the essence of this law. I do this by taking the Force Majeure Regulation as an illustrative example and juxtaposing it with the latest political developments—developments which go significantly further than the Pact in undermining international asylum law, forcing me to question its ongoing relevance when faced with such wholesale disregard.

Chiara Scissa, Il permesso di soggiorno per calamità: un aggiornamento sulla sua applicazione, numeri e beneficiari, in Questione giustizia, 20 novembre 2024

Il permesso di soggiorno per calamità fornisce protezione allo straniero che non può fare sicuro ritorno nel proprio Paese di origine a causa di una situazione di contingente ed eccezionale calamità. Dato l’aggravarsi del cambiamento climatico così come della frequenza e intensità di disastri a esso legati, tale disposizione assume particolare rilevanza, in quanto riconosce direttamente ed esplicitamente il nesso tra fattori climatico-ambientali di migrazione e il contestuale bisogno di protezione. A fronte di tale importanza risulta ancora più sorprendente il fatto che non vi siano studi sulla sua applicazione. La ricerca condotta dall’autrice in due fasi (2018-2023; 2023-2024) mira a colmare, almeno parzialmente, tale lacuna e fornire dati indispensabili per permettere una valutazione informata dell’Articolo 20bis del Testo Unico Immigrazione.

Viola Bex-Reimert, Giel Heeringa, The Strictest Asylum Policy Ever?, in Verfassungsblog, 18 ottobre 2024

On 13 September 2024, ahead of the presentation of the State Budget, the new Dutch coalition presented their finalized plan to implement what it has labelled as the strictest admission regime ever in the field of asylum law. To implement its Outline Agreement, titled ‘Hope, Courage and Pride,’ the government plans to rely on an derogation provision in the Dutch Aliens Act 2000. This permits derogation from the rules laid down in the Dutch Aliens Act 2000 without the involvement of the Dutch parliament. The government plans to derogate from certain specific rules so it can reverse the burden of proof in asylum procedures and abolish both family reunification for adult children and the indefinite asylum permit. We argue that provision does not apply to the current situation and that the Dutch government therefore does not have the jurisdiction to render parts of the Dutch Aliens Act 2000 inoperative.

Jane McAdam, Chiara Scissa, How Domestic Courts Are Using International Refugee Law and Human Rights Law in the Context of Climate Change and Disasters, in EJIL: Talk!, 22 novembre 2024

It was not all that long ago that the idea of linking refugee protection to the impacts of climate change seemed not only embryonic, but futuristic. Yet, over the course of the past decade, an important body of case law and guidance has developed that shows clearly how, in the right factual scenario, people could indeed be refugees in the context of climate change and disasters. As more decision-makers and legal practitioners are faced with protection claims involving the impacts of disasters and climate change – and as the world’s governments meet at COP29 this month – it is important that they are armed with clear, accurate and comparative analysis about clearly when and how protection principles derived from refugee law and human rights law might apply.

Salvo Nicolosi, Türkan Ertuna Lagrand, Setting Gender-Based Asylum Straight: The Court of Justice’s Landing Point, in EU Law Analysis, 7 ottobre 2024

Just a couple of weeks after the Taliban regime in Afghanistan announced a new decree prohibiting women from being heard when speaking outside their homes, on 4 October, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in the joined cases of AH and FN (C‑608/22 and C‑609/22). The ruling constitutes the landing point of a recent stream of case law through which the Court has developed a gender-sensitive approach to refugee protection. In this regard, it is worth recalling that in WS (C-621/21), the Court recognised that women in a country can be considered ‘a particular social group’, while in K, L (C-646/21), it emphasised the importance of gender equality in defining such group. In AH and FN, instead, the Court addressed the issue of whether women subjected to a series of restrictive, state-imposed or state-supported measures, solely based on their gender, could be granted refugee status without the need for an individual assessment of their personal circumstances.

Salvatore Nicolosi, Getting a Grip on Migration but Mind European Law!, in Verfassungsblog, 23 ottobre 2024

On September 13, the new Dutch government led by Dick Schoof outlined its programme (Regeerprogramma) for the next years. Unsurprisingly, a major point of this programme regards asylum and migration, for which the greatest ambition is to install the strictest regime ever and to include the Netherlands within the category of Member States of the European Union (EU) with the strictest admission rules. In all fairness, such an ambition is shared by several European partners, calling for a tougher EU migration policy. This topic was also featured prominently in the European Council meeting on 17 October, whose Conclusions spotlighted the objective of strengthening control of the EU’s external borders.

Steve Peers, Pyrrhic victory for the Greek government: the CJEU rules on Turkey as a “safe third country”, in EU Law Analysis, 11 ottobre 2024

Remember the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015-16? One part of the EU’s response to it was to negotiate a ‘joint statement’ with Turkey (see comments and criticism here, here and here) that, among other things, led to Turkey agreeing to take back asylum-seekers from the Greek islands. Greece facilitated the application of this process by determining that Turkey was a ‘safe third country’ (ie that asylum-seekers could and should have applied there instead, given that this other country is ‘safe’) under EU asylum law, initially for Syrian asylum-seekers in the eastern Greek islands. Faced with a legal challenge to this determination, the Greek Council of State ruled in 2017 that the determination was legal, deciding by a 13-12 vote not to ask the CJEU to interpret the issue of EU law at stake. For its part the EU General Court (upheld on appeal by the CJEU) rejected legal challenges to the joint statement, on the frankly bizarre ground that the European Council had nothing to do with the EU/Turkey joint statement (which referred to EU law issues such as visa waivers).

Libri

Magdalena Kmak, Law, Migration, and Human Mobility, Routledge, 2024

This book analyses the multifaceted ways law operates in the context of human mobility, as well as the ways in which human mobility affects law. Migration law is conventionally understood as a tool to regulate human movement across borders, and to define the rights and limits related to this movement. But drawing upon the emergence and development of the discipline of mobility studies, this book pushes the idea of migration law towards a more general concept of mobility that encompass the various processes, effects, and consequences of movement in a globalized world. In this respect, the book pursues a shift in perspective on how law is understood. Drawing on the concepts of ‘kinology’ and ‘kinopolitics’ developed by Thomas Nail as well as ‘mobility justice’ developed by Mimi Sheller, the book considers movement and motion as a constructive force behind political and social systems; and hence stability that needs to be explained and justified. Tracing the processes through which static forms, such as state, citizenship, or border, are constructed and how they partake in production of differential mobility, the book challenges the conventional understanding of migration law. More specifically, and in revealing its contingent and unstable nature, the book reveals how human mobility is itself constitutive of law. This interdisciplinary book will appeal to those working in the areas of migration and refugee law, citizenship studies, mobility studies, legal theory, and sociolegal studies.

Rottem Rosenberg-Rubins, Crimmigration under International Protection. Constructing Criminal Law as Governmentality, Routledge, 2024

By exploring crimmigration at its intersection with international refugee law, this book exposes crimmigration as a system focused on the governance of territorially present migrants, which internalizes the impracticability of removal and replaces expulsion with domestic policing. The convergence of criminal law and immigration law, known as crimmigration, has become perhaps the paradigmatic model for governing migration in the age of globalization. This book offers a unique way of understanding crimmigration as a system of governmentality, the primary target of which is the population, its principal form of knowledge being political economy, and its essential mechanism being the apparatus of security. It does so by characterizing a particular model of crimmigration, termed ‘crimmigration under international protection’, which targets refugees and asylum-seekers who are principally undeportable under international law. The book draws on comparative research of such models implemented worldwide, combined with a detailed case study of the immigration detention system instigated in Israel for coping with asylum-seekers specifically and exclusively. These models demonstrate that, at its core, crimmigration is not a system of outright social exclusion focused on the expulsion of undesirable migrants, but rather one focused on the management, classification and policing of domestic populations. It is argued that under crimmigration regimes criminal law becomes instrumental in the facilitation of gradual assimilation, by shifting immigration enforcement from the margins of the state to the daily supervision of territorially present migrants. The book illustrates this point by focusing on three main themes: crimmigration as domestication; crimmigration as civic stratification and crimmigration as a mechanism coined by Foucault as the apparatus of security and by Deleuze as the society of control. By exploring these themes, the book offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the rise of crimmigration and the particular ways in which it targets resident migrants. The book will be of interest to researchers and academics working in the areas of criminal law and criminology, immigration law, citizenship studies, globalization studies, border studies and critical refugee studies.

Articoli

Iris Goldner Lang, The Re-emergence of ‘Fortress Europe, in European Foreign Affairs Review, 2024, n. 4

Over the past decade, the EU’s migration, asylum and border control policies have been undergoing a constant tightening. These developments have been manifested both in the EU’s legislative changes, culminating with the recently adopted New Pact on Migration and Asylum (further in text: Migration Pact),1 and in Member States’ practices. What seemed socially, morally, politically and legally unacceptable at the end of the twentieth century, has over the past years become permissible and, in the eyes of many, even necessary. The reinforcement of the EU’s migra- tion, asylum and border control policies is consistent with the notion of ‘Fortress Europe’. Its official aim is to counter irregular arrivals, while its additional and unspoken aim is to reduce the number asylum applications in the EU.

Aida Halilovic, Executive Migration Governance and Law-making in the European Union: Towards a State of Exception, in European Papers, 2024, n. 2

In the name of effectiveness, European Union (EU) governance has long departed from the traditional approach of governing through law, venturing onto new paths of making and discharging policies across different policy fields. Through new and creative governance, networked governance, and governance through agencies, flexibility and functionalism have become the new paradigms of EU governance. This is particularly striking in the interiors area, including internal security and migration, where the fuzziness of the constitutional framework leaves wide margins to new governance approaches to intervene to “fill the gaps”. Failing to achieve harmonization through law (because of the high sovereign sensitivity and politicization), EU governance turned to harmonization through practices, trying to increase trust and boost cooperation on a practical level playing field. While legislative production regulating the core of EU asylum and migration is still scarce (i.e., regulating the substance of migration), hard law provisions mushroom when it comes to empowering agencies, regulating operational cooperation, or harmonizing practices across the EU (i.e., regulating the administration of migration). The actual management of migration occurs then within this latter executive/administrative dimension. Analysing (executive) migration governance in terms of whether it achieved its original intents (effectiveness and depoliticization) would only tell something about its goodness of fit, and little about its goodness. In light of the incessant crises that have hit the EU, this Article reflects on the close-to-Schmittian state of exception, that is fuelling an increasingly creative governance in the Union.

Luisa Marin, Which Rule of Law for the External Borders of the European Union? Agencies, Institutions, and the Complex Upholding of the Rule of Law at the EU’s External Borders, in European Papers, 2024, n. 2

This Article expands the rule of law crisis narrative to the EU administrative layer. It starts by introducing the context where the agencies have developed; it continues with an operationalization of the rule of law for agencies; in the next section, it places the evolution of the agencies against the background of the low-intensity constitutionalism of the EU legal order and its meaning. It unpacks this concept into the right to effective judicial protection, which is assessed in its constitutional potential in the case law on the Hungarian rule of law; it further continues with an assessment of the case law concerning the instruments of the external dimension of migration and border management, focusing on the deference shown by the CJEU. The thesis argued in this Article disputes the idea of the consolidation of a coherent approach toward rule of law issues, especially when migration-related policies are concerned. The Article concludes with a claim that an effort of constitutional coherence is necessary to support the embedding of the agencies into a more robust rule of law framework.

Nikolas Feith Tan, Meltem Ineli-Ciger, Beyond Derogations in the EU Crisis Regulation. Making Expedited Procedures for Manifestly Well-Founded Asylum Claims Work in Practice, in European Journal of Migration and Law, 2024, n. 4

The recent Pact on Migration and Asylum, a package of legislative and policy reforms to the European Union (EU) asylum acquis, introduces the concept of expedited procedures for asylum seekers likely to be in need of international protection. These procedures can be implemented under the new Crisis Regulation, which can be triggered in situations of crisis and force majeure. Generally, the Crisis Regulation foresees a range of problematic derogations from the EU asylum system, while the potential use of expedited procedures presents more protective options for granting asylum in crisis and force majeure situations. This article explores the possibility of implementing prima facie or manifestly well-founded procedures under the new Crisis Regulation, arguing for creative, flexible and scaled-up use of expedited procedures, drawing on international practice, to provide fast, fair and efficient procedures to recognise the status of refugees entering the EU in times of crisis.

Daniela Vitiello, Nel nome della libertà di circolazione: la riforma di Schengen e le alternative al ripristino dei controlli interni, Quaderni AISDUE, Fascicolo speciale n. 4/2024

La riforma del codice frontiere Schengen, varata nel 2024, s’inquadra nell’approccio globale alla gestione della migrazione inaugurato dal Nuovo Patto, contribuendo ad arricchire il ventaglio di strumenti e meccanismi volti al contenimento dei movimenti secondari e al contrasto all’abuso del diritto d’asilo. Per un verso, viene rafforzata la cornice procedurale per il ripristino unilaterale dei controlli alle frontiere interne; per altro verso, vengono introdotte nuove procedure centralizzate di ripristino e si espande significativamente la dimensione soggettiva, oggettiva, operativa e spaziale delle c.d. misure alternative. La compressione dell’autonomia statale in relazione al ripristino unilaterale dei controlli interni è compensata dall’introduzione di presunzioni, automatismi e finzioni giuridiche, che ravvicinano il regime giuridico delle frontiere interne a quello della frontiera esterna, con l’obiettivo di razionalizzare la gestione dei flussi migratori. Il contributo intende offrire spunti di riflessione sulla compatibilità di questi sviluppi con “lo spirito di Schengen”, tenuto conto del simbolismo universalista sotteso alla libertà di circolazione, anche alla luce della rilevante giurisprudenza della Corte di giustizia.

Veronica Corcodel, A Decolonial Agenda for EU Migration and Asylum Law, in European Journal of Migration and Law, 2024, n. 4

This article seeks to advance a decolonial research agenda in EU migration and asylum law, arguing that there is significant scope for further development within existing scholarship. It offers some theoretical tools grounded in postcolonial and decolonial literature, contending that a decolonial project for EU migration and asylum law should critically engage with the enduring epistemic foundations of colonial unequal mobilities and treatment. These include the ‘sedentary bias’ and the ‘cheap labour’ bias, as well as the ways in which these have been shaped by race, gender, class, and other epistemic formations. Building on these insights, the article outlines potential avenues for further research, especially in relation to the EU Schengen regime, the externalisation of EU borders, the construction of the ‘economic migrant’ and the Common European Asylum system.

Matija Kontak, Biometric Borders Envisaged by Frontex: Fundamental Rights in the Backseat, in European Papers, 2024, n. 2

This Article provides an assessment of the biometric policy of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and its consequences for the fundamental rights of migrants. It provides an overview of the technological aspects of biometrics, their application, and the legal framework in the context of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. This sets the background for an analysis of how and why Frontex uses biometrics to advance its goals. This Article analyses policy papers, legal provisions, and other sources, but particularly the Technology Foresight on Biometrics for the Future of Travel, a report on biometrics published by Frontex. This Article concludes that Frontex fails to account for the consequences of its biometric policy on fundamental rights when considering the effects of biometric technologies for the future.

Antonietta Lupo, Il diritto umano al clima stabile e sicuro quale possibile fondamento giuridico per la protezione dei cd. migranti climatici. Qualche riflessione de iure condendo, in Rivista OIDU, 2024, 5

Anthropogenic climate changes are considered one of the driving factors of voluntary and/or forced migrations of those who are forced to move, within their country or outside its borders, to ensure better living conditions. Faced with a “lax” approach in combating climate change, the contribution intends to carry out some reflection, de iure condendo, on the added value that the positivization of a human right to a stable and safe climate can provide to global climate policies and, consequently, to the protection of the so-called climate migrants.

Steve Peers, The New Asylum Pact: Brave New World or Dystopian Hellscape?, in European Journal of Migration and Law, 2024, n. 4

The EU has recently agreed on the asylum pact, a comprehensive amendment of EU asylum law. This paper offers an overview and critique of the new legislation in its broader context.

Steve Peers, Free Movement of Services and Non-EU Citizen Staff – a U-turn from the CJEU? Comments on Case C-540/22, in European Journal of Migration and Law, 2024, n. 4

The CJEU has recently decided that non-EU employees of EU companies providing services in another Member State require residence permits to work there for more than 90 days. This case note explores the rationale and implications of the Court’s judgment.

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Meltem Ineli Ciger, No surprises here! What is discretionary remains discretionary in the CJEU’s first judgment on temporary protection, in EU Law Analysis, 21 dicembre 2024

On 19 December 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union gave its judgment in Joined cases C-244/24 and C-290/24 Kaduna. This is the first judgment delivered by the Court on the Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 (Temporary Protection Directive- TPD) and its application by the Member States towards persons forcibly displaced from Ukraine. The judgment clarifies important issues concerning the application of Article 7(1) of the Temporary Protection Directive which enables Member States to extend temporary protection to additional groups besides those covered by the Council decision triggering temporary protection, provided that those additional groups are displaced for the same reasons and from the same country or region of origin as those covered by the Council decision. It further answers crucial questions on the termination of the temporary protection granted to persons benefitting from temporary protection who does not fall within the scope of Article 2(1) and 2(2) of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/382 of 4 March 2022 establishing the existence of a mass influx of displaced persons from Ukraine i.e. persons who were holding temporary residence permits in Ukraine and the lawfulness of the return decisions adopted in their regard.

Steve Peers, The Council’s position on proposed EU law on migrant smuggling: cynical political theatre?, in EU Law Analysis, 9 dicembre 2024

Member States’ ministers (the EU Council) are likely to agree a negotiating position this week on replacement of existing EU law on smuggling of migrants – raising questions in particular about the compatibility of this law with human rights, including as regards humanitarian assistance for migrants. The following analysis first sets out the current law, comparing it to the Commission’s proposal for replacing that law last year, then comparing that proposal in turn to the likely text of the Council position, concluding with comments on the latest text. The proposal will still have to be negotiated with the European Parliament, which does not yet have a negotiation position of its own.

Niovi Vavoula, Regulating AI at Europe’s Borders. Where the AI Act Falls Short, in Verfassungsblog, 13 dicembre 2024

The adoption of the AI Act constitutes a pivotal moment in the regulation of AI systems deployed in the EU, including the field of migration, asylum and border management. This blog aims to provide a concise analysis of the immigration-related provisions, arguing that the classification of the high-risk AI systems is particularly problematic and that the various exceptions and gaps of the AI Act safeguards applicable in this field will amplify the fundamental rights challenges and create accountability gaps.

Stefano Zirulia, Il “decreto Piantedosi” sulle operazioni di soccorso in mare approda alla Consulta, in Sistema penale, 10 dicembre 2024

Con ordinanza del 10 ottobre 2024 il Tribunale civile di Brindisi ha sollevato questione di legittimità costituzionale, per violazione di diversi parametri, della disposizione che prevede la sanzione accessoria del fermo amministrativo di 20 giorni della nave che non ottemperi alle indicazioni fornite dalle autorità nazionali competenti, secondo la ripartizione delle zone SAR, per il tratto di mare nel quale si è svolto il salvataggio di stranieri privi di regolari documenti per l’ingresso in Italia. La norma censurata è racchiusa nell’art. 1 comma 2-sexies del d.l. n. 130 del 2020, conv. in legge n. 173 del 2020 (noto anche come “decreto Lamorgese”), come modificato dal d.l. n. 1 del 2023, conv. con modif. dalla legge n. 15 del 2023 (c.d. “decreto Piantedosi”).

Paolo Biondi, The right to perform secondary movements under international refugee law, in EU Law Analysis, 21 dicembre 2024

The 1951 Refugee Convention is a pivotal document in international refugee protection, outlining the rights of asylum seekers and the responsibilities of states. Central to this convention is Article 31(1), which addresses the non-penalization of refugees for illegal entry or presence […]. Traditionally viewed as a provision ensuring refugees are not penalised for illegal entry or presence if they present themselves promptly to authorities and have good cause for their illegal entry or presence, in my opinion Article 31(1) has broader implications. This blog post explores these implications, highlighting how Article 31(1) and related provisions within International Refugee Law (IRL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) should be interpreted to uphold human rights standards. By examining the negotiating history, authoritative interpretations and jurisprudential decisions, it suggests an unorthodox interpretation of Article 31 pointing to a wider interpretation of the right to perform secondary movements where effective compliance with human rights is essential for legitimately allocating of responsibility for asylum applications.

Evelien Brouwer, EU’s AI Act and Migration Control. Shortcomings in Safeguarding Fundamental Rights, in Verfassungsblog, 13 dicembre 2024

In Europe, technology is increasingly being used for the purpose of border and migration control. EU law, including the new Migration and Asylum Pact, and extensive EU funding of border technologies encourage Member States to distinguish as early as possible between so-called “bona fide” or “mala fide” migrants. The current trend of techno-solutionism affects non-EU citizens or third-country nationals in particular and implies risks for their right to privacy, data protection, and access to legal remedies. Furthermore, the rise of digital borders raises concerns with regard to the right to non-discrimination and the prohibition of racial profiling. In 2021, the European Parliament Research Center (EPRS) identified different applications of algorithms, including automated risk assessment and decision-making, as well as surveillance via drones or (possibly in the future) lie detectors. Assessing the impact of the new AI Regulation (hereafter AI Act) within this field, it is necessary to differentiate between rule- and data-based as well as machine-learning algorithms. Only the latter falls within the scope of the definition of Article 3 AI Act which implies a system which can operate with a certain level of autonomy on the basis of the input it receives. In this contribution, I will argue that the new AI Act, while adding some safeguards, falls short of protecting fundamental rights in the border and migration context sufficiently because of its blanket exceptions and non-included high-risk-classifications of certain migratory AI systems.

Alan Desmond, Kevin Fredy Hinterberger, The CJEU ruling in Changu: ‘If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: the Return Directive in conjunction with the Charter of Fundamental Rights does not oblige EU Member States to grant a right to remain to irregularly staying migrants’, in EU Law Analysis, 19 dicembre 2024

The 2008 Return Directive sets out common standards and procedures for removal of irregularly staying third-country nationals (TCNs) by all EU Member States, except for Ireland and Denmark, and by the four Schengen states outside the EU, namely, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Since the Directive’s entry into force in January 2009, it has been the subject of an increasing number of important CJEU rulings that clarify the scope and substance of safeguards for TCNs facing removal, ranging from the right to be heard prior to adoption of a return decision, to the maximum period of detention allowed under the Directive.

Ciara Smyth, Dining with a new partner? The end of Ireland’s à la carte approach to the EU Common European Asylum System, in EU Migration Law Blog, 9 dicembre 2024

On 18 June 2024, the Irish Dáil (the lower house of parliament) adopted a motion approving the exercise by the State of its discretion under Protocol 21 to the Lisbon Treaty to opt in to all legislative measures of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, bar two: the Screening Regulation and the Return Border Procedures Regulation. Being Schengen-related measures, Ireland could not opt in to these two regulations without opting into Schengen itself – which Ireland cannot do for reasons outlined below. Nonetheless, the Minister for Justice indicated her intention to the Dáil to ‘align’ domestic law with these regulations, saying that ‘essentially we will replicate what we cannot join’. On 31 July, the Commission adopted a number of decisions confirming the participation of Ireland in seven of the nine Pact measures.

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Seyla Benhabib, Ayelet Shachar, Lawless Zones, Rightless Subjects. Migration, Asylum, and Shifting Borders, Cambridge UP, 2025

Responding to ever-increasing pressures of migration, states, supranational, and subnational actors deploy complex moves and maneuvers to reconfigure borders, rights, and territory, giving rise to a changing legal cartography of international relations and international law. The purpose of this volume is to study this new reconfiguration of rights, territoriality, and jurisdiction at the empirical and normative levels and to examine its implications for the future of democratic governance within and across borders. Written by a diverse and accomplished group of scholars, the chapters in this volume employ legal, historical, philosophical, critical, discursive, and postcolonial perspectives to explore how the territoriality of the modern states – ostensibly, the most stable and unquestionable element undergirding the current international system – has been rewritten and dramatically reimagined. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Hiroshi Motomura, Borders and Belonging. Toward a Fair Immigration Policy, Oxford UP, 2025

Immigration is now a polarizing issue across most advanced democracies. But too much that is written about immigration fails to appreciate the complex responses to the phenomenon. Too many observers assume imaginary consensus, avoid basic questions, or disregard the larger context for human migration. In Borders and Belonging, Hiroshi Motomura offers a complex and fair-minded account of immigration, its root causes, and the varying responses to it. Taking stock of the issue’s complexity, while giving credence to the opinions of immigration critics, he tackles a series of important questions that, when answered, will move us closer to a more realistic and sustainable immigration policy. Motomura begins by affirming a basic concept—national borders—and asks when they might be ethical borders, fostering fairness but also responding realistically to migration patterns and to the political forces that migration generates. In a nation with ethical borders, who should be let in or kept out? How should people forced to migrate be treated? Should newcomers be admitted temporarily or permanently? How should those with lawful immigration status be treated? What is the best role for enforcement in immigration policy? To what extent does the arrival of newcomers hurt long-time residents? What are the “root causes” of immigration and how can we address them? Realistic about the desire of most citizens for national borders, this book is an indispensable guide for moving toward ethical borders and better immigration policy.

Martijn Stronks, Grasping Legal Time. Temporality and European Migration Law, Cambridge UP, 2025

Time is one of the most important means for the exercise of power. In Migration Law, it is used for disciplining and controlling the presence of migrants within a certain territory through the intricate interplay of two overlapping but contradicting understandings of time – human and clock time. This book explores both the success and limitations of the usage of time for the governance of migration. The virtues of legal time can be seen at work in several temporal differentiations in migration law: differentiation based on temporality, deadlines, qualification of time and procedural differentiation. Martijn Stronks contests that, hidden in the usage of legal time in Migration Law, there is an argument for the inclusion of migrants on the basis of their right to human time. This assertion is based in the finite, irreversible and unstoppable character of human time.

Articoli

Darren Harvey, The Best Interests of the Child Need Not Necessarily be a Primary Consideration. ECJ 22 June 2023, Case C-459/20, in European Constitutional Law Review, 2024, n. 4

Can the Thai mother of a Dutch child derive a right of residence in the Netherlands under Article 20 TFEU, despite that child having been born and continuing to reside in Thailand? This is the question which sits at the heart of the recent judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in X v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (hereinafter X).Footnote 1 The case forms part of a complex body of ECJ jurisprudence pertaining to residence rights which third country nationals (TCN) may derive from the EU citizenship rights of family members or dependents based on Article 20 TFEU.Footnote 2 According to that provision, every person holding the nationality of a member state shall be a citizen of the Union. EU citizens enjoy rights and are subject to duties provided for in the EU Treaties, including the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the member states. According to settled ECJ case law, Union citizenship is intended to be the fundamental status of the nationals of the member states.Footnote 3 In addition to the citizenship rights explicitly enumerated in the EU Treaties and EU secondary legislation, the Court also (in)famously held in its landmark Ruiz Zambrano judgment that Article 20 TFEU obliged member states to allow for family reunification between TCN parents and their Union citizen children, even in the member state of which that EU citizen is a national, and even when that EU citizen had never left their member state of nationality.

Marco Magri, Sulle cure offshore per gli stranieri trattenuti in Albania, in Costituzionalismo.it, 2024, n. 3

Il saggio è dedicato all’analisi delle norme del Protocollo tra Italia e Albania reso esecutivo con la legge n. 14 del 2024, che riguardano l’erogazione delle cure urgenti per le persone trattenute in territorio albanese. Premessa l’illu- strazione delle disposizioni che prevedono l’affidamento alla sanità albane- se delle cure urgenti e indifferibili a cui l’Italia non riesca a far fronte nelle strutture di accoglienza, gli argomenti proposti si articolano in tre rilievi. Il primo riguarda la disparità di trattamento in danno degli stranieri trattenu- ti in Albania, assunta a termine di comparazione la pienezza della garanzia sanitaria accordata, per le cure urgenti e indifferibili, agli stranieri trattenuti nelle strutture di accoglienza in zone di frontiera italiane. Il secondo riguarda la disciplina contrattualistica degli affidamenti e mette in luce l’impossibilità di rendere effettive le garanzie offerte dal diritto comunitario degli appalti pubblici in un Paese, come l’Albania, legato alla UE dalla semplice esistenza di negoziati per l’adesione. Il terzo concerne la disciplina amministrativa e fiscale dei corrispettivi dei servizi albanesi ed evidenzia l’inadeguatezza delle clausole del Protocollo sulla verifica degli adempimenti di Parte albanese. Le conclusioni riprendono il filo del discorso sugli aspetti umanitari e si soffer- mano sui profili di incostituzionalità del Protocollo, ma anche sugli effetti che esso potrà avere sulla «mutua fiducia» tra Stati membri, in termini di ri- spetto del principio del non refoulement all’interno della zona Schengen, per finire con alcuni dubbi sulla compatibilità tra il Protocollo e la direttiva (UE) 2024/1346 (adottata nel contesto del nuovo Patto sulla migrazione e l’asilo).

Lorin-Johannes Wagner, The Disruptive Influence of EU Law in Nationality Matters: The Genuine Link Trajectory and Judicial Engineering in Udlændingeog Integrationsministeriet, in European Constitutional Law Review, 2024, n. 4

Who is a Union citizen and who is not? The sacredly-held paradigm that every member state can decide who its nationals are – still reverberating in the judgments of Micheletti and Kaur – has been quickly evaporating ever since Rottmann, and subsequently Tjebbes, Wiener Landesregierung and Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet. Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet, as the latest judgment decided by the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice, not only illustrates the growing influence of EU law, but raises some further questions. While the judgment underscores the underlying genuine link trajectory in EU law that is set to challenge old and new practices of member states in nationality matters, the assessment of the ECJ also provides a cautionary tale about the incursions of EU law into the procedural domain. There are good reasons to doubt the prudence of channelling the disruptive influence of EU law through the national courts alone. To this end, the following analysis will first outline the background of the case of Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet, the Opinion of Advocate General Szpunar and the judgment of the ECJ, before, in the second part, addressing the genuine link trajectory in the case law and its implications for the conception of nationality in the context of EU law. In the third part, a closer look will then be taken at the procedural dimension of the case, and the wider ramifications of the approach taken by the Court will be assessed.

Serena Greco, I criteri di accesso alle prestazioni sociali ancora al vaglio della Corte costituzionale. Commento a Corte cost., sentenze n. 53 del 2024 e n. 67 del 2024, in Osservatorio costituzionale, 2025, n. 1

La Corte costituzionale, con le sentenze n. 53 e n. 67 del 2024, si è nuovamente espressa sui criteri di accesso alle prestazioni sociali. Il commento a tali sentenze consente una riflessione più ampia sul tema delle discriminazioni nell’ambito dei diritti sociali in violazione dell’art. 3 Cost. Il vaglio di ragionevolezza della Corte nelle sentenze in commento verte sui criteri della residenza e della cittadinanza e, seppur a vario titolo, sulla questione abitativa. Un’analisi separata di tali elementi e, a seguire, della giurisprudenza costituzionale, consente dunque di tracciare il confine anche tra il nucleo minimo dei diritti sociali da garantire a tutti e i diritti eccedenti l’essenziale, per i quali il legislatore può – ragionevolmente – stabilire limiti di accesso.

Luicy Pedroza, Jean-Thomas Arrighi, Perspectives on the implementation gap in citizenship policy, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Citizenship laws and policies define the characteristics of membership in the political community: what qualities define the people constituting the state and how membership can be transmitted over generations–but also acquired, lost and proven. These definitions usually appear in the highest– or, in the legal understanding of some countries, most ‘basic’– state norms: constitutions and covering laws. The terms used to define citizenship at this level are usually abstract principles, setting the tone for a wide range of administrative practices related to the exercise of political rights and the acquisition or loss of nationality. Citizenship and nationality laws are typically shielded from fleeting political changes: located at the highest levels of the hierarchy of norms, they usually are protected by procedures requiring strong majorities and consensus-building to change. Yet, below this level, a vast, fascinating, and complex variation unfolds when it comes to how citizenship policies are applied. Citizenship policy is not only an area of norms, but quintessentially of practice. Rather than the abstract principles, it is their concrete administrative translation that determines migrants’ prospects to become members (nationals), and/or active participants of the polity (citizens). In this Article Collection, political scientists, sociologists, lawyers and anthropologists study how the definition of and access to citizenship on paper differ from its application in practice: the implementation gaps in citizenship policy.

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Francesco Luigi Gatta, Intrigo internazionale: il complesso intreccio giurisprudenziale sulla nozione di «paese sicuro» tra Roma, Lussemburgo e Strasburgo, in SIDI Blog, 19 gennaio 2025

Il 18 dicembre 2024, in un comunicato diffuso in occasione della giornata internazionale del migrante, le Nazioni Unite hanno sottolineato le problematiche legate a «the increasingly complex environment in which migration occurs». Tra i fattori di “crescente complessità” si possono certamente includere anche concetti ed istituti di natura giuridica, forgiati dal diritto nel difficile tentativo di governare i flussi migratori. Tra questi, uno dei più controversi è quello di Paese di origine sicuro (POS), su cui è sorto un accesso dibattito, veicolato da una intensa (ma spesso sommaria ed imprecisa) copertura mediatica. Ma perché la questione attrae tanta attenzione e scatena discussioni così vivaci?

Marlene Stiller, How the EU Commission Backs up Pushbacks at the EU-Belarussian Border, in Verfassungsblog, 7 gennaio 2025

In December 2024, the European Commission issued a communication to the European Parliament and the Council discussing the current situation of so-called ‘hybrid threats’ at the EU-Belarussian border. With the goal of stopping irregular arrivals of migrants and its facilitation by Belarus and Russia, the EU Commission outlines how EU primary law, namely Art. 72 TFEU, could be utilized by Member States to circumvent the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and curtail the protection afforded by fundamental rights for migrants. By advising member states to make use of this legal pathway for the current situation at the EU-Belarussian border, the EU Commission indirectly justifies the current pushback practices from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Daniel Thym, Does the Commission Cross the Rubicon? Legalising ‘Pushbacks’ on the Basis of Article 72 TFEU, in EU Migration Law Blog, 10 gennaio 2025

December 2024 may go down in history as a turning point of EU asylum law and policy. The newly appointed second von der Leyen Commission recognised, in a non-binding communication, that pushbacks may possibly be legal if Member States invoke a provision some experts may barely have noticed: Article 72 TFEU protects the responsibilities of the Member States to maintain law and order and to safeguard internal security. This short provision can, in the view of the Commission, justify a derogation from the right to asylum at the EU’s Eastern borders in response to the instrumentalisation of migration by Russia and Belarus. Doing so would effectively legalise controversial legislation and administrative practices refusing entry to the territory for people expressing the desire to apply for asylum, despite the obligations enshrined in the Asylum Procedures Directive and Articles 18 and 19 of the Charter. This blogpost serves as a guide to the legal questions surrounding the communication.

Hassan Zaheer, Trump’s Order of Law, in Verfassungsblog, 20 gennaio 2025

Today, January 20, 2025, Donald Trump is going to be inaugurated a second time as the 47th President of the United States. His presidency is expected to undertake dramatic changes to America’s policy on immigration as his hardcore rhetoric may transform into hardened policy. To fulfill his campaign promises, in particular his planned mass deportation policy, Trump has repeatedly stated his intention to invoke two archaic laws: the 1807 Insurrection Act and the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. This blog will provide an overview of the two acts, explain the requirements for the President-elect to utilize them, and detail potential ways to cabin their use.

Libri

Alberto-Horst Neidhardt , Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi , Philippe De Bruycker , Daniel Thym , Helena Hahn , Eleonora Milazzo , Andreina De Leo, From Compromise to Implementation: A New Era for EU Migration Policy?, Brussels, 2024

Following the green light by the European Parliament in May 2024, the Council voted in favour of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. After years of disagreements on the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), the co-legislators were ultimately able to achieve a compromise on the legislative package. The reform paves the way for a new generation of EU asylum and migration laws. Many initially hoped that the reforms could also open a new chapter for the EU’s policies in this area. Yet, uncertainty around the implementation of the new rules remains high. Not all member states stand behind the reform package, as the successful but not unanimous vote in the Council showed. With migration as high as ever on the EU and national political agendas on the one hand, and demands for further legislative changes on the other, it is more important than ever to have an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the reforms’ impact.

Articoli

Elisa Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Livia Elisa Ortensi, Exploring migrants’ willingness to renounce birthright citizenship in Italy: Do national identity, place of socialization, and instrumental approach matter?, in Migration Studies, 2025, n. 1

The relationship between citizenship and identity is complex, affecting migrants’ propensity to become citizens if the law of the destination or home country requires renouncing birthright citizenship. Renunciation of birthright citizenship is one of the main barriers to naturalization. However, previous research has underestimated migrants’ readiness to renounce their birthright citizenship, focusing mainly on the dual citizenship regulations of both destination and home countries. This article aims to fill this gap. Using a unique, nationally representative dataset, Social Condition and Integration of Foreigners, we analyse migrants’ intention to renounce their citizenship to become Italian, focusing on three dimensions: identity, place of socialization, and reason for naturalization. The results show that identification with the host country, longer socialization in Italy, and the desire for equality of status and rights are strongly associated with the willingness to renounce citizenship.

Mohammad Nayyeri, Populism, backlash morality and immigrants, in International Journal of Law in Context, 2025, n. 1

The social and political contexts in many countries are affected by dangerous trends and forces of populism. Populist hostility is most observable in connection with issues of immigration, where it functions as a pretext for scrapping legal protections in increasingly hostile immigration laws. What is particularly insidious about these developments is the claim, articulated by some theorists, that the popular resentment and backlash against immigrants and refugees are justified. That populists are hostile towards immigrants and human rights laws, the claim seems to go, is the fault of the legal norms and institutions that allow in the immigrants and protect them. This article challenges those approaches and argues that legal constraints on popular biases towards immigrants are necessary and need to be defended against popular moralism. It is also argued that although community values are important, they should not be considered as trumps against the rights of immigrants and refugees.

Hannah Zaruchas, Challenging Dublin transfers. Revisiting judicial developments in light of the new Asylum and Migration Management Regulation: CZA and X v Staatssecretaris, in Common Market Law Review, 2025, n. 1

Evan Easton-Calabria, Caitlin Sturridge, Mobile displacement or displaced mobility?: Using transition theory to challenge migration-displacement binaries and biases, in Migration Studies, 2025, n. 1

Within the context of increasing conflict- and climate-driven displacement and mobility, many people today neither fit neatly within ascribed labels nor access assistance in just one way. However movement continues to be presented in binaries within academia and by many humanitarian, development, and state actors. Here, we ask: when does displacement constitute mobility and when are mobile people in fact displaced? And, crucially, how do people define themselves in terms of their mobility (if at all)? We present an integrated theoretical framework combining Schlossberg’s transition theory with the characteristics of ‘coping’ versus ‘adapting’ and an exploration of ‘tipping points’. We argue that elements of coping and adapting can be meaningfully employed to differentiate between experiences of mobility or displacement within a larger heuristic of transitions, underscoring the malleability of situations which may in fact quickly ‘tip’ from mobility to displacement, vice versa, and back again. This framework in turn enables deeper exploration of the grey areas or ‘transitions’ between mobility and displacement, and can be used to further understanding of whether, how, and under what circumstances people may transition between voluntary migration and forced displacement. Using two distinct case studies of internally displaced people in Mozambique and pastoralists and semi-pastoralists in Ethiopia, we illustrate the transitions that can and do occur between migration and displacement, in both directions. We posit the importance of understanding mobility through a dynamic framework that prioritizes individual agency and perceptions and seeks to account for the nuanced and sometimes rapidly changing reality of displaced and other mobile people’s lives.

Elif Naz Kayran, Attitudes towards immigration and unemployment risk cleavages: Untangling the economically rooted group conflict framework, in Migration Studies, 2025, n. 1

How do increasing economic risk cleavages amongst natives shape growing negativity towards immigration? Group conflict theory suggests that tension between immigrant and native groups arises as a reaction to the actual or perceived loss of economic privilege by the majority group members. Yet, such an economically rooted formation of sentiments towards immigration is widely debated. This article aims to clarify and more precisely assess the economic threat mechanisms of inter-group conflict, remedying limitations in earlier work. Distinct from the economic threat effects due to immigration, here, I argue and show that being in a relatively worse-off position amongst natives is a separate channel increasing adverse reactions to immigration. To examine this relationship, I use high-quality longitudinal household panel data Socio-Economic Panel from Germany from 1999 to 2016. Results from the German case provide evidence suggesting that even when controlling for exposure to a higher risk of being substituted by immigrants and a higher risk of being fiscally burdened by foreigners, there is a robust effect of exposure to increasingly higher unemployment risks compared to other native workers in the host society raises adversity towards immigration. This effect is independent of geographic differences and actual exposure to the economic impact of immigrants. Overall, this article reconciles existing accounts of economically motivated group conflict. It brings forward a comprehensive theoretical framework and empirical evidence to the study of worsening reactions towards immigration in these past decades.

Stefan Rother, International Organisations Are People, Too: IOM’s Role as Coordinator of the UN Migration Network and the Socialisation of International Organisations, in Geopolitics, 2025

In International Relations (IR) research on socialisation, International Organisations (IOs) have so far primarily been conceptualised as fora in which member states might be socialised. This paper argues that the process of socialisation can also take place at the systemic level of global migration and refugee governance. It takes as its case study the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which for a long time has operated outside the United Nations (UN) system but in 2016 became a ‘related agency’ and was selected as the coordinator and secretariat of the new UN Network on Migration. It is argued that IOs such as IOM can be socialised themselves through interaction with other IOs and stakeholders such as civil society as well as through the structure of the international system in which they operate and the role they play herein. This will be analysed in three temporal stages – pre-socialisation, the process of setting up the Network and the Network today. The analysis will include the relations to other stakeholders such as UNHCR and migrant civil society organisations as well as the self-perceptions of actors in the Network responsible for these relations. The analysis of the evolving role identities, norms and cultures of IOM in relation to the UN Network is based on extensive participant observation in online and in-person spaces, expert interviews, document and social media analysis.

Cristina Sin, Orlanda Tavares, Elina Apsite-Berina, et al., The impact of COVID-19 on the social and cultural integration of international students: a literature review, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

This systematic literature review summarises the state-of-the-art evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on the integration of international students in their host countries and institutions. Conducted between January and May 2022, it analyses the responses to COVID-19 of the key actors involved in international student mobility: national/regional authorities, higher education institutions, and students. Findings reveal that governmental action and institutional measures were decisive in shaping international students’ integration experiences. Regarding governmental action, criticism of the policies adopted by Australia and the USA in relation to immigration and/or support stand out, in contrast to policies adopted by the Canadian authorities. Higher education institutions played an important role in mitigating the negative effects of COVID-19 on international students’ integration. These targeted different needs– material, well-being, and social– through different types of support: logistical and financial support, psychological support, and the provision of platforms for ongoing social interaction and exchange. Most studies, however, focus on the students themselves, the challenges they faced during the pandemic and their coping strategies. Common to international students’ lived experience was (dis)connectedness, with the following themes emerging as obstacles to their social and cultural integration: distress during lockdown periods, disruption of their social life and support networks, mental health issues, discrimination and racialised prejudice, and language barriers. The review concludes by proposing recommendations and by identifying avenues for future research.

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Paolo Biondi, The right to perform secondary movements under international refugee law, in EU Law Analysis, 23 febbraio 2025

The 1951 Refugee Convention is a pivotal document in international refugee protection, outlining the rights of asylum seekers and the responsibilities of states. Central to this convention is Article 31(1), which addresses the non-penalization of refugees for illegal entry or presence […]. Traditionally viewed as a provision ensuring refugees are not penalised for illegal entry or presence if they present themselves promptly to authorities and have good cause for their illegal entry or presence, in my opinion Article 31(1) has broader implications. This blog post explores these implications, highlighting how Article 31(1) and related provisions within International Refugee Law (IRL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) should be interpreted to uphold human rights standards. By examining the negotiating history, authoritative interpretations and jurisprudential decisions, it suggests an unorthodox interpretation of Article 31 pointing to a wider interpretation of the right to perform secondary movements where effective compliance with human rights is essential for legitimately allocating of responsibility for asylum applications.

Joyce De Coninck, The Binoculars at the Borders of Europe, in Verfassungsblog, 19 febbraio 2025

A mere two months into 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) have dealt with no less than 7 cases – of which 5 before the respective Grand Chambers – concerning various types of alleged pushbacks at Europe’s borders. In each of these cases rules of evidence were and remain at the forefront of effective human rights protection. Whereas the CJEU’s Grand Chamber engaged with the question of Frontex liability for contributions to pushbacks and returns in the appeals of WS and others v Frontex (see GC hearing), and Hamoudi v Frontex (see GC hearing), the Strasbourg Court ruled in A.R.E. and G.R.J. both versus Greece on the question of pushbacks at Europe’s southern borders, and held hearings in R.A. v Poland (see GC hearing), H.M.M. v Latvia (see GC hearing) and C.O.C.G. v Lithuania (see GC hearing) on the question of pushbacks and Belarusian instrumentalization of migratory flows at the borders of the respective states.

Simon Cox, EU Citizenship Should Not Be Sold, in Verfassungsblog, 20 febbraio 2025

In his Opinion of 4 October 2024, Advocate-General Collins urged rejection of the European Commission’s challenge to Malta’s 2020 Naturalisation for Investment Scheme. He framed the Commission’s case as resting on a single premise, that there is “a requirement under EU law – and, to a lesser extent, under international law – that, in order to preserve the integrity of EU citizenship, there must be a ‘genuine link’ between a Member State and its nationals” (point 41). He rejected that idea in very strong terms, considering it “would upset the carefully crafted balance between national and EU citizenship in the Treaties and constitute a wholly unlawful erosion of Member States’ competence in a highly sensitive field which they have clearly decided to retain under their exclusive control” (point 57). I argue that the AG’s Opinion fails to recognise that the true threat to institutional balance under the Treaties is the sale of EU citizenship. Upholding the Commission’s challenge would not deprive Malta of power to confer Maltese citizenship. Instead, it would build on settled jurisprudence that EU law constrains national rules conferring EU citizenship and follow the longstanding direction of travel of the Court’s jurisprudence, which has already overcome objections that it is too radical.

Steve Peers, The Italy/Albania asylum treaty reaches the CJEU: what are the issues?, in EU Law Analysis, 24 febbraio 2025

Is the Italy/Albania deal on housing asylum-seekers a model of the future, to be emulated by the rest of the EU, and the UK – or is it destined to be an expensive failure, like the UK’s Rwanda policy? The fate of the treaty may rest on its compatibility with EU law, and tomorrow’s hearing at the CJEU – in which it is asked to answer several questions from an Italian court on this point – will be the first time that the EU court will have the opportunity to address some of the issues arising from the treaty directly.  What are the issues that the court will address? How might it address them? And what are the possible implications going forward?

Jan-Hendrik Seelow, Hands On, Eyes Closed? CJEU Grand Chamber hearing on Frontex’s role in unlawful pushbacks (WS and Others v Frontex, C-679/23 P), in EU Law Analysis, 8 febbraio 2025

It is a few minutes after 9 a.m. and the Grand Chamber is still buzzing with morning energy. While Counsels of the parties have just convened in the back room for an introductory briefing, the courtroom is filling up. Many of the seats are occupied; students, other interested visitors and a number of media representatives are present. A larger group were visiting the European Commission and could not miss the hearing. Some members of the two legal teams who did not attend the morning’s preliminary briefing are eagerly rummaging in their bags, spreading out documents, and are accompanied minutely by cameras, microphones hovering above them on long poles.

Massimo Starita, Gli stranieri espulsi in catene ovvero Davide contro Golia e il diritto internazionale, in SIDIBlog, 3 febbraio 2025

Il 24 gennaio la Casa Bianca ha diffuso una foto, indubbiamente scioccante, accompagnata dalla didascalia Deportations flights have begun. Promises made. Promises kept. In essa si vedono nove uomini incatenati che si avviano verso un aeroplano militare (qui). Non sappiamo nulla di loro. Non sappiamo chi siano, se siano stati condannati per reati gravi, se siano sospettati di terrorismo o semplicemente immigrati irregolari. Non sappiamo se le procedure di espulsione siano state sino a quel momento conformi al diritto, se i loro casi siano stati oggetto di valutazione individuale o se sia in corso un’espulsione collettiva. Non sappiamo nemmeno se si tratti di attori, ingaggiati dalla Casa Bianca per una campagna pubblicitaria.

Ayşe Dicle Ergin, The Future of Temporary Protection in Türkiye: Return of Syrians after the Fall of Assad, in EU Law Analysis, 9 febbraio 2025

As of today, the vast majority of approximately 2.8 million Syrians in Türkiye, having fled the conflict and civil war, are under temporary protection. This figure does not include the 73,331 Syrians with residence permits. The regime applicable to the temporary protection beneficiaries is set out in the Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP) and the Temporary Protection Regulation (TPR). Following the fall of the Assad regime, there has been an expectation that Syrians will soon return to their home country. However, a realistic assessment of the current situation is essential to avoid fostering misguided expectations. This blogpost will examine the meaning and scope of temporary protection, the conditions for its termination, voluntary return, and the circumstances under which Syrians may be able to return.

European Journal of Migration and Law, 2025, n. 1

Jari Pirjola, Hostile Instrumentalized Migration and the Right to Seek Asylum. Reflecting the European Legal Framework

Tasawar Ashraf, State Complicity in Aiding and Assisting Extraterritorial Human Rights Violations. The Case of Informal Externalisation of Asylum Controls

Elspeth Guild, The EU’s New Asylum Pact and Ireland’s Opt-in

Jens T. Theilen, Framing Migration in Human Rights: How the Reasoning of the European Court of Human Rights Legitimises Border Regimes

Lisa Heschl, Developing the Human Rights-Based Approach to Persecution Further? The CJEU’s Approach in the Afghan Women and Girls Case

Libri

Ilaria Boiano, Cristina L. Cecchini, Donne migranti, richiedenti asilo e rifugiate. Guida normativa e giurisprudenziale, Giappichelli, 2025

Il volume si rivolge a operatrici, avvocate, docenti e attiviste che si occupano di immigrazione e protezione internazionale. Si tratta di una monografia scientifica che analizza il diritto dell’immigrazione con un focus sulle donne migranti, richiedenti asilo e rifugiate, esaminando le barriere giuridiche e istituzionali che affrontano. Attualmente, non esistono guide che affrontino queste tematiche attraverso una prospettiva di genere e femminista, capace di evidenziare le specifiche forme di violenza e discriminazione subite dalle donne nel percorso migratorio e nelle procedure di protezione. Tra i punti di forza, si segnalano la lettura critica delle politiche migratorie, l’analisi delle persecuzioni di genere e la trattazione delle ultime novità normative, incluse le disposizioni introdotte dal d.l. 11 ottobre 2024, n. 145.

Oliviero Forti, Un nuovo paradigma delle migrazioni: Corridoi umanitari, reinsediamento e altre vie complementari d’ingresso per rifugiati, 2025

Il volume, primo nel suo genere, passa in rassegna tutti gli strumenti attualmente esistenti per l’ingresso legale e sicuro di un rifugiato in un paese che ha accettato di accoglierlo. Dal reinsediamento, ai corridoi umanitari, passando per la sponsorizzazione e il ricollocamento, sono analizzate, anche criticamente, le molteplici soluzioni durature che la società civile e le organizzazioni internazionali, insieme ad alcuni Governi, stanno sperimentando per proteggere i rifugiati. L’autore, avvalendosi anche del contributo di alcuni esperti del settore, tutti con esperienza pluriennale nell’ideazione e implementazione di questi programmi, ha cercato di sistematizzare l’ampio spettro di opportunità umanitarie a cui possono accedere i rifugiati, anche con l’intento di promuoverle tra gli addetti ai lavori che non sempre sono in grado di orientarsi correttamente tra le diverse iniziative sviluppate in Europa e in molti altri paesi del mondo.

Nikolas Feith Tan, Transnational Asylum. Toward a Principled Framework, Routledge, 2025

This book presents an original framework of transnational asylum to inform future cooperation between states on asylum processing and refugee protection. The book provides scholarly guidance on how policies can be undertaken in a way that conforms with the rights of asylum seekers and refugees under international law, asking if transnational asylum offers a workable model for lawful international cooperation and responsibility-sharing. It engages with the practical and legal modalities needed to ensure respect for binding obligations in the context of the current trend of rejection of territorial asylum among some states. The book puts forward a blueprint for how existing policies of deterrence and externalisation can be retooled to share, rather than shift, responsibility for refugees.

Sahar Akhtar, The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Immigration, Routledge, 2025

Immigration poses some of the major moral, economic, and political challenges of the twenty-first century. Questions of the state’s responsibilities toward immigrants, open borders, security, coping with the displacement of people caused by climate change and natural disasters, and deciding who has a ‘right to remain’ are but some of the significant issues currently faced by governments, policymakers, and humanitarian organizations. The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Immigration is an outstanding reference source to this vitally important topic. Comprising twenty-five chapters by an international team of philosophers, economists, political scientists, and legal theorists, the handbook is organized into seven clear parts: – Open Borders or Right to Control: Theoretical Arguments; – Open Borders or Right to Control: Practical Approaches; – Culture, Language, and Institutions; – Immigration and Discrimination Entry, Exit, and Exploitation; – Climate, Refugees, and Protection; – Immigration Enforcement. In these sections a range of important issues are explored, such as immigration and cultural diversity, the economic aspects of immigration, discrimination, exploitation, definitions of refugee status, territory, citizenship, trafficking and gender. As such, The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Immigration will be of great interest to those studying philosophy, politics, economics, and related subjects such as law, sociology, and social policy.

Sabina Garahan, Detention and the Right to Liberty. Addressing Gaps in Protection at the European Court of Human Rights, Routledge, 2025

This book is a ground-breaking study of how the European Court of Human Rights interprets Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to liberty and security. The right to liberty is a fundamental provision that is enshrined not only in the Convention but in all major human rights treaties. Despite this, Article 5 remains both a largely underdeveloped and unexplored area of European human rights law. The work aims to fill this gap by presenting an original framework for the progressive interpretation of the right to liberty. It is argued that the Court has not made use of opportunities to evolve Article 5 standards, resulting in a weakening of protections against arbitrary detention. This book’s original framework for the progressive interpretation of Article 5 identifies and addresses gaps in the protection of vulnerable groups of detainees, including in areas of growing concern across the European human rights space. These include individuals held pre-trial, as children, in immigration detention, following protest, or as a result of their political dissent or human rights activism. The volume outlines the normative justifications for an evolutive approach to Article 5 and elaborates how a dynamic interpretation could be enacted in practice, including by reference to original interview data and insights from European Court of Human Rights judges.

Elena Zambelli, Betty de Hart, Regulating Interracialized Intimacies. Perspectives from Europe and Beyond, Routledge, 2025

This book explores the role of the law in the social construction of ‘race’ and ‘mixture’ within and beyond the borders of Europe. It focuses on ‘interracialized’ intimacies, that is, the intimate relations of subjects ascribed and/or perceived to belong to different ‘races’. The role of the state in defining boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ becomes particularly clear in their regulation. Moving across different times, places and political formations – including the US slavery regime, European colonial empires and metropolises – the book delves deep into how the governments of white-supremacist and white-majority societies have consistently attempted to prevent, discourage or obstruct intimate relationships crossing the colour line. This occurred directly, through prohibitions and anti-miscegenation laws, or indirectly, through citizenship laws, marriage licenses, social care, prostitution laws, housing policies, policing practices and other means. The book further shows that the legacy of these highly gendered and racialized regulations continues to reverberate today, informing norms, hierarchies and perceptions about whose intimacies count as legitimate and ought to be facilitated and whose are deemed suspect and requiring state surveillance. The contributions also shed light on the individuals, couples and families who were targeted by state regulations and how they challenged and disturbed state categorizations and regulations.

Articoli

Iris Goldner Lang, National Independent Monitoring Mechanisms for Fundamental Rights Compliance at the EU’s External Borders, in European Papers, 2024, n. 3

The European Union is torn between its aim to curb down the number of migrants and refugees and its obligation to protect fundamental rights of all individuals on its territory. National independent monitoring mechanisms, stipulated by the Screening Regulation and the Asylum Procedures Regulation, are the reflection of this tension. The mechanisms’ aim will be to contribute to the protection of fundamental rights of irregular migrants and applicants for international protection, by monitoring the activities of police officers at the EU’s external borders. While the establishment of national monitoring mechanisms is a positive step in the context of the protection of fundamental rights at the EU’s external borders, their confinement to screening activities and novel border procedures is a manifest disregard of the fact that violations of third-country nationals’ rights are most likely going to happen during border surveillance, which are not encompassed by the mandate of monitoring mechanisms. The aim of this Article is to critically evaluate the rules for the establishment and work of national independent monitoring mechanisms, point to the main challenges and make recommendations, while using the Croatian pilot mechanisms as a test case to discuss the mechanisms’ mandate, methodology and work.

Lorenzo Gugliotta, Abdullah Elbi, Will AI “Subtly” Take Over Decision-making in the EU Migration Context? Warnings and Lessons from ETIAS and VIS, in European Papers, 2024, n. 3

In 2019, the EU laid down the groundwork for interoperability in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, envisaging the use of algorithmic tools that can qualify as AI systems under the AI Act. AI tools used by EU migration databases are subject to the safeguards and the protective measures for individuals provided for under the AI Act, such as art. 86 thereof. However, given the fundamental rights impact of AI technologies processing large amounts of personal data, it is worth focusing on data protection law as one of the main strongholds against violations caused by AI in EU border and migration systems. In this Article we apply data protection provisions on purely automated decisions and the Court of Justice’s case law to the AI-enabled processing envisaged under two information systems, ETIAS and VIS. This processing was conceived as a supporting tool for competent authorities. This Article argues that, despite aiming to avoid solely automated decisions, the ETIAS and VIS processing might inadvertently lead to automation “taking over” the decision-making process. By contrast, a substantive reading of art. 22(1) GDPR (and art. 24(1) EUDPR) should not only prohibit decisions taken without any form of human involvement, but also decisions based on meaningless human involvement. As a result, the ETIAS and VIS processing may progressively reduce the extent to which human caseworkers review and question the AI-generated recommendations. By analysing the implications of the AI-enabled processing envisaged in the current EU border regulation, the Article seeks to draw useful lessons for further adoption of trustworthy AI in the border and security ecosystem.

Michela Tuozzo, La Corte costituzionale sulla legislazione valdostana in materia di accesso al mutuo agevolato dello straniero. “Ombrelli” e “argomenti” nella sentenza 53/2024, in Le Regioni, 2024, n. 5

The commentary on Constitutional Court ruling 53/2024, regarding discriminatory conditions for foreigners accessing the subsidized loan provided by Valle d’Aosta law 3/2013, analyzes the arguments and tests developed by the Court in its decision. The two distinct requirements identified by the legislature for granting the subsidy correspond to two different outcomes in terms of constitutional legitimacy. Both outcomes will be examined in light of previous constitutional case law on social rights, considering the classification of access to the subsidized loan. In contrast to this, a different way of classifying the nature of the needs is proposed.

Cecilia Bruzelius, Please come back! How and why European governments try to reattract emigrated citizens, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Many EU Member States have adopted emigrant return policies (ERPs) meant to encourage and assist emigrated citizens’ migration back to their country of origin. Despite the significance of this trend, there is a notable lack of comparative research on the nature of ERPs and explanations for their introduction. This article offers a comprehensive analysis of ERPs across all EU countries that have introduced such policies in the past two decades (2004–2023) – including 17 countries and 81 policies. We examine policy instruments, target groups, policy justifications, and the political contexts associated with the introduction of ERPs. Our analysis reveals that ERPs are largely symbolic in substance – although the use of more costly economic tools increased towards the end of the analysed period –, primarily targeting the young and highly skilled, and justified predominantly in relation to the economy. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ERPs are often introduced for political reasons: while many of these policies are likely to be ineffective in shaping migration, they have been adopted in contexts where emigration and/or related issues were salient to showcase action on a highly complex policy issue. The study covers new empirical ground regarding how and why EU Member States govern migration within a free movement space and the understudied politics of emigration and return.

Martin Guzi, Lucia Mýtna Kureková, The Implications of Welfare Generosity and Welfare Access for Migration Strategies, in IMI Working Papers, 2025, n. 2

Economic logic suggests that countries offering more generous welfare benefits are likely to be perceived as more attractive destinations by migrants. Whilst the literature concerning the welfare magnet hypothesis predominantly focuses on the level of welfare generosity, what is arguably more important for immigrants, besides the amount of welfare spending, is their effective access to social welfare. The role of accessibility of welfare provision to immigrants in shaping migration decisions remains understudied in the existing literature. This paper aims to explore the link between welfare generosity, immigrant access to social welfare and migration using the newly updated Immigrant Exclusion from Social Programmes Index (IESPI) to gauge immigrants’ social welfare access relative to natives, and its effect on migration flows. After constructing a database of bilateral migration inflows (outflows) for 19 (15) advanced economies over the period 1990–2020, we employ panel regression analysis to shed light on the extent to which access to welfare might influence migration journeys of immigrants towards most advanced economies, including possible differences across gender. We find that, even when controlling for welfare generosity and other migration determinants, access to social welfare increases migration inflows, whilst it does not discourage return migration. Moreover, although there is no major difference in the role of welfare access for male and female migrants, African migration is less shaped by access to social welfare. This is in line with the literature that points out significant barriers faced by immigrants in accessing social welfare, and the latter’s strong conditionality on immigrant status, amongst other characteristics. Furthermore, whilst the overall social expenditure is not associated with higher migrant inflows, rise in welfare generosity increases return migration from Western economies to Africa. This implies that welfare generosity empowers migrants to be more mobile, rather than locking them in. The current paper sets a basis for further research regarding the role of specific social welfare policies and diverse geographical and policy settings in forming global migration journeys.

Laura Lambert, Resettlement as a temporal border: infrastructural promises and future-making among migrants and officials in Niger, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Resettlement is a safe pathway to the Global North, but only few refugees in the Global South receive it. This article argues that beyond being a highly selective durable solution, resettlement can also operate as a temporal border intended to delay migration by making elusive promises of a better future to transiting refugees if they abandoned migration and waited for resettlement. This was the case in the major transit country Niger where resettlement was established in 2017 as a part of UNHCR’s Mixed Migration policy to contain EU-bound migration. Based on an ethnography in Niger in 2018–2019, the article identifies three modes of future-making by refugees and officials in response to these resettlement promises: risk assessment, temporal reordering, and experimentation. In acts of risk assessment, refugees weighed the risks associated with waiting for resettlement and its alternatives against each other. In the asylum procedures, state officials foregrounded refugees’ resettlement hopes over their past persecution and present protection risks. This temporal reordering could lead to rejecting their asylum applications. In acts of experimentation, refugees developed alternative futures when their resettlement eschewed. By developing resettlement promises as a temporal border, the article highlights the role of promises and future-making for migrant containment and its subversion.

Patrick McGovern, Eiko Thielemann, Omar Hammoud-Gallego, The return of the state: how European governments regulate labour market competition from migrant workers, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

What is the role of the market economy and of the European Union in shaping policies that limit migrants’ access to the labour market? While much of the existing research has examined the development of border policies in Europe, less attention has been given to post-entry measures regulating the employment of Third Country Nationals. We examine the role of different market economies and the European Union in devising lesser-known measures that target migrant labour market competition. Focusing on the period from 1990 to 2020, we analyse four case studies: Austria, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. We hypothesize that these migrant labour market competition measures (MCM) have emerged in ways that challenge both the marketization of migration thesis and predictions from theories of EU immigration policymaking and varieties of capitalism (VoC). While the European Union’s influence partially explains the adoption of some selective policies, the emergence of MCM transcends the VoC framework. Furthermore, contrary to marketization claims, states have sought to address labour market concerns about competition from migrants by adopting selective, rather than indiscriminate, regulatory approaches. We argue that the interplay between selectivity and measures restricting migrant labour market competition has become central to understanding how states regulate migration in the European Union.

Marco Ruotolo, Sicurezza e disprezzo dell’altro, in Costituzionalismo.it, 2025, n. 1

L’Autore illustra le ragioni per cui il “rispetto dell’altro” deve essere considerato come condizione costituzionalmente imprescindibile per le scelte legislative, la cui violazione determina la loro illegittimità. Partendo da questa considerazione, sono esaminate le tendenze delle politiche criminali degli ultimi anni e, in particolare, alcune previsioni normative che, al dichiarato fine di garantire la sicurezza, sembrano ispirate alla logica del “disprezzo dell’altro”.

Niovi Vavoula, Algorithmic Accountability Through the “Human over the Loop” in Interoperable and EU AI-reliant Large-scale IT Systems for Migration and Security, in European Papers, 2024, n. 3

Interoperability of large-scale IT systems and the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in the field of migration, asylum and border management have been two parallel developments at EU level. Legal scholarship has not yet addressed in detail the potential interplay of these two initiatives and this Article stressed that various interoperability components are either pre-requisites or enablers for the deployment of AI in the EU IT systems. The Article analyses how these AI-powered components are dealt with by the AI Act and highlights potential challenges in classifying them as high-risk AI systems. In this highly complex and opaque legal framework, the Article argues that algorithmic accountability through supervision, framed as the “human over the loop”, is particularly important. Such supervision so far has focused on data protection-related matters, but the deployment of AI has implications beyond the contours of data protection law. The Article provides recommendations on how supervision of interoperable and AI-reliant IT systems should be reconceived to achieve algorithmic accountability. In this respect, the analysis focused not only on the role of national data protection authorities, but also on other actors with supervisory underpinnings.

VĚra Honusková, Enes ZaimoviĆ, The Czech Republic and the 2022 and 2023 Reintroduction of Border Controls: Framing Secondary Movements as a Threat to National Security in the Regional Context, in European Papers, 2024, n. 3

Since 2015, Western and Central European member states along the Balkan route have repeatedly responded to the increased number of arriving migrants by reintroducing internal border controls. They did so deliberately and at the cost of sacrificing one of the major achievements of the European integration process: the principle of free movement and the area without internal frontiers. The presented Article focuses on legal assessment of these responses. Using the example of the Czech reintroduction of border controls on the land border with Slovakia in 2022/23 and 2023/24, we demonstrate how legal responses of member states may intertwine with domestic politics and how states take a somewhat hesitant approach to law in the face of migratory pressure. The Czech example also illustrates how states, despite their international and EU obligations, adopt specific measures without properly considering adequate and more proportionate alternatives.

Post

Jonas Bornemann, Efficiency, but at What Cost. The Commission’s Proposal for a Common European System for Returns, in Verfassungsblog, 21 marzo 2025

The Commission recently published its proposal for a reform of the Return Directive. The reform of the EU’s framework on return has been high on the Commission’s agenda and featured prominently inter alia in the President’s Political Guidelines. The reform proposal seeks to address the significant enforcement deficits concerning third-country nationals who are not or no longer authorized to stay in the EU. As the Commission highlights, only 20% of people ordered to leave actually leave the territory of EU Member States. While the return rate may not, in and of itself, be considered an appropriate benchmark for measuring the “effectiveness” of return policies, and the Commission’s proposal is not based on an impact assessment, there can be no doubt that the enforcement deficit in the context of return in the EU is significant.

Antje Kunst, Hamoudi v Frontex, an EU Courts pushback case: Shifting the burden of proof and a duty to assist the Court (a duty of candour?), in EU Law Analysis, 28 febbraio 2025

On 4 February 2025 the Grand Chamber held a hearing on the appeal of Hamoudi v Frontex in Case C-136/24 against the General Court (GC)’s Order of 13 December 2023. This appeal is taking place alongside the separate challenge in WS v Frontex (see analysis of that case and summary of the hearing). The case of Hamoudi v. Frontex concerns Syrian asylum seeker Alaa Hamoudi, who alleges that on 28 April 2020, he and 21 other individuals were subjected to a pushback operation in the Aegean Sea. He claims that upon arriving from Turkey by boat, he entered Greek territory on the island of Samos to seek asylum. Local police intercepted him, confiscated his mobile phone, and later that day, Greek authorities forced him and the others back out to sea. The following day, a vessel from the Turkish coast guard took them aboard. Hamoudi also alleges that on 29 April 2020, while at sea, a private surveillance aircraft operated by Frontex, equipped with a camera, flew over the scene twice.

Antje Kunst, WS and Others v Frontex before the Grand Chamber: Ensuring Meaningful Protection of Fundamental Rights in Forced Returns by an EU Agency acting as a Safety-Net, in EU Law Analysis, 26 febbraio 2025

On 4 February 2025 the Grand Chamber held a hearing on the appeal in Case C-679/23 P against the General Court (GC)’s Judgment of 6 September 2023 in case WS and Others v. Frontex, Case T- 600/21. The case’s high significance lies in the fact that the Court of Justice looks the first time at Frontex’s liability in the context for illegal return operations. This article provides a brief summary of the case and comments on some of the issues discussed at the hearing. (For a summary of the arguments at the hearing, see here). Despite high expectations by many regarding the Grand Chamber’s ruling in this case, the Court may only be asked to rule pursuant to Article 256 TFEU and Article 58 of the Statute of the Court of Justice on whether the GC committed an error of law. Thus, the judicial review might be limited in this respect.

Steve Peers, Fast-track visa reimposition: a strengthened tool for EU immigration control and external relations policies?, in EU Law Analysis, 22 marzo 2025

How and why can short-term visa requirements be re-imposed, on a fast track basis? For the EU, this issue is decided collectively, on the basis of legislation that applies to all EU Member States (except Ireland), plus the Schengen associated countries of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. A proposal to change those rules to reinforce EU immigration and asylum policy is moving closer to agreement; and as it does so, both Member States and the European Parliament seek to use the new law to reinforce EU external relations objectives more generally too.

Matteo Zamboni, The Italy-Albania protocol before the Court of Justice of the European Union – hearing of the CJEU, in EU Law Analysis, 19 marzo 2025

On Tuesday 25 February 2025 I attended the Grand Chamber hearing before the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the compatibility with EU law of the infamous Italy-Albania Protocol on asylum applications and return procedures as a partner to the Immigration Law and Policy clinic of Goldsmiths, University of London. Here is my take.

Aleksandra Ancite-Jepifánova, From the EU-Belarus Border to Strasbourg. The Cases on ‘Migrant Instrumentalisation’ Before the ECtHR, in Verfassungsblog, 3 marzo 2025

12 February 2025 was a long and remarkable day at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. For one, because for the first time in its history, the court was invited to consider the interpretation of the Convention in the context of so-called ‘migrant instrumentalisation’ or ‘hybrid attacks’, allegedly orchestrated by the Belarusian regime after the EU imposed sanctions on Minsk. Second, because the Grand Chamber heard three cases on the same day – against each of the three states allegedly affected by Belarus’ actions: Latvia (H.M.M. and Others v. Latvia), Lithuania (C.O.C.G. and Others v. Lithuania) and Poland (R.A. and Others v. Poland).

Geoff Gilbert, Tamara Wood, International Protection for People Displaced Across Borders in the Context of Climate Change and Disasters: A Practical Toolkit, in EJIL: Talk!, 4 marzo 2025

It is trite to say that there is no legal category of ‘climate refugees’. Nevertheless, climate events and disasters can significantly impact forced displacement scenarios. They may be one cause of displacement. They may affect refugees, asylum seekers or other persons in need of international protection in countries of asylum. And they may inhibit safe return as a durable and sustainable solution. Increasingly, courts and other decision-makers –international, regional and national – need to deal with climate events and disasters when making decisions about offering international protection to forcibly displaced persons.

Meltem Ineli Ciger, The CJEU rules on multiple temporary protection applications but leaves key questions unanswered in Case C‑753/23 (Krasiliva), in EU Law Analysis, 3 marzo 2025

On 27 February 2025, the Court of Justice delivered its judgment in Case C‑753/23 (Krasiliva). This is the second ruling on the Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 (Temporary Protection Directive) following the Kaduna decision (Case C‑244/24, joined with C‑290/24), which interpreted Article 7 of the Directive, which concerned the termination of the temporary protection granted to persons benefitting from temporary protection at the option of a Member State, ie who do not fall within the scope of the mandatory obligations for Member States set out in Article 2(1) and 2(2) of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/382 of 4 March 2022 (which applied the Directive to those fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine) and the lawfulness of the return decisions adopted in their regard.

Libri

Alezini Loxa, Sustainability and EU Migration Law. Tracing the History of a Contemporary Concept, Cambridge, 2025

Sustainable migration is the new objective of the EU migration policy. But what does this mean in terms of legal design? What instruments should be put in place to achieve it? And most importantly what does it imply for migrants’ rights? While sustainability has attracted scholarly attention in law and politics already since the 1990s, sustainable migration is an extremely understudied topic with no conclusive research carried on the matter. The book covers a unique scholarly gap by being the first ever contribution that traces the history of sustainable migration in EU law, demonstrates its limitations and potentials and puts forward concrete proposals on how EU migration law should develop in the future. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Sebastian Meyer, Salvatore Fabio Nicolosi, Giacomo Solano, The Admission and Integration of Refugees in Europe. Legal and Policy Perspectives, Routledge, 2025

The Admission and Integration of Refugees in Europe argues for a more interconnected understanding of laws and policies for the admission and integration of refugees and asylum seekers in the European Union. Admission and integration normally refer to different phases of the migratory process, but this demonstrates that they are inherently interconnected. Certain legal statuses conferred in admission procedures are directly relevant for the integration prospects of migrants, and the success or failure to integrate has potential repercussions for residence rights, although refugees are in that respect better protected than other immigrants. Legal pluralism further complicates the European context, as admission is often seen as under European Union jurisdiction, and integration as a Member State consideration. However, the book argues that this legal pluralism in fact helps us to better explain how interaction between admission and integration takes place across laws and legal orders. Combining broad conceptual and constitutional analysis with closer readings of specific policies and country-specific case studies, this book demonstrates the potential for specific admission policies to either promote or hinder integration. This book will be an important contribution to debates on European asylum and refugee law, human rights, and migrant integration policy.

Luigi Nuzzo, Michele Pifferi, Giuseppe Speciale, Cristina Vano, Legal Responses to Mass Migration. From the Nineteenth Century to World War II, Routledge, 2025

This volume explores the legal history of migration and the role played by legal theories, case law, practices, customary laws, and legislations in shaping and governing mobility between the 19th century and the Second World War. Based on different methodological approaches and sources, including archival documents, special courts’ decisions, diplomatic materials, legal journals and books, and international treaties, the chapters focus on countries of departure and destination both in Western and Eastern regions. Confronted with mass migration, Western legal science has been forced to rethink concepts and institutions such as borders, citizenship and the principle of territoriality. Special courts and administrative bodies were created to govern and control this new complex social phenomenon. This work, related to the national research project Legal History and Mass Migration: Integration, Exclusion, and Criminalization of Migrants in the 19th and 20th Century (Prin 2017), contributes to the investigation of the historical tensions between individual freedom of mobility and state sovereignty over border control. It contributes to the current public debate on ius migrandi – freedom of movement, or the right to migrate – showing the complexity of its historical dimension. The book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of Legal History, Legal Theory, Sociology of Law, International Migration Law, Labor Law and Criminology, as well as those working on themes related to Forced Migration and Refugee Studies.

Francesca Rondine, La condizione giuridica dello straniero nelle zone di transito aeroportuali, Editoriale Scientifica, 2025

Il volume si propone di esaminare il tema delle zone di transito aeroportuali e della loro disciplina in relazione all’attraversamento della frontiera da parte dei non-cittadini, specialmente di quelli in stato di irregolarità. L’istituzione di zone di transito presso le frontiere aeroportuali risponde alla necessità di facilitare il passaggio di merci e di passeggeri, attraverso una manipolazione dell’applicazione del regime giuridico ordinario. Nel caso dell’immigrazione, ciò comporta sovente la soggezione dello straniero a una diversa disciplina, spesso derogatoria, attraverso cui le autorità statali semplificano alcune procedure relative all’ingresso e all’allontanamento. Il volume indaga lo spazio giuridico che ne risulta e il modo in cui esso incide sulla condizione giuridica dello straniero.

Articoli

Maurizio Ambrosini, The populist far right paradox: the identification of the enemy and its exceptions in the immigration policies of the Meloni government in Italy, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Opposition against refugees and migrants is a central topic of the populist far-right’s political agenda. In Italy, the populist far-right has come to lead the national government with the Meloni government. In this scenario, this article identifies what can be defined as the “populist far right paradox”: how to maintain the electoral commitment of rigid closure towards immigrants and refugees, in the presence of interests and pressures that instead require openness. This general question generates three sub-questions. First of all, in which ways, once in government, does the populist far-right try to keep its promises to block immigration? Secondly, how do they manage to navigate between different needs and pressures, which for different reasons require an openness to new entries of people from abroad? Third, how the Meloni government relates with the EU policies?

Iside Gjergji, Ubi X, ibi supra-ius. La comunicazione social come officina di norme sull’asilo e l’immigrazione, in Costituzionalismo.it, 2025, n. 1

Il nesso tra diritto e comunicazione è un tema di crescente rilevanza nel dibattito scientifico contemporaneo. La progressiva linguistificazione del campo politico, anche attraverso le piattaforme digitali di comunicazione, sta producendo trasformazioni significative non solo nei meccanismi di legittimazione del potere, ma anche nelle forme di produzione normativa. In questo contesto, il linguaggio e i discorsi politico-istituzionali sull’immigrazione e l’asilo rappresentano un ambito privilegiato di analisi, anche perché il tema dell’immigrazione è divenuto uno dei principali terreni di scontro politico in molti Paesi. La tesi principale di questo lavoro è che, attraverso la comunicazione social di specifiche figure politico-istituzionali in Italia, si stiano generando non solo discorsi, ma anche atti illocutori: parole che incitano all’azione, che aprono nuovi spazi dell’agire e che, di conseguenza, veicolano una normatività tendente a configurarsi come supra-ius, ossia svincolata dall’ordinamento vigente. In questo senso, la potenza comunicativa tende a trasformarsi, di fatto, in “potenza legislativa”. Nel presente scritto si analizza questo particolare fenomeno comunicati- vo-performativo attraverso una combinazione di strumenti di analisi giuridica e di analisi critica del discorso, ivi compresa quella riguardante il discorso sviluppato attraverso i social media. L’analisi e la teorizzazione del nesso tra una certa comunicazione politico-istituzionale e la sfera del diritto degli stranieri in Italia, sarà realizzata attraverso tre casi di studio, adottando sia una critica immanente del testo sia una più ampia critica socio-diagnostica.

Stefano Montaldo, Not in my backyard! Outsourcing EU asylum procedures to third countries: A challenge for the Common European Asylum System, in Common Market Law Review, 2025, n. 2, p. 327 ss.

Following the conclusion of the Italy-Albania Protocol on migration and asylum, this article examines the outsourcing of asylum procedures from the perspective of EU law.After several unsuccessful projects sporadically proposed by various Member States, the Commission now seems ready to support models of extraterritorial assessment for asylum applications as an integral component of a wider set of externalization measures ostensibly aimed at tackling the root causes of migration and deterring migration flows. In this context, this analysis describes the main outsourcing schemes that have been elaborated thus far and zooms in on the various novel elements that characterize the Italy-Albania Protocol. The article shows that, on the one hand, the Protocol disposes of the main criticisms traditionally associated with externalization instruments. On the other hand, it calls into question the consistency and effectiveness of the Common European Asylum System and raises concerns about the compatibility of some of its features with EU law. However, because of the rigid territoriality on which the CEAS is based, the Protocol appears to be designed to elude the scope of application of EU law. In this respect, this analysis argues that the Italy-Albania Protocol elicits an evolutive reading of the well-established territoriality of EU asylum law. It is also argued that, in any event, Italy cannot escape the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice over the implementation of the agreement in question.

Caterina Carta, Federica Zardo, Mattia Sguazzini, Beyond the Internal-External Policy Divide: How the EU Communicates on Migration, 2025

Focusing on statements produced by the European External Action Service and several Commissioners, this paper explores how various institutional actors conceive of and discuss migration policies. Invariably, institutional communication is tailored to strategically act as a policy instrument. However, we contend that ‘who does the speaking’ strongly impacts the nature of both the message and the messaging. Despite growing institutional coordination and the increasing overlap between internal and external migration policies – where internal security concerns influence external interventions, and external pressures shape internal policies – institutional actors still frame their communication according to very distinctive institutional logics, programmatic ideas, and policy priorities. The ‘locus operandi’, which helps distinguish internal policies from external ones, does not hold up discursively. The variable geometry of discourses on migration depends on a different framing of both the problem and possible solutions.

Francesca Mauri, Il quadro giuridico europeo in relazione all’apprendimento della lingua del paese ospitante come strumento di accoglienza ed inclusione degli stranieri, in federalismi.it, 2025, n. 12

L’apprendimento della lingua del paese ospitante rappresenta uno degli strumenti fondamentali per l’inclusione sociale delle persone con background migratorio nella società di accoglienza. Pur riconoscendone l’importanza, il quadro giuridico europeo non ha saputo, ad oggi, valorizzarne a pieno le potenzialità, relegando il tema al piano della soft law, senza intervenire con norme chiare e vincolanti per gli Stati membri. Gli Stati europei, dal canto loro, hanno interpretato in maniera molto differente la cornice normativa europea, ampliando o restringendo notevolmente la fruizione di tale strumento da parte dei beneficiari. Dopo una ricostruzione dei principi e delle linee guida elaborate dall’Unione europea e dal Consiglio d’Europa in materia, il presente contributo si propone di verificarne l’effettiva implementazione in Europa, proponendo spunti di riflessione e possibili nuove strade per riconoscere uniformemente il diritto all’apprendimento della lingua del paese ospitante.

Katharina Natter, Riccardo Biggi, Niels Ike, Merel van Assem, Between Knowledge and Assumptions: The Migrant in the Eyes of the Policymaker, in IMI Working Paper, 2025

What are policymakers’ assumptions about how migrants take decisions? Do these change across countries or policy issues? And what role does expert knowledge play in reinforcing or reshaping these assumptions? Based on an in-depth analysis of 180 policy documents surrounding key migration reforms in Austria, Italy and the Netherlands since the 2000s, this paper examines dominant assumptions about migrant decision-making across three policy issues: counter-smuggling, asylum reception, and worker attraction. Our analysis shows that while policy documents rarely discuss migrant decision-making explicitly, they are rife with assumptions around migrant behavior. Specifically, they portray “the migrant” as a fundamentally different figure depending on the policy area at stake – ranging from an often simplistic and patronizing understanding of the irregular migrant to the rational yet easily influenceable figure of the essential worker. Such assumptions shape whether and how knowledge is used to underpin policy choices. While knowledge tends to be mostly disregarded in the politicized area of counter-smuggling, knowledge on reception in the region is often used symbolically. In other words, it is discussed but does not ultimately influence policy decisions. Only in policy documents on essential workers did we identify some instances of instrumental knowledge use. Surprisingly, these issue-specific findings hold across Austria, Italy and the Netherlands despite different geographical contexts, migration histories and commitments to evidence-based policymaking. They invite migration scholars, policymakers and experts to pay closer attention to issue-specific dynamics in migration policy and to further theorize the mechanisms through which not only knowledge use but also non-use and even misuse play out in practice.

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Michael C. Dorf, Gaming Procedure, Gutting Due Process, in Versfassungsblog, 10 aprile 2025

Most readers are likely aware of the basic facts of the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran man who was legally living in Maryland pursuant to a 2019 court order forbidding the government from deporting him to his home country, where, the court found, he would face persecution. The Trump administration has admitted that sending Abrego Garcia to a supermax prison in El Salvador known for human rights abuses was an “administrative error” but contends before the U.S. Supreme Court that there is nothing a federal court can do about that. As I shall explain, the Solicitor General’s argument ultimately rests on the claim that the president who frequently boasts about his abilities as a deal maker is a lousy negotiator.

Steve Peers, Jumping the Gun? The proposed early application of some of the EU’s new asylum pact – and a common list of supposedly ‘safe countries of origin’, in EU Law Analysis, 21 aprile 2025

The EU’s asylum pact was adopted less a year ago, and mostly won’t apply for over another year – and yet the EU Commission has already proposed to amend it, in order to bring forward some of the rules in the procedural part of the pact, and to adopt a common list of ‘safe countries of origin’ to apply when the rest of the pact enters into force. The aim is to speed up consideration of asylum claims, and in particular to help to ‘save’ the Italy/Albania deal on asylum processing. The following blog post looks in turn at the background to the new proposal, and then the different elements of it, followed by an assessment.

Péter Szigeti, “Suspension of Citizenship” in the Hungarian Constitution: On Statelessness, Bull**** and Authoritarian Lawmaking, in EJIL:Talk!, 28 marzo 2025

An ancient and beloved Hungarian folktale is the story of King Matthias and the Clever Girl. According to the story, King Matthias the Just, who often wandered about Hungary in disguise to see how the plain folk were living, was insulted by a village alderman. Matthias, upon his return to court, decreed that the alderman should be hanged. The alderman’s daughter begged the King to reconsider: Matthias then decreed that he would pardon the alderman, if the daughter could perform a number of impossible tasks. The final task that the King set for the girl was to visit him at the Royal Court – but not in any ordinary way. King Matthias decreed that the girl must not travel on foot, neither riding an animal, nor riding a carriage; that she should be dressed up but at the same time come naked; and that she should bring a gift, but also not bring any gift at the same time. Seemingly, the Hungarian government has been taking inspiration from this ancient folktale when deciding to amend the Fundamental Law of Hungary for the fifteenth time in as many years.

Petter Danckwardt, Statelessness and the Rewriting of Rights: The Legal Development in Sweden as a Case in Point, in EJIL:Talk!, 16 aprile 2025

Legal developments in several countries — Sweden among them — point to a growing willingness by governments to tighten the conditions for acquiring citizenship and, more critically, to limit its protections. Ultimately, such measures risk creating or exacerbating statelessness. A recent Swedish government inquiry, proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow for the revocation of citizenship, is a case in point. But what does it mean to be stateless? Despite its relevance, statelessness remains surprisingly vague in both legal and political discourse. In Sweden, the current view appears to be overly formal: statelessness is narrowly defined as the lack of citizenship. However, statelessness can also be understood as a condition. The overly formal approach therefore risks substantial rights deprivations for individuals affected. Both the concept and the legal status of being stateless deserve more critical attention in legislative debates and in legal doctrine.

Antje Kunst, Hamoudi v Frontex: Advocate General Norkus’ Opinion – Reversing the Burden of Proof and the Presumption of Frontex’s Privileged Access to Evidence, in EU Law Analysis, 19 aprile 2025

Following the hearing  on 4 February 2025 by the Grand Chamber on the appeal of Hamoudi v Frontex in Case C-136/24 against the General Court (GC)’s Order of 13 December 2023 the Advocate-General rendered his opinion on 10 April 2025 (‘Opinion’). As outlined  here, the case of Hamoudi v. Frontex involves a Syrian asylum seeker, Mr. Alaa Hamoudi, who, claims that on 28 and 29 April 2020 he was a victim of collective expulsion in the Aegean Sea. In this context, Mr. Hamoudi asserts that while a group of 22 individuals including himself were at sea, a private surveillance aircraft, equipped with a camera and operated by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), flew over the scene twice. A highly damaging report by the EU Anti-Fraud Office (‘OLAF report’) on Frontex was made public through an NGO in October 2022 and covered precisely the period in question — including April 2020 — and confirmed that incidents of pushbacks occurred under Frontex’s watch, involving Frontex surveillance aircraft in the Aegean Sea.

Izabella Majcher, The New EU “Common System for Returns” under the Return Regulation: Evidence-Lacking Lawmaking and Human Rights Concerns, in EU Law Analysis, 2 aprile 2025

On 11 March 2025, the European Commission published a proposal for a Return Regulation to replace the 2008 Return Directive. This new proposal also supersedes the Commission 2018 proposal to recast the Directive (discussed here and here). Negotiations on the 2018 recast proposal spanned several years, incurring significant costs, yet they stalled at the European Parliament level before even reaching interinstitutional negotiations between the Parliament and the Council of the EU. This raises questions about the necessity of launching fresh negotiations, their financial implications, and ultimately whether a comprehensive revision is needed at all. Why will this proposal pass through the negotiations if the previous one got stalled? In addition, opting for a regulation rather than a directive could make negotiations even more complex, as Member States recognize that a regulation’s provisions would be directly applicable in their domestic legal systems.

Matteo Zamboni, Between pragmatic and legal considerations: comment on the Advocate General’s opinion in joined cases C‑758/24 [Alace] and C‑759/24 [Canpelli], in EU Law Analysis, 19 aprile 2025

On 10 April 2025, Jean Richard de la Tour, Advocate General (AG) at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), delivered his conclusions in joined cases C‑758/24 [Alace] and C‑759/24 [Canpelli], regarding the implementation of the Italy-Albania Protocol on asylum and return procedures, which was the subject of my previous blog. In a nutshell, as stated in the press release from the Court, the AG argued that (i) ‘a Member State may designate safe countries of origin by a legislative act’; (ii) a Member State ‘must disclose, for the purpose of judicial review, the sources of information upon which that designation is based’; (iii) ‘[a] Member State may […] under certain conditions, grant a third country the status of safe country of origin, while identifying limited categories of persons likely to be at risk of persecution or serious harm in that country’.

Libri

James G. Dwyer, International Migration of Children for a Better Life, Human Rights, State Power, and Nations’ Duties, Oxford, 2025

In a world where a child’s fate is often determined by the arbitrary circumstances of their birth, International Migration of Children for a Better Life challenges the legal status quo. The book advances a dramatically different vision of children’s relationship to nations and to the international legal order, one that provides theoretical grounding for a right of children to escape life-threatening circumstances, rather than waiting for change in their home environment. By offering a normative critique of existing international law, the book suggests novel arguments for enabling children to migrate more freely and escape adverse environments. It argues that the conventional policy response to tragic circumstances—war, famine, natural disaster, which prioritizes transformation of local conditions so people can remain in place or quickly return, is less appropriate for children than for adults. Children’s needs are more urgent. The book arrives at several recommendations, backed by a theory of children’s rights: eliminate citizenship for children altogether, disallow states from inhibiting children’s departure, prioritize children over adults in immigration policy, and evacuate children en masse from nations that cannot protect them. Presenting a child-centered perspective on perennial issues in immigration law and political theory, International Migration of Children for a Better Life is a must read for legal academics, political philosophers, practitioners, and policy experts alike.

Torun Elsrud, Philip Lalander, Jesper Andreasson, Marcus Herz, Hope and Asylum. Everyday Life, Precarity and Social Change, Routledge, 2025

This book applies perspectives of hope to understand the precariousness, suffering, and agency of people seeking asylum. With attention to the restrictions and austerity politics that have characterised public policy following the significant rise in asylum applications in 2015, it draws on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in the Swedish asylum context, together with data collected in other European countries, to explore how the circumstances of those navigating asylum processes evolve and connect to their notions of hope and the future. Departing from the ambiguities and fragility surrounding hope in the asylum context, Hope and Asylum analyses people’s lived experiences and their navigation of uncertainty and precariousness during the migration process. While hope can provide individuals with support and empowerment, it can also cause pain and be exploited by authorities to control and disempower. The book argues that critically scrutinising current asylum regimes and exposing the enduring emotional and embodied scars they inflict through the bureaucratic violence of welfare states is essential for mobilising efforts toward social justice and human rights. Demonstrating the importance of hope and related concepts to our understanding of daily life experiences, social interaction, and precariousness within the asylum context, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in migration and diaspora, immigration policy, refugee studies, and asylum regimes.

Aphrodite Papachristodoulou, Protection of Human Life at Sea in International Law. Rescuing Maritime Migrants, Routledge, 2025

The law of the sea imposes a long-established duty to rescue persons in distress, which connotes one of the most important tools in safeguarding safety of life at sea. Other rules of international law, namely, international human rights and refugee law also come into play in drawing the legal parameters for the conduct of rescue operations. Amid the thousands of people undertaking perilous sea journeys in search of safety, European legal responses have primarily focused on the securitization of migration. This book exposes the human rights violations that may be perpetrated against migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean and strongly advocates for the development of a framework for operationalizing the protection of human rights – and life – at sea. It combines theory and practice in which philosophical theories of rights are applied to create a framework for legal analysis and the development of practical legal standards. The study presents an innovative evaluation of selected judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and other international human rights bodies pertaining to complex questions of extraterritorial jurisdiction and a State’s human rights obligations towards persons in distress at sea. The book will be of interest to all those engaging with migration and security studies, international human rights scholarship, international law of the sea, refugee and migration law and legal philosophy, whether generalist or specialist.

Heather Jean Alexander, The Nationality and Statelessness of Nomadic Peoples Under International Law, Oxford, 2025

Despite the universal right to nationality, many nomadic peoples struggle to claim this fundamental status. International law offers solutions to combat statelessness-like birth registration-but do they work for nomadic peoples? The Nationality and Statelessness of Nomadic Peoples Under International Law delves into the nationality challenges faced by four communities: former Bedouin in Kuwait, Tuareg in Mali, Fulani in Côte d’Ivoire, and Sama Dilaut (Bajau Laut) in Malaysia. Drawing on diverse sources from across disciplines, as well as original field research, the book traces the roots of nomadic statelessness from colonization to the present. Through a rigorous legal analysis, the book evaluates how effectively international law addresses these underlying issues and safeguards the right to nationality for those whose lifestyles transcend borders and conventional nation-state structures. Finally, the book proposes reforms to international law to better address the needs of nomadic peoples regarding nationality and citizenship.

Avijit Mistri, Md Selim Reja, Bhaswati Das, Migration Studies. The Fundamentals, Routledge, 2025

This book is an essential toolkit for students and early researchers of population studies and demography, geography, economics, development studies political science, sociology, anthropology, and gender studies.

Susanna Price, Jay Drydyk, Resettlement with People First. Counterfactual Pathways, Routledge, 2025

Should people in the way lose out as new reservoirs, mines, plantations, or superhighways displace them from their homes and livelihoods? What if the process of resettlement were made accountable to those impacted, empowering them to achieve just outcomes and to share in the benefits of development projects? This book seeks to answer these questions, putting forward powerful counterfactual case studies to assess what problems real-world development projects would likely have avoided if the project had included the affected people in decision making about whether and how they should resettle. Drawing on contributions from leading and emerging scholars from around the world, this book considers cases involving dams, mines, roads, and housing, amongst others, from Asia, Africa, and South America. In each case, the counterfactual approach invites us to reconsider how the dynamics of accountability play out through resettlement hazards and the asymmetries of power relations in the negotiation of displacement benefits and redress. Considering a range of theoretical and ethical perspectives, the book concludes with practical, alternative policy suggestions for displacement arising both from development and from slow onset climate change. This book’s novel approach focussing on the people’s agency in the dynamics of governance, accountability, and (dis)empowerment in development projects with displacement and resettlement will appeal to academic researchers, development practitioners, and policymakers.

Articoli

Francesco Luigi Gatta, La nozione di Paese terzo sicuro tra “governance” internazionale dell’asilo, politiche migratorie europee e tutela dei diritti umani, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2025, n. 1

One of the most controversial techniques of today’s governance of asylum is the so-called ‘safe third country’ concept, around which a heated debate has developed in Europe (especially in Italy) and beyond. The idea behind it, in essence, is that a State may deny international protection and remove an asylum seeker towards a third country, which is considered as ‘safe’, in order to decline its own responsibility since protection is available elsewhere. This contribution examines and questions the concept of safe third country in the light of international refugee law, Italian law and regional European law (i.e. European Union law and the European Convention of Human Rights).

Tamara Hervey, Marcin Michalak, European Union Border Law During The Covid-19 Pandemic, in Common Market Law Review, 2025, n. 3

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the European Union’s border law, testing its fundamental principle of free movement against the imperative of public health protection. This article examines how the EU managed tensions between these values from March 2020 to June 2023, highlighting the evolving dynamics of internal and external border controls. The analysis identifies four key themes which remain an EU law legacy from the pandemic: reinterpretation of the rule/exception structure to integrate health concerns; deployment of selective mobility across geopolitical and individual dimensions; strategic use of soft law instruments to guide national measures; and reliance on technocratic governance to steer coordinated responses. By exploring these themes across distinct pandemic phases, the article demonstrates how EU COVID-19 border law exemplifies the integration of public health as a value and underscores the need to reconcile this with the EU’s legal framework on free movement.

Giovanni Bonato, Il decreto-legge n. 36 del 28 marzo 2025: la “Grande Perdita” della cittadinanza italiana, in Judicium, 2025

Durante la mattinata del venerdì 28 marzo 2025, il Governo italiano ha annunciato l’introduzione di una profonda e dettagliata riforma della cittadinanza per discendenza, il c.d. ius sanguinis. Dopo la conferenza stampa, è avvenuta in serata la pubblicazione in Gazzetta Ufficiale del decreto-legge n. 36 del 28 marzo 2025 (recante “Disposizioni urgenti in materia di cittadinanza”), subito denominato “decreto Tajani”, prendendo il nome del Ministro degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, il quale è stato il principale promotore dell’iniziativa governativa. Ai sensi dell’art. 2 del citato decreto, la sua entrata in vigore viene prevista al 29 marzo 2025. Come verrà in seguito illustrato, la normativa italiana in materia di cittadinanza per discendenza (vigente fino all’entrata in vigore del decreto in esame) prevedeva la trasmissione dello status in base al rapporto di parentela in linea retta, senza imporre limiti generazionali e senza dare rilievo giuridico al luogo di nascita, essendo indifferente che quest’ultima sia avvenuta in Italia o all’estero.

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Peter Hilpold, Challenging Strasbourg. The May 2025 Letter and the Pushback Against the European Court of Human Rights, in Verfassungsblog, 30 maggio 2025

Since 22 May 2025, a disquieting letter has been circulating: nine leading EU politicians are calling for “a new and open-minded conversation about the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights,” with particular reference to migration. The signatories seek to explore whether “the Court, in some cases, has extended the scope of the Convention on Human Rights too far compared with the original intentions behind the Convention, thus shifting the balance between the interests that should be protected.” At the core of their appeal lies a demand for more national discretion in deciding when to expel criminal foreign nationals. This letter raises not only political and ethical questions but also significant legal concerns. Before examining these implications, it is important to provide a brief overview of its content.

Adeodata Kanyamihanda, Safe for whom? The Advocate General’s Opinion in LC and LP v Commissione Territoriale per il riconoscimento della Protezione Internazionale di Roma, in Verfassungsblog, 15 maggio 2025

In his Opinion of 10 April 2025 in the joined cases C-758/24 and C-759/24, Advocate General (AG) Jean Richard de la Tour argues that a third country may qualify as a safe country of origin (SCO) even if it is unsafe for certain groups. In doing so, he revives a reasoning the ECJ had rejected in its ruling of 4 October 2024 (CV, C-406/22). This interpretative shift, embedded in the framework of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, risks undermining essential safeguards for asylum seekers. The AG’s interpretation of the revised Asylum Procedures Directive 2013/32 (APD) allows for partial SCO designations. This contradicts both the Directive’s protective purpose and the ECJ’s categorical rejection of such exceptions. This way, it opens the door to arbitrary exclusions based on personal characteristics. By the same logic, such personal exceptions should be considered impermissible under EU law. While Rocca has addressed the Opinion’s human rights implications, this piece focuses on partial SCO designations and the Directive’s intended safeguards, structure, and language.

Steve Peers, Towards a Euro-Rwanda policy? The proposed new EU asylum law rules on ‘safe third countries’, in EU Law Analysis, 21 maggio 2025

An unlawful attempt to remove asylum-seekers to an unsafe country that they had no connection with, in breach of basic human rights – as confirmed by the Supreme Court. A desperate attempt to overturn the Supreme Court ruling by an Act of Parliament (the ‘Safety’ of Rwanda Act), declaring the dodgy country to be ‘safe’, regardless of reality. Ultimately, the cancellation of the policy by a new government, the previous government having squandered hundreds of millions of pounds on its unlawful obsession. The flaws with the UK’s Rwanda policy were so huge, they must have been visible from outer space. But were they visible to the European Union? Yesterday’s proposal from the EU Commission to amend EU asylum law would provide, in effect, for the development of a form of Euro-Rwanda policy, by widening the concept of ‘safe third country’ to include countries that asylum-seekers have no link with whatsoever. We don’t know yet whether EU Member States and the European Parliament will agree to it, but even tabling the proposal raises fundamental questions. Has the EU learned the lessons of the UK’s failed policy? Or is it poised to follow the previous UK government, lemming-like, by leaping into the same financial, legal and moral abyss?

Guido Savio, L’annullamento della convalida del trattenimento può comportare la permanenza della stessa misura?, in Questione giustizia, 5 maggio 2025

La novella di cui al D.L. 145/2024, convertito nella L. n. 187/2024, ha attribuito la competenza a conoscere della legittimità dei decreti di convalida e proroga dei trattenimenti amministrativi alle sezioni penali della Cassazione, in luogo di quelle civili. La sentenza n. 15757/2025 della prima sezione penale della Corte di legittimità, pubblicata lo scorso 22 aprile, in accoglimento dell’unico motivo di ricorso, annulla con rinvio un decreto di ri-convalida emesso dalla Corte d’appello di Torino nei confronti di un richiedente protezione internazionale in ragione della violazione degli obblighi informativi, pur essendo ampiamente decorsi i termini della convalida, e nonostante il vizio sia stato correttamente individuato, sicché non si comprendono le ragioni del rinvio, posto che l’annullamento dovrebbe determinare la cessazione della detenzione amministrativa con efficacia ex tunc. Tale scelta si rivela però conseguente ad una inedita riscrittura in chiave processualpenalistica dei provvedimenti di convalida, sulla falsariga della disciplina delle misure cautelari personali. Pertanto, atteso che l’impugnazione dei provvedimenti in materia di libertà personale non ha effetto sospensivo, analogamente l’impugnazione dei provvedimenti di convalida del trattenimento non determinerebbe la cessazione della misura fino alla sua eventuale rimozione (sempre nel rispetto dei limiti massimi normativamente previsti). Tale ricostruzione non convince, sia in termini di interpretazione della volontà del legislatore di ricondurre effettivamente tutta la materia della detenzione amministrativa negli assi cartesiani delle misure cautelari personali, sia in ragione delle notevoli differenze del procedimento applicativo e dei poteri del giudice nei procedimenti di convalida e proroga dei trattenimenti, rispetto a quelli che disciplinano le misure cautelari.

Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche, Dismantling Jus Soli. On the decision of the Conseil Constitutionnel n° 2025-881 DC, in Verfassungsblog, 27 maggio 2025

The principle of jus soli has been progressively dismantled in France through the tightening of conditions governing access to French nationality in Mayotte—the 101st department of the Republic and an archipelago in the Comoros located in the Indian Ocean. France does not recognize an absolute form of birthright citizenship. Birth on French soil does not in itself confer nationality. The acquisition of French nationality by birth is subject to legal conditions: a child born in France may acquire nationality if at least one parent was also born on French territory; if neither parent was born on the French soil, the child must have resided in France for at least five years since the age of 11 in order to automatically acquire French nationality at age 18, or by declaration from the age of 13.

Anja Bossow, What is Citizenship For?, in Verfassungsblog, 6 maggio 2025

Last week, the CJEU declared Malta’s citizenship for investment scheme incompatible with EU law for it “amounts to the commercialisation of the granting of the status of […] Union citizenship, which is incompatible with the conception of that fundamental status that stems from the Treaties (90).” Setting aside the perhaps questionable quality and defensibility of the Court’s legal reasoning (see here and here), the decision clearly casts Union citizenship as a status constituted by meanings and norms specific to the European Union as a normative legal project: it “is one of the principal concrete expression of the solidarity which forms the very basis of the process of integration […] and which is an integral part of the identity of the European Union as a specific legal system [93].” If citizenship status requires the presence of a relationship “of solidarity and good faith [98]” between the state and the individual, it follows that not every individual can be declared a citizen as a conceptual matter, nor following the Court’s decision, as a matter of EU law.

Jean-Yves Carlier, Eleonora Frasca, Refugee from one member state to another: towards automatic mutual recognition?, in EU Migration Law Blog, 5 maggio 2025

In two judgments delivered by the Grand Chamber on 18 June 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) clarified the question of the extraterritorial effects in one Member State of a decision granting refugee status taken in another Member State (QY, C-753/22 and A., C-352/22). In both cases, the applicants sought recognition of the binding effect of the decision taken by a Member State on proceedings in another Member State. In QY/Bundesrepublik Deutschland, a Syrian woman was granted refugee status in Greece and applied for asylum in Germany, which granted her only subsidiary protection. In A./Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Hamm, a Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin, who was granted refugee status by Italy, was subject to an extradition request from Turkey, his country of origin, in Germany. The two cases have already been widely commented (Michel; Boucheron; Pahladsingh; Fratea; Simon and Rigaux; Peers). Here, we focus on the binding effects of a decision granting refugee status by an EU Member State in another Member State. We take a three-stage approach: firstly, we focus on the past, which reveals an EU law aporia on the (non-)mutual recognition of positive refugee status decisions; secondly, through the analysis of the two cases and the recognition of some limited effects of decisions granting refugee status we explore the present; and thirdly, we look at the future. Under the paradoxical influence of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, we can imagine a possible evolution towards mutual recognition of decisions granting refugee status.

Steve Peers, Pirates of the Mediterranean meet judges of the Kirchberg: the CJEU rules on Malta’s investor citizenship law, in EU Law Analysis, 30 aprile 2025

Defending his country’s investor citizenship policy, a former Prime Minister of Malta once defined his homeland as a nation of ‘corsairs’, offering an explanation based on the legality (or not) of buccaneering behaviour: “The difference between pirates and corsairs is that pirates do things illegally while corsairs have a license to do things that are on the brink of what is acceptable by the mainstream.” Nevertheless, the Court of Justice of the EU has now ruled that the Maltese investor citizenship policy is a breach of EU law. So the Maltese government are pirates after all. Or are they? Is the real swashbuckling lawlessness here in fact the foray of the Luxembourg judges deep into the waters of Member States’ powers, to seize as treasure national competence which is plainly not theirs?

Libri

Heli Askola, Immigration, Citizenship and Insecurity. An Australian Story, Routledge, 2025

Immigration, Citizenship and Insecurity: An Australian Story explores how Australia’s policies on migration and nationality have shaped citizenship and social inclusion. The book examines the historical and contemporary intersections of citizenship, migration and insecurity, analysing key issues such as the prioritisation of economic utility in migration policy, cultural expectations placed on newcomers and the role of migrants in political debate. It critically assesses Australia’s responses to challenges such as demographic ageing, cultural diversity and erosion of political authority. The impact of emergency measures during the COVID-19 pandemic is also explored, revealing the fragility of citizenship protections in times of crisis. This book is an essential resource for scholars, policy-makers and professionals in migration studies, political science and public policy, as well as anyone interested in the evolving dynamics of citizenship and migration in Australia and beyond.

Aphrodite Papachristodoulou, Protection of Human Life at Sea in International Law Rescuing Maritime Migrants, Routledge, 2025

The law of the sea imposes a long-established duty to rescue persons in distress, which connotes one of the most important tools in safeguarding safety of life at sea. Other rules of international law, namely, international human rights and refugee law also come into play in drawing the legal parameters for the conduct of rescue operations. Amid the thousands of people undertaking perilous sea journeys in search of safety, European legal responses have primarily focused on the securitization of migration. This book exposes the human rights violations that may be perpetrated against migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean and strongly advocates for the development of a framework for operationalizing the protection of human rights – and life – at sea. It combines theory and practice in which philosophical theories of rights are applied to create a framework for legal analysis and the development of practical legal standards. The study presents an innovative evaluation of selected judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and other international human rights bodies pertaining to complex questions of extraterritorial jurisdiction and a State’s human rights obligations towards persons in distress at sea.The book will be of interest to all those engaging with migration and security studies, international human rights scholarship, international law of the sea, refugee and migration law and legal philosophy, whether generalist or specialist.

Chandran Kukathas, Dialogues on Immigration and the Open Society, Routledge, 2025

After some friendly pestering from six of his students curious about his thinking about immigration, a philosophy professor invites them to present their own ideas to him over a series of meetings throughout the term. This book is about their conversations. These dialogues introduce the reader to the most important ethical and political questions about immigration.  They begin by considering the claim that significant levels of immigration pose a threat to the very civilization of the West, where the immigration issue is a particularly vexed one. The chapters that follow consider the economics of immigration, whether or not the state is justified in its efforts—or even obliged—to control immigration, and whether everyone has a right to move or if only refugees can make so strong a claim. The final chapter considers the implications of a philosophy of immigration on the ideal of an open society. Throughout the book, there is a strong emphasis on addressing the conceptual questions that are vital for making any headway in understanding practical issues. What is a refugee? What are rights? What is an open society? Indeed, what is immigration?

Articoli

Chiara Venturini, Il “constructive refoulement”: osservazioni critiche, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2025, n. 1

International law scholars have recently focused on constructive refoulement, especially in light of the new strategies adopted by States to deal with immigration, aimed at encouraging the return of migrants to their countries of origin rather than their integration in the country of arrival. This entails the need to distinguish cases of voluntary return – the result of a migrant conscious choice – from those of forced return. This contribution, after demonstrating that constructive refoulement is founded on the principle of non-refoulement, highlights its most critical aspects. The main one is its assimilation to disguised expulsion, as codified in Article 10 of Draft Articles on the Expulsion of Aliens, adopted by the International Law Commission in 2014. The comparison shows that the two hypotheses are not overlapping: although similar in conduct, they differ in the offence caused.

Veronika Víchová, Moving between EU Countries with Temporary Protection Status after the Krasiliva Decision, in European Journal of Migration and Law, 2025, n. 2

The Russian invasion led to a massive displacement of Ukrainian citizens to European countries. In response, the European Commission activated the Temporary Protection Directive, allowing Ukrainian nationals and others to seek temporary protection in the EU. The TPD allows applicants to choose their destination within the EU. However, it does not explicitly address the possibility of changing the country of protection after it has been granted. In the Czech Republic, Lex Ukraine contains provisions that do not allow for the transfer of protection status between Member States. Lex Ukraine introduced new grounds for application inadmissibility, which some argued violated EU law. The Czech Supreme Administrative Court referred preliminary questions to the CJEU regarding the compatibility of these new grounds with the TPD. This article examines the CJEU’s recent ruling in Krasiliva. It also examines the possibility of changing the country of temporary protection and the judicial exclusion of inadmissible applications.

Paolo Bonetti, Il referendum popolare abrogativo in materia di cittadinanza italiana: ammissibilità e significato costituzionali, in Osservatorio AIC, 2025, n. 3

L’articolo esamina il referendum popolare abrogativo in materia di cittadinanza italiana. Premesso che si tratta del primo referendum richiesto da un numero elevato di elettori con firme raccolte interamente in via telematica, si esaminano l’oggetto del referendum e la normativa di risulta per effetto dell’abrogazione referendaria, l’ammissibilità costituzionale del quesito referendario, gli effetti diretti e indiretti dell’abrogazione referendaria. Si osserva anche che l’abrogazione referendaria ripristina i cinque anni di residenza che erano già previsti nella legge italiana dal 1912 al 1992 e che è oggi prevista dagli Stati europei di più forte immigrazione. Si rileva anche l’inesistenza di norme internazionali ed europee ostative all’abrogazione referendaria. Si indicano i potenziali beneficiari degli effetti dell’abrogazione referendaria e gli effetti indiretti del referendum sui figli minori conviventi dei beneficiari. Rilevata la limitatezza del quesito referendario e l’arretratezza della legislazione italiana sulla cittadinanza si osserva, però, che il referendum abrogativo sulla cittadinanza italiana è il primo referendum in cui il corpo elettorale è chiamato a decidere su di sé e sul proprio futuro.

Víctor Herraiz Jagerovic, Smartphone Data Extraction in the Context of Asylum, in European Journal of Migration and Law, 2025, n. 2

This article analyses the practice of smartphone data extraction (SDE) employed by the German Asylum Authority (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)). First, the article conceptualises the SDE practice showing how, before it is carried out, the asylum seeker is asked to sign a consent form. SDE may entail risks for asylum seekers. Secondly, the article delves into the new in force, but not yet applicable, Asylum Procedure Regulation. The Regulation maintains the need to uphold the GDPR provision that consent (by the data subject) must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. This Regulation establishes the asylum seeker’s enhanced obligation to collaborate with asylum authorities in relation to SDE and the detrimental procedural consequences of non-compliance with this obligation. Lastly, the article examines whether the consent given by asylum seekers to SDE, in view of the aforesaid, is meaningful enough to be considered valid by focusing the analysis on the “freely given” condition of consent under the GDPR. The article concludes that the condition “freely given” necessary for consent to be valid is not met, rendering the practice unlawful if the legal basis chosen for SDE is consent.

Chiara Galbersanini, Alcune osservazioni sul tema dell’inclusione scolastica degli alunni stranieri alla luce dell’art. 11 del decreto-legge n. 71 del 31 maggio 2024, in Osservatorio AIC, 2025, n. 3

Il presente contributo approfondisce il tema dell’inclusione scolastica degli alunni stranieri alla luce delle misure previste dall’ art. 11 del decreto-legge n. 71 del 31 maggio 2024 e, in particolare, della possibilità di disporre, a decorrere dall’a. s. 2025/2026, dell’assegnazione di un docente dedicato all’insegnamento della lingua italiana per quelle classi con un numero di alunni stranieri “neoarrivati” pari o superiore al 20 percento del totale. L’analisi della disciplina prevista solleva alcune criticità, tra cui il rischio di un effetto di “segregazione scolastica”, ovvero di “accorpamento” degli alunni stranieri in una unica classe o istituto scolastico, e sollecita una riflessione più ampia sulla necessità di prevedere misure di apprendimento della lingua italiana non solo per alunni “neoarrivati”, ma per tutti quegli alunni stranieri che si trovano in condizioni di svantaggio linguistico. Inoltre, a fronte di una presenza ormai strutturale di seconde generazioni di alunni con background migratorio, viene sottolineata la rilevanza che l’educazione interculturale assume nel quadro di un modello di scuola costituzionalmente inclusivo, aperto a tutti e finalizzato alla promozione della persona umana.

Marco Infusino, Cittadinanza italiana iure sanguinis: errori e criticità della nuova frontiera, in Osservatorio AIC, 2025, n. 3

Il decreto-legge n. 36 del 28 marzo 2025, recante disposizioni urgenti in materia di cittadinanza, è stato definitivamente convertito con legge n. 74 del 23 maggio 2025. La nuova disciplina, al di là dell’introduzione del limite breve di due generazioni, sembra penalizzare indiscriminatamente la vasta comunità degli italo-discendenti facendo retroagire gli effetti anche sui diritti già acquisiti e ribalta sul richiedente l’onere di provare che non si siano verificate nel tempo cause di mancato acquisto o di perdita della cittadinanza italiana. L’analisi si concentra sui limiti non trascurabili di una riforma che presta il fianco a più di un rilievo critico e di cui si auspica un rapido superamento. Sicché appare logico, in questo senso, domandare al futuro legislatore lo sforzo di intercettare la giusta flessibilità, un punto di equilibrio tra la necessità di assicurare la certezza giuridica e l’esigenza di salvaguardare lo scopo pratico perseguito, senza che ciò possa pregiudicare l’integrità dello Stato di diritto.

Post

Jonas Bornemann, Return hubs – innovative lawmaking or a dangerous legal experiment?, in EU Law Analysis, 25 giugno 2025

In lawmaking, creativity is an asset. The ability to devise innovative solutions can break deadlock and help align previously irreconcilable positions. But even the most innovative idea must stay within the limits of legality. This is particularly true for sensitive areas like migration law, where ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking has recently become fashionable among political leaders in Europe to signal their determination to pursue a more restrictive migration policy.

Antje Kunst, Advocate General Ćapeta’s Opinion in WS and Others v Frontex before the Grand Chamber: The End of Frontex’s Shielding? Joint Liability of Frontex and Member States in Return Operations, in EU Law Analysis, 17 giugno 2025

On 12 June 2025 Advocate General (AG) Tamara Ćapeta, following a hearing by the CJEU Grand Chamber in February 2025, rendered an important opinion (‘Opinion’) on the appeal of WS and Others v. Frontex, in Case C-679/23 P against the General Court’s judgment of 6 September 2023.  The General Court’s judgment has been rightly heavily criticised (see for example here, and here). Two authors went as far as stating that the shielding Frontex from meaningful responsibility is not only harmful to victims of fundamental righta breaches committed by Frontex, but that it also undermines the institutional framework of EU agencies and affects the legal credibility of the Court.

Violeta Moreno-Lax, SS and Others v Italy – or doubling down on Banković, in EJIL:Talk!, 19 giugno 2025

I am still in shock. The publication of S.S. and Others v Italy on 12 June 2025 was long awaited.  After months of work along with the applicants, seven years later, this is a disgruntling result – not only for the applicants, but for the international human rights community as a whole. As lead counsel, it is difficult to hide my disappointment at what I consider a myopic ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which is however bound to produce very consequential outcomes – possibly of the magnitude of Banković. This is the first case brought to the Court concerning the Italian ‘pullback’ policy, implemented through cooperation with Libyan actors, in the context of the externalisation policy carried out under the umbrella of several accords, including a dedicated Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of 2017, and with EU backing.

Salvo Nicolosi, Frontex e le operazioni di rimpatrio nei Paesi terzi: vincoli giuridici e prospettive operative, in Eurojus.it, 16 giugno 2025

L’esternalizzazione delle politiche migratorie dell’UE, intesa come cooperazione con Paesi terzi per gestire flussi e rimpatri continua a sollevare problematiche. La recente proposta di revisione della politica di rimpatrio che introduce la possibilità di creare piattaforme di rimpatrio (return hubs) in Paesi terzi sollecita una riflessione sul sostegno operativo che potrà fornire l’agenzia ‘Frontex’. Un’analisi del Regolamento istituivo evidenzia, tuttavia, i limiti dell’attuale quadro normativo.

Steve Peers, Carrying a bigger stick: the EU strengthens its power to suspend visa waivers quickly, in pursuit of immigration policy and external relations objectives, in EU Law Analysis, 25 giugno 2025

What tools does the EU have to get non-EU countries to agree to do something the EU wants them to do – or to stop doing something the EU objects to them doing? One mechanism is foreign policy sanctions, which often limit trade or investment in some way, or freeze assets, but also sometimes impose an entry ban on individuals who are linked to a government, group or policy that the EU objects to. But under the law of the EU, foreign policy sanctions require unanimity, and sometimes that can be hard to reach. As an alternative approach, trade measures as such can be adopted by a qualified majority vote; hence the recent EU law increasing tariffs on some Russian and Belarusian products, which sits alongside the more traditional sanctions on those countries.

Dana Schmalz, Migrant “Instrumentalisation” before the ICJ, in Verfassungsblog, 6 giugno 2025

On 19 May, Lithuania introduced proceedings against Belarus before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the alleged smuggling of migrants. Lithuania claims that Belarus violated provisions of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air (the Protocol), which supplements the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The case concerns a situation that has received much attention in Europe since its beginning in summer 2021: the significantly increased arrival of migrants mainly from the Middle East at the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia with Belarus. It is hardly disputed that Belarus actively encouraged and enabled the transit of migrants, seeking to exercise pressure against the EU. The ICJ will have to decide whether this constitutes a violation of legal obligations under the Protocol. This blog will detail several difficulties with Lithuania’s argument which seeks to collapse key differences between migrant smuggling and the practice of migrant ‘instrumentalisation.’ Even if Lithuania convinces the Court, neither the problem of migrant instrumentalisation, nor the hollowing out of the right to asylum that has attended the phenomenon’s rise will be solved in these proceedings.

Silvia Bacci, La nuova proposta della Commissione europea sul concetto di Paese terzo sicuro: revisione del connection criterion e dell’effetto sospensivo dell’impugnazione, in Eurojus.it, 12 giugno 2025

Secondo quanto previsto dall’art. 77 del regolamento 2024/1348 che disciplina la procedura comune di protezione internazionale nell’Unione (c.d. regolamento “procedure”) la Commissione europea, entro il 12 giugno 2025, è tenuta a rivedere la nozione di Paese terzo sicuro disciplinata dallo stesso regolamento (art. 59) e, laddove lo ritenga opportuno, a proporre eventuali emendamenti rispetto al concetto in questione. Dando seguito a tale previsione, il 20 maggio 2025 la Commissione ha presentato una proposta di modifica del regolamento procedure proprio in relazione al concetto di Paese terzo sicuro.

Jean-Yves Carlier, Eleonora Frasca, A Better Group Protection for Refugee Women, in EU Migration Law Blog, 2 giugno 2025

In 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on various issues relating to the protection of women as refugees in three decisions, including two Grand Chamber judgments: the fear of persecution resulting from domestic violence (W.S., C-621/21), the identification with the values of gender equality in the host country (K.L., C-646/21), as well as the finding that all women in Afghanistan belong to a social group with a well-founded fear of persecution (joined cases AH C-608/22 and FN C-609/22). By confirming and extending the protection of refugee women at risk of persecution solely because they belong to the social group of women, the CJEU is taking into account women’s realities while consolidating the importance of references to fundamental rights and international law in the interpretation of EU asylum law.

Meltem Ineli Ciger, Towards Temporary Prolonged Protection?, in EU Migration Law Blog, 10 giugno 2025

The EU’s activation of the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) in March 2022 marked a historic response to the mass displacement caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The TPD was formally activated by Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/382 on 4 March 2022. It first applied for an initial period of one year, until 4 March 2023, and was then automatically extended for one additional year until 4 March 2024. Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/2409 extended temporary protection until 4 March 2025. Finally, Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2024/1836 extended temporary protection for a further period of 1 year, until 4 March 2026. As of March 2025, around 4.2 million people fleeing Ukraine continue to benefit from temporary protection across the EU (Eurostat 2025). Although the Directive was conceived as a short- to medium-term emergency mechanism, the temporary protection status is currently set to expire in March 2026.

Elspeth Guild, European Return Orders and the European Human Rights Convention: The Commission’s Proposal for a Return Regulation, in EU Law Analysis, 2 giugno 2025

In March 2025 the European Commission published a proposal for a re-cast return regulation. It has been met with mixed responses, a certain jubilation in some parts of Europe’s extreme right, a certain concern not least from a human rights perspective in other quarters. For an excellent analysis of this proposal see Majcher’s blog on this site. One of the innovations in the proposal is a European Return Order which any Member State may enforce without issuing its own expulsion decision (Articles 7-9). (‘Return’ is the EU term for ‘expulsion’ which is the term used in the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I will use the term ‘expulsion’, consistent with European and international human rights law).

Itamar Mann, S.S. and Others v. Italy: Killing by Omission, Confirmed by Design, in EJIL:Talk!, 19 giugno 2025

On 12 June the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in S.S. and Others v. Italy (App. No. 21660/18). The Court declared inadmissible the claims of seventeen applicants intercepted at sea and subjected to grave harm through a Libyan-led operation underwritten by the Italian state. At the heart of the judgement is the finding that the Court lacked jurisdiction under Article 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Alongside Violeta Moreno-Lax and Loredana Leo (ASGI), I was one of the lawyers who brought this case before the court back in 2017. Moreno-Lax brilliantly developed the conceptual foundation of the case. Both of us worked at the time, in our capacity members of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN). Apart from the important partnership with ASGI, the Sea Watch activists and Forensic Oceanography (now Border Forensics) provided important support. And yet, I think it is fair to say that everyone involved understood that the case would be an uphill legal struggle. It was an attempt—a fragile one from the outset—to test whether the Court’s doctrine could rise to meet the evolving structure of harm in transnational migration governance.

Steve Peers, Temporary means temporary? The Commission proposes the extension – and the phase-out – of temporary protection, in EU Law Analysis, 4 giugno 2025

What is the future of temporary protection in the EU for those fleeing the invasion of Ukraine? Today the EU Commission simultaneously proposed to extend that protection for a fifth year, while suggesting a coordinated process of winding it down. This blog post will examine the legal issues arising from these proposals.

Steve Peers, A candle in the dark: the CJEU rules against criminalising parents for smuggling their children, in EU Law Analysis, 3 giugno 2025

The world is increasingly bleak for those concerned about civil liberties, poverty or climate change – including for those concerned about the right to asylum and the rights of migrants more generally in Europe. Constraints on those rights have reached the point where a law supposedly intended to combat wicked gangs of people smugglers ended up potentially being applied to criminalise a mother who applied for asylum for assisting her little girl to enter a Member State illegally with her.

Shalini Bhargava Ray, Using Immigration Court as a Trap, in Verfassungsblog, 6 giugno 2025

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the unit within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that conducts interior immigration enforcement, has begun apprehending noncitizens at immigration court after the government moves to dismiss their case. Noncitizens appear in immigration court to pursue humanitarian relief or otherwise defend against deportation. Long used as a tool of prosecutorial discretion, a dismissal typically signals the provisional end of an enforcement action. However, immigrants and their attorneys are finding that ICE is coordinating with government lawyers to meet noncitizens exiting immigration court after such dismissals and detaining them. Rather than a reprieve, dismissal now functions as a tool for facilitating detention and possibly summary deportation, raising concerns about due process and fidelity to the governing statutes. Noncitizens contesting their removal lack the procedural protections applicable to criminal defendants, such as a right to legal counsel, because removal proceedings are regarded as “civil” rather than criminal.

Maksym Vishchyk, Jeremy Pizzi, Governments’ Démarche against the ECtHR: Room for Discussion or Threats to Judicial Integrity, in EJIL:Talk!, 16 giugno 2025

Recently, the leaders of nine European states, out of Council of Europe members, issued a joint statement calling for a fundamental revision of the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’) on immigration issues. Initially pioneered by Italy and Denmark, and supported by Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, the statement acknowledges commitment to a rule-based international order and “universal and everlasting” ideas underpinning the ECHR, yet questions whether existing treaties match contemporary challenges of immigration. It urges the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) to revise its previously adopted interpretations, accusing it of “extend[ing] the scope of the Convention too far as compared with the original intentions”, limiting the governments’ discretion in protecting their “democratic societies and […] populations”, instead “result[ing] in the protection of the wrong people”. The governments call for “restor[ing] the right balance”, arguing that national security, as “the highest priority”, should leave more room for domestic decision-making. Politicians from other states, e.g., the United Kingdom’s shadow home secretary, followed up, declaring that states would have to quit the ECHR unless “radical and fundamental change” occurs.

Diritto, immigrazione e cittadinanza, 2025, n. 2

 Dario Belluccio, Nie wieder? La polverizzazione della parola

Roberto Cherchi, Il trattenimento dello straniero in Albania ex art. 14 D.Lgs. 286/1998 alla luce delle nuove norme del decreto-legge n. 37 del 2025

Francesca Biondi Dal Monte, L’accoglienza dei richiedenti asilo nella direttiva 2024/1346. Profili di continuità, qualche luce e persistenti ombre

Adele Del Guercio, Accesso protetto al territorio dell’Unione europea: luci e ombre del nuovo quadro in materia di reinsediamento e ammissione umanitaria

Francesca Di Matteo, La procedura di trasferimento alle frontiere interne nella riforma del codice Schengen alla prova della Carta dei diritti fondamentali

Cinzia Valente, Minori migranti: vulnerabilità specifiche e inclusione nel contesto europeo

Libri

Sophia Balakian, Unsettled Families. Refugees, Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Kinship, Stanford UP, 2025

Against the backdrop of the global refugee crisis, Unsettled Families investigates the parameters that Global North governments and international humanitarian organizations use to classify most displaced families—more than 99% globally—as ineligible for resettlement, and often as fraudulent. But “fraud” as a category is not as self-evident as it may first appear. Nor is “the family.” Based on long-term fieldwork between Nairobi, Kenya and Columbus, Ohio, Sophia Balakian tells stories of Somali and Congolese refugees navigating a complicated global assemblage of humanitarian organizations, immigration bureaucracies, and national security agencies as they seek permanent, new homes. Viewing the concepts of “fraud” and “family” from different vantage points in this context, Balakian shows how the categories begin to blur out of focus, sometimes to evaporate altogether; what seems to be contained within them scatter outside their received boundaries. Practices that resettlement organizations deem fraudulent are often understood by people living as refugees to be moral actions in an unequal world. Such practices allow them to fulfill obligations to kin—kin defined expansively, in ways that at times exceed the boundaries of normative, US frameworks. Bringing questions of kinship into current discussions on humanitarianism, Balakian locates “the family” as a crucial category in processes of producing, policing, and contesting the boundaries of nation-states in the 21st century.

Avijit Mistri, MD Selim Reja, Bhaswati Das, Migration Studies. The Fundamentals, Routledge, 2025

This book is an essential toolkit for students and early researchers of population studies and demography, geography, economics, development studies political science, sociology, anthropology, and gender studies. The volume: – Presents in-depth coverage of basic concepts; – Includes empirical data, case studies, and references for further reading; – Covers critical aspects of migration studies ranging from the theoretical to contemporary issues and policies. The book will be of interest to scholars, students, researchers, or anyone interested in migration and diasporic studies, development studies, the politics of migration, immigration policy, social anthropology, economics, and sociology.

Articoli

María José Barajas, Operational Collaboration Between CSDP Missions and FRONTEX: Would Responsibility for (Shared) Damages Be Possible When Fundamental Rights are at Stake?, in European Foreign Affairs Review, 2025, n. 2

Regulation 2019/1896 allows the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) to adopt working arrangements with Common Security and Defence Policy missions (CSDP missions) on operational issues. Two such arrangements are in force: one with EUNAVFOR MED Irini and another with European Union Advisory Mission for Civilian Security Sector Reform Ukraine (EUAM Ukraine). These collaborations are expected to intensify, allowing for the exchange of information with third countries and joint training of the latter’s officers. However, there is a risk that this interaction may lead to violations of fundamental rights in multi-actor scenarios – with violations having already been documented in the framework of these CSDP missions and in FRONTEX joint operations at large. Against this background, this article takes as a starting point the action for damages under Article 340(2) TFEU as a tool to establish (shared) responsibility in these situations. It then analyses the likelihood of success of such actions brought against FRONTEX and these CSDP missions. Emphasis is placed on the attribution of harmful conduct to the defendants and the causal link that is required between their behaviour and the damage caused. The difficulty in determining causation is tackled by resorting to theories and principles found in the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR)’ case-law and in European soft-law texts. Moreover, the right to an effective remedy in such concerted actions causing indivisible damage favours an interpretation that allows for joint and several responsibility. All this supports the need for the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to apply a tailor-made approach when assessing these claims, considering the particularities of multi-actor scenarios where violations of EU fundamental rights are at stake.

Netta Moshe, Dan Miodownik, Shaul R. Shenhav, What happens when forced migrants and transit state actors meet? Encounters at decision nodal points during the migration journey, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

This study investigates the interactions of forced migrants with state actors in transit countries at critical decision nodal points (DNPs) along their journey—defined as turning points where migrants make decisions about resuming mobility or altering the course of their journey. Granted official legal power by the state, transit state actors operate on the ground in various ways using their power. Nevertheless, their roles in the decision-making as experienced by forced migrants have been studied very little. We examine the journey narratives of forced migrants originating from Eritrea and Sudan. We quantitatively identify and analyze spaces of mobility, immobility and DNPs, within their trajectories. The findings demonstrate that state actors in transit countries can serve as integral and concrete journey components that shape migration outcomes. The study concludes by presenting two insights into (i) the directionality of influence (enabling versus halting journey plans) and (ii) the encounter space (direct-official spaces versus indirect spaces).

Jasper van der Kist, Algorithmically Constructed Shibboleths: The Technological Mediation of Automated Dialect Recognition in Asylum Procedures, in Geopolitics, 2025

There is a trend in the field of asylum adjudication to develop and implement new technological solutions for the identification of asylum seekers. The Dialect Identification Assistant System (DIAS) developed by the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) stands out. What are the implications of automated dialect recognition technology for administrative-legal procedures of refugee status determination? This paper employs a post-phenomenological approach centred on the analytical concept of ‘technological mediation’. It argues that the technological mediation of automated dialect recognition reinforces the tendency to focus on what asylum seekers do rather than what they say. Moreover, automated dialect recognition system constitutes asylum seekers as docile objects of government rather than recalcitrant subjects who can account for themselves. The article concludes that there is a need to further inquire what this technological mediation implies for refugee protection, as legal subjectivities afforded by human language are displaced by algorithmically constituted shibboleths.

Jonathan Grossman, Extraterritorial militarism: emigrants as soldiers in Israel, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Militarism is a discourse that glorifies soldiers and treats military service as a key component of full citizenship. This article contends that states can project militaristic discourse onto citizens living outside their territory, thus creating an extraterritorial variant of militarism. When home-state elites construct overseas citizens as soldiers, they evaluate them based on their military record or their potential as prospective soldiers. The paradigmatic case of Israel reveals three forms of extraterritorial militarism: constructing citizens abroad as non-soldiers, past soldiers, or future soldiers. A discourse analysis of parliamentary debates illustrates how Israeli elites framed those emigrants and children of emigrants who served or were willing to serve in the Israel Defense Forces as better extraterritorial citizens than those who did not or would not serve. Additionally, the article examines who is excluded from the discourse of extraterritorial militarism in Israel, and how and why this discourse has changed over time.

Lorena Izaguirre, Tanja Bastia, Matthew Walsham, Pedro Pablo Cortés, Neglected intersections: a view from the South, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

While the integration of an intersectional perspective marks a significant advance in gender and migration literature over recent decades, this scholarship remains heavily dominated by studies focusing on South-North migration. Consequently, despite growing attention to gender within South-South migration from both researchers and policy-makers, key research areas applying an intersectional lens remain neglected. In this paper, we identify three such areas that remain significantly under-explored in South-South migration research: sexuality, disability, and ageing. We argue that migration scholarship in general, and gender and migration scholarship in particular, need to urgently move to encompass all types of migrations, including regional, South-South migration, as well as broaden the languages of the publications that are taken into account in the mainstream gender and migration literature. In this article, we put forward a framework for advancing the research agenda on intersectionality in South-South migration, one which departs from the common focus on English-speaking countries and publications. We take a first step towards implementing this approach by including publications in Spanish and Portuguese.

Antonio Ruggeri, Migrare: un diritto fondamentale?, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2025, n. 2

Lo scritto si sofferma essenzialmente su tre punti. Il primo attiene alla natura del migrare quale diritto inviolabile della persona; il secondo alla distinzione tra migranti ed immigrati, agli uni (che sono di passaggio) dovendosi dare soccorso ed assistenza, agli altri (che stabilmente si stanziano nel territorio dello Stato) accoglienza; il terzo al rilievo parimenti peculiare che va assegnato alla disciplina riguardante migranti ed immigrati (in ispecie, i primi), sul piano delle dinamiche della normazione come pure nel corso delle vicende processuali, in ispecie in sede di giudizi di costituzionalità aventi ad oggetto la disciplina stessa.

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Paolo Biondi, A Sound Legal Argument, but the Wrong Medium? Reflections on S.S. and Others v. Italy and the Limits of Strategic Litigation, in EU Law Analysis, 25 luglio 2025

The June 2025 S.S. and Others v. Italy judgment marked a missed opportunity—and a cautionary tale. Although the applicants advanced a legally coherent theory grounded in SAR, SOLAS, UNCLOS, and Strasbourg precedent, their case depended on a weak factual matrix. As a result, the ECtHR declined jurisdiction. However, shortly before, an analogous incident occurred where Rome MRCC expressly instructed Libya to intercept—while sidelining Sea‑Watch. This scenario presented stronger grounds for Strasbourg jurisdiction as Rome’s decision directly determined which vessel rescued (or rejected) migrants, causing their return. Such instructions, with knowledge of their likely outcome, implicate in a more clear-cut case Italy in Libya-run refoulement. Strategically, the lesson is clear, doctrine requires vehicles. The wrong case risks irrelevance. In border externalisation litigation, doctrinal ambition must be rooted in unambiguous control and causation.

Barbara Mikołajczyk, Polish law restricting the right to asylum at borders, in EU Migration Law Blog, 3 luglio 2025

Since July 2021, in response to EU sanctions imposed on Belarus following the rigged 2020 presidential election, the Belarusian authorities have launched a campaign to destabilise Poland by engaging in instrumentalisation of migrants at the border with Poland. The Polish Border Guard provides evidence that Belarusian officers are organising mass border crossings by migrants at the border, and that they are encouraging or facilitating the migrants’ use of violence against Polish officers. The Polish Border Guard staff are coming under attack from improvised weapons (sharpened sticks, broken glass, stones, slingshots and sometimes knives). The Belarusian forces have also been found to have engaged in an operation to provide migrants with equipment to destroy parts of a dam that was built in 2022. In May 2024, a soldier was stabbed in the chest and killed. Due to the growing tension at the border, in  June 2024, a buffer zone was introduced on the Podlasie section of the Polish-Belarusian border to limit access to the border. Prolonged for the third time in March 2025, this zone now covers additional areas and aims to limit the presence of people in the border strip. In turn, zones up to four kilometres wide have been introduced in some sections to prevent illegal crossings.

Valsamis Mitsilegas, The ruling of the Court of Justice in Kinsa: A first step towards the decriminalisation of the facilitation of unauthorised entry?, in EU Migration Law Blog, 10 luglio 2025

One of the most eagerly awaited judgments by the Court of Justice in recent months has involved the litigation in the case of Kinsa. Its significance lies in the fact that this was the Court’s first opportunity to interpret the scope of EU criminal law on the facilitation of unauthorised entry, as well as the compatibility of the current overcriminalisation of facilitation with fundamental rights. The ruling is also a landmark because of its potential influence on shaping future EU criminal law in the field, particularly in view of the current negotiations on a new facilitation Directive to replace the facilitators’ package (see Mitsilegas, 2024). This commentary offers a rapid reaction to the Court’s ruling on Kinsa, which was delivered on 3 June 2025. The note will begin with outlining the background to the litigation and proceed with analysing the Opinion of the Advocate General and the ruling of the Court of Justice.

Agostina Pirrello, Silvia Bartolini, Pullbacks in the Channel, in Verfassungsblog, 25 luglio 2025

Since May 2025, media footage has shown French police wading through shallow waters just off the northern coast near Calais, using knives to slash so-called “taxi boats” packed with asylum seekers, thus forcing those on board to abandon the sinking dinghies and scramble back to shore for safety. While such scenes are not entirely new – French police has not been known for their gallantry in attempts to stop taxi‑boats from crossing the Channel and have often been accused of resorting to violent tactics – these ‘enforcement techniques’ have now been provided with a legal basis, as Interior Minister Retailleau has endorsed a new policy allowing police to ‘take action’ up to 300 meters from the shore. The policy marks a significant shift from prior rules, which limited intervention at sea to cases of distress. This development is part of a broader UK-France strategy aimed at further securitizing the Channel. Last week, negotiations for a new UK–France agreement culminated in the announcement of a ‘one in, one out’ pilot scheme, under which the UK will return small boat arrivals to France while accepting asylum seekers selected from France who can demonstrate family ties in Britain. The agreement – that  still awaits to be evaluated by the Commission – echoes the controversial logic of the EU-Turkey Statement.

Huub Verbaten, A Dutch dangerous experiment in criminalizing compassion: How a parliamentary “slip-up” could create Europe’s harshest migration law, in EU Law Analysis, 11 luglio 2025

On the evening of July 3, 2025, as Dutch parliamentarians prepared to vote on what could become some of Europe’s most restrictive asylum laws, NSC MP Diederik Boomsma posed a question that cut to the heart of a dangerous policy experiment. Would offering a “bowl of soup” to someone without legal papers now be a criminal offense? The question wasn’t rhetorical. Just days earlier, a last-minute amendment by Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV had passed through what opposition parties later called a “slip-up” in parliamentary procedure. The amendment didn’t just criminalize being undocumented in the Netherland, it also made helping undocumented people a punishable offense. Suddenly, the simple act of human kindness that Boomsma described could land someone in jail.

Malak Harb, Externalising Migration Control, in Verfassungsblog, 2 luglio 2025

On 20th of May 2025, after seven years of proceedings, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) declared the case of S.S. and others v Italy inadmissible under Art.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The decision marks a missed opportunity. Instead of addressing the question of functional jurisdiction in the context of externalised migration control, the Court found that Italy does not enjoy extraterritorial jurisdiction under Art.1 of the Convention over a group of irregular migrants whose ship was wrecked on the high seas near the Libyan coast. The ruling is another illustration of how externalised border control and “pull-back” policies are becoming normalised in Europe. In applying a narrow interpretation of jurisdiction rather than a functional one, the Court avoided important questions on accountability and state responsibility associated with migration control by proxy. The decision risks widening the gap between human rights regimes and contributes to the emergence of a more limited, self-contained European human rights framework.

Bijal Shah, Judicial Acquiescence to Presidential Immigration, in Verfassungsblog, 10 luglio 2025

Mahmoud Khalil, Kilmar Ábrego García, and Rumeysa Ozturk are just a few of the people against whom the second Trump Administration has openly engaged in alarming forms of immigration enforcement. In addition, President Trump seems undeterred by U.S. federal court orders that he stop commanding the administrative state to implement unlawful immigration punishments. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court seems to have the Trump Administration’s back vis-à-vis the lower courts. Arguably, the Court has “reward[ed]” the Trump Administration’s immigration “lawlessness” outright. And indeed, the Court’s recent erosion of an important tool of judicial constraint – the nationwide injunction – will further empower President Trump to terrorize noncitizens and their American-born children.

Libri

Vincent Chetail, Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Migration and Asylum Law, Elgar, 2025

This Concise Encyclopedia provides a comprehensive overview of the rapidly developing field of migration and asylum law. It brings clarity on key terms and critical notions, while challenging misconceptions in this highly politicized sphere.

Hyab Teklehaimanot Yohannes, The Refugee Abyss, Routledge, 2025

In defiance of the refugee abyss, this book presents the flesh of pained bodies and the breath of displaced voices, contributing to the thread of traces yet to be forged and the politics yet to emerge, in a world where Relation takes precedence. The book unfolds in several traces. First, open wounds and scars represent the refugee abyss, revealing the onto-epistemic chains that silence displaced voices. These voices, through embodied subjects, recount their struggles in a world marked by violence. Second, the book questions the rights-based order, revealing how the human rights project is a new incarnation of the colonial civilising mission. It claims to elevate humanity, starting with those deemed uncivilised. Yet, its mask of benevolence, once upheld in the metropoles of empire, now appears hollow. Third, the book theorises the nationstate as a womb-abyss, a matrix that both births and consumes life. Fourth, it explores the refugee abyss as a realm of confinement and destitution, where lives are commodified, exploited, and destroyed. Fifth, it shifts from open wounds to the poetics of refuge, illustrating how life persists in the shadows of rights and laws, while death is inflicted through them. Finally, it reflects on untamed life, emerging from wounds and scars as a proclamation of the unfamiliar and enduring. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of criminology, criminal justice, and refugee studies. It will also appeal to political scientists and policymakers interested in issues of citizenship, human rights, and decoloniality.

Articoli

Christian S. Czymara, Anastasia Gorodzeisky, Inna Leykin, Political legacies and present perceptions of migrants, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

This paper examines the long-term impact of past political processes and events on current perceptions of immigration. As a case study, we focus on contemporary public perceptions of migrants by citizens of the Baltic states and ask how historical migration patterns and policies within the former Soviet Union are reflected in these perceptions. Our analysis is based on original survey data collected from nationally representative samples in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Employing structural topic modeling (STM), we analyze over 1,100 responses to an open-ended survey question asking respondents to describe the group that comes to mind when thinking about immigrants in their country. Using STM allows us to identify socially meaningful themes, as highlighted by the respondents, and without bias from any predefined categories. Our findings demonstrate that, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine featured significantly in the responses, the Soviet political legacy and the related Soviet era migration continue to shape perceptions of migrants in the Baltic States thirty years after their independence. Thus, even in the context of the most salient migration-related events, such as war, past geo-political processes can play a significant role in the formation of current public perceptions of immigration.

Katharina Natter, Riccardo Biggi, Niels Ike, Merel van Assem, Between Knowledge and Assumptions: The Migrant in the Eyes of the Policymaker, in IMI Working Paper, 2025

What are policymakers’ assumptions about how migrants take decisions? Do these change across countries or policy issues? And what role does expert knowledge play in reinforcing or reshaping these assumptions? Based on an in-depth analysis of 180 policy documents surrounding key migration reforms in Austria, Italy and the Netherlands since the 2000s, this paper examines dominant assumptions about migrant decision-making across three policy issues: counter-smuggling, asylum reception, and worker attraction. Our analysis shows that while policy documents rarely discuss migrant decision-making explicitly, they are rife with assumptions around migrant behavior. Specifically, they portray “the migrant” as a fundamentally different figure depending on the policy area at stake – ranging from an often simplistic and patronizing understanding of the irregular migrant to the rational yet easily influenceable figure of the essential worker. Such assumptions shape whether and how knowledge is used to underpin policy choices. While knowledge tends to be mostly disregarded in the politicized area of counter-smuggling, knowledge on reception in the region is often used symbolically. In other words, it is discussed but does not ultimately influence policy decisions. Only in policy documents on essential workers did we identify some instances of instrumental knowledge use. Surprisingly, these issue-specific findings hold across Austria, Italy and the Netherlands despite different geographical contexts, migration histories and commitments to evidence-based policymaking. They invite migration scholars, policymakers and experts to pay closer attention to issue-specific dynamics in migration policy and to further theorize the mechanisms through which not only knowledge use but also non-use and even misuse play out in practice.

Niovi Vavoula, Algorithmic Accountability Through the “Human over the Loop” in Interoperable and EU AI-reliant Large-scale IT Systems for Migration and Security, in European Papers, 2024, n. 3

Interoperability of large-scale IT systems and the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in the field of migration, asylum and border management have been two parallel developments at EU level. Legal scholarship has not yet addressed in detail the potential interplay of these two initiatives and this Article stressed that various interoperability components are either pre-requisites or enablers for the deployment of AI in the EU IT systems. The Article analyses how these AI-powered components are dealt with by the AI Act and highlights potential challenges in classifying them as high-risk AI systems. In this highly complex and opaque legal framework, the Article argues that algorithmic accountability through supervision, framed as the “human over the loop”, is particularly important. Such supervision so far has focused on data protection-related matters, but the deployment of AI has implications beyond the contours of data protection law. The Article provides recommendations on how supervision of interoperable and AI-reliant IT systems should be reconceived to achieve algorithmic accountability. In this respect, the analysis focused not only on the role of national data protection authorities, but also on other actors with supervisory underpinnings.

Víctor Pérez-Segura, Raquel Caro-Carretero, Antonio Rua, The elusive climate migrant: symbolic geographies in migration studies, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Climate migration has emerged as one of the fastest-growing lines of inquiry within migration studies. However, it suffers from a fundamental empirical–conceptual limitation: the absence of a definition that clearly distinguishes a climate migrant from a labour migrant. This research aims to determine how the specialised literature positions the phenomenon, which forms of mobility it recognises and the extent to which the geographical context of scientific production influences its territorial delineation. To this end, the territorial location of migrant populations was analysed in a sample of 1,059 articles drawn from the WoS, Scopus and LENS databases. The results indicate that 39% of the studies treat the phenomenon in a decontextualised manner — without linking it to specific populations or migration processes. When territories are mentioned, 27% of the references pertain to Bangladesh and the Pacific islands. It is also observed that territorial identification is conditioned by the country of production, which tends to situate the phenomenon in spaces with which it has pre-existing migratory, geographical or historical ties. These findings are discussed from the perspectives of Science and Technology Studies (STS), the Geography of Science and decolonial thought. It is concluded that research on climate migration reproduces the epistemological positions of the Global North — the main generator of knowledge in this field. This produces a symbolic territorialisation of the phenomenon guided by securitising frameworks and a tendency to prioritise climate as the decisive factor.

Antonio Ruggeri, Migrare: un diritto fondamentale?, in Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies, 2025, n. 2

Lo scritto si sofferma essenzialmente su tre punti. Il primo attiene alla natura del migrare quale diritto inviolabile della persona; il secondo alla distinzione tra migranti ed immigrati, agli uni (che sono di passaggio) dovendosi dare soccorso ed assistenza, agli altri (che stabilmente si stanziano nel territorio dello Stato) accoglienza; il terzo al rilievo parimenti peculiare che va assegnato alla disciplina riguardante migranti ed immigrati (in ispecie, i primi), sul piano delle dinamiche della normazione come pure nel corso delle vicende processuali, in ispecie in sede di giudizi di costituzionalità aventi ad oggetto la disciplina stessa.

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Mario Savino, Disapplication Unbound. The Alace Ruling on Safe Countries of Origin, in Verfassungsblog, 4 settembre 2025

Asylum seekers who come from a safe country of origin (SCO) may be detained under the so-called border procedure, a special asylum procedure provided for by Article 43 of Directive 2013/32/EU (Asylum Procedures Directive – APD). Article 36 APD establishes a protective scheme which permits setting aside the presumption of safety of the country of origin in individual cases. For the CJEU, this level of protection is insufficient. With its ruling of 1 August 2025, in the joined cases of Alace and Canpelli, it added another protective layer based on Article 37 APD. According to the ruling, national courts are required to review whether a SCO designation meets the criteria of Article 37, and, where it does not, disapply it. Neither the discretionary nature of the designation nor its inclusion in a legislative act is of relevance: since EU law is supreme, first-instance courts are bound to disapply conflicting provisions directly, without recourse to constitutional courts.

Mónica Ávila Currás, From Dialogue to Strategy in Migration Cases: Third-Party Interventions by States as a Risky Patch to a Systemic Tension, in Strasbourg Observer, 19 agosto 2025

European states’ practice of intervening in cases before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with which they do not have an a priori relation has increased over time. A frequently invoked justification for these ‘non-related’ interventions by states is that the Court’s case law has the potential to have an impact beyond the parties to the case. If the interpretation of the ECHR is going to (potentially) have a de facto erga omnes effect, the rest of the Contracting parties may have a vested interest in the case. In this blog post, I will analyse how the de facto, but not de lege, erga omnes effect of the ECtHR judgments has created a systemic tension in the ECtHR system. I propose that, while this tension has been remedied by allowing all Contracting States to act as third-party interveners in any case without many restrictions, in the context of migration at least, this has opened the door to the use of the third-party intervention mechanism beyond what is required to alleviate it.

Chiara Favilli, Luisa Marin, Alace and Canpelli: the Court of Justice firmly constrains domestic extraterritorial asylum processing politics, in EU Law Analysis, 14 agosto 2025

On the 1st of August 2025, the long-awaited Alace and Canpelli judgment was released, providing interpretation to the ‘safe country of origin’ notion, a crucial legal notion in EU asylum law and politics. With the case at hand, together with the previous ruling on CV, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has given a landmark judgment in the context of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Furthermore, it placed clear boundaries on the implementation of the instruments of the Pact of Migration and Asylum, most notably on the Procedures Regulation No. 2024/1348, replacing the 2013 Procedures Directive, and due to enter into force in June 2026.

Adeodata Kanyamihanda, Safe for Everyone? On the ECJ’s judgment in the joined cases Alace [C‑758/24] and Canpelli [C‑759/24], in Verfassungsblog, 20 agosto 2025

On the 1st of August, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its much-anticipated judgment in Alace and Canpelli (joined cases C-758/24 and C-759/24), addressing the interpretation of the “safe country of origin” (SCO) concept under the Asylum Procedures Directive 2013/32 (APD). Firstly, it confirmed that a SCO can be designated through legislation, as long as national courts can verify compliance with EU law. Secondly, it outlined essential procedural safeguards regarding the accessibility of sources used in the designation process.

Karla Žeravčić, One Step Forward, Three Steps Back? The Alace Judgment and the Future of the ‘Safe Country of Origin’ Practice, in EU Law Analysis, 14 agosto 2025

Less than a year after the Tribunale ordinario di Roma (Ordinary Court of Rome) submitted a preliminary reference, and just four months after Advocate General (AG) De La Tour delivered his Opinion, the CJEU’s Grand Chamber handed down its judgment in Alace on 1 August 2025. This is the third case from Luxembourg tackling the Safe Country of Origin (SCO) concept under EU law. It follows the CV judgment, in which the Court ruled out territorial exceptions from the principle under the 2013 Recast Asylum Procedures Directive (2013 APD). In Alace, the focus shifted to group exceptions, with the Court firmly stating that the 2013 APD precludes Member States (MSs) from designating a third country as “safe” if it does not satisfy the relevant safety conditions for certain categories of persons (para 109). At first glance, this looks like a welcome confirmation of a restrictive reading of the SCO designation. The Court rejected the more politically pragmatic approach advocated by Advocate General (AG) De La Tour (para 72), who had argued for a broader margin of discretion for Member States in designating safe countries, including group-based exceptions (para 70). But what does this mean in the long run – particularly in the context of the 2024 Asylum Procedures Regulation (2024 APR), and recent Commission proposals to bring some of its provisions into force ahead of schedule?

Malak Harb, Externalising Migration Control, in Verfassungsblog, 2 luglio 2025

On 20th of May 2025, after seven years of proceedings, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) declared the case of S.S. and others v Italy inadmissible under Art.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The decision marks a missed opportunity. Instead of addressing the question of functional jurisdiction in the context of externalised migration control, the Court found that Italy does not enjoy extraterritorial jurisdiction under Art.1 of the Convention over a group of irregular migrants whose ship was wrecked on the high seas near the Libyan coast. The ruling is another illustration of how externalised border control and “pull-back” policies are becoming normalised in Europe. In applying a narrow interpretation of jurisdiction rather than a functional one, the Court avoided important questions on accountability and state responsibility associated with migration control by proxy. The decision risks widening the gap between human rights regimes and contributes to the emergence of a more limited, self-contained European human rights framework.

Türkan Ertuna Lagrand, Salvatore Nicolosi, The Next Episode On Gender-Based Asylum, in Verfassungsblog, 22 agosto 2025

One of the CJEU’s most talked-about recent cases asks a simple question: when does someone belong to a “particular social group” under EU refugee law? On 11 June 2024 in K, L v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (K, L), the CJEU found that, depending on the circumstances in the country of origin, women who genuinely came to identify themselves with the fundamental value of equality between women and men during their stay in the host country can be regarded as belonging to a particular social group under Article 10 (1) (d) of the Qualification Directive. This can constitute a reason for persecution capable of leading to the recognition of refugee status (para. 64). This judgment forms part of a line of case law through which the CJEU has developed a gender-sensitive approach to refugee protection in 2024.

Bijal Shah, Judicial Acquiescence to Presidential Immigration, in Verfassungsblog, 10 luglio 2025

Mahmoud Khalil, Kilmar Ábrego García, and Rumeysa Ozturk are just a few of the people against whom the second Trump Administration has openly engaged in alarming forms of immigration enforcement. In addition, President Trump seems undeterred by U.S. federal court orders that he stop commanding the administrative state to implement unlawful immigration punishments. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court seems to have the Trump Administration’s back vis-à-vis the lower courts. Arguably, the Court has “reward[ed]” the Trump Administration’s immigration “lawlessness” outright. And indeed, the Court’s recent erosion of an important tool of judicial constraint – the nationwide injunction – will further empower President Trump to terrorize noncitizens and their American-born children.

Jennifer Zhou, ‘One-in, one-out’, restriction zones, suspects’ asylum status, seeking parole, and libel in the courts, in UK Human Rights Blog, 11 agosto 2025

The first migrants were detained under the new ‘one-in, one-out’ deal with France. The ‘Agreement on the Prevention of Dangerous Journeys’ came into force on 6 August; detentions began at lunchtime that day. Under the scheme, anyone crossing the Channel in a small boat can be returned to France. An equal number of migrants will be eligible under a new legal route to come to the UK. The Agreement, which governs the pilot scheme, will remain in force until June 2026. The government announced ‘restriction zones’ curbing freedom of movement for serious violent and sexual offenders. Under the new plans, offenders will be confined to agreed areas — a step beyond existing ‘exclusion zone’ measures which simply prevent them entering a location where the victim lives. Restriction zones will be technologically monitored, with prison time as a possible sanction.

European Public Law, 2025, n. 3 – Special Issue

Martijn Stronks, Patricia Mindus, Rebecca Thorburn Stern, The Role and Meaning of Time in European Migration Law

Matteo Bottero, Integration Rights for Temporary Labour Migrants in the European Union: Disconnecting Integration and Time

Sandra Mantu, Legal Time as Disciplinary Practice: Migrant EU Citizens and Permanent Residence

Katarina Hyltén-Cavallius, The Importance of Family Time: Returnees’ Residence Rights in EU Citizenship Law

Jonas Bornemann, Francesco Maiani, Temporal Governance, Precarity in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum

Libri

Maja Grundler, Irregular Migration, Refugee Status and the Law. Protection from Dangerous Migratory Journeys, Routledge, 2025

Through an investigation of the protection needs of ‘irregularised migrants’, this book offers a novel approach to the phenomenon of irregular migration by reframing it as a matter of refugee law. Thousands of people have died, disappeared and suffered mental and physical harm on their dangerous migratory journeys to Europe. This book addresses an issue which, so far, has been largely omitted from the study of refugee law: the fact that harm experienced during irregular migration is often as serious as harm feared by recognised refugees in their countries of origin. Grundler argues that harm experienced during dangerous journeys can constitute persecution and that a risk of irregular re-migration can form the basis for a claim to refugee status. Drawing insights from a comparative content analysis of trafficked persons’ asylum claims, other disciplines such as psychology and sociology and additional case law, this book provides readers with new understandings on the scope of the refugee definition, adds new concepts to migration theories and challenges states’ migration control policies. This volume will be an important point of reference for scholars, practitioners, policymakers and students working on refugee and human rights law, (irregular) migration and vulnerability.

Elspeth Guild, Valsamis Mitsilegas, Niovi Vavoula, Lawless Borders. The Rule of Law Deficit in European Immigration Control, Bristol UP, 2025

Immigration control in the West has increasingly focused on preventing migrants from reaching the external border and the territory of states. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the evolving preventive immigration control system and highlights the many ways in which contemporary border controls undermine the rule of law. By examining border control practices at the state and European levels (including by EU agencies and through the use of AI), the book explores how these measures affect the rule of law across different areas, including extraterritorial immigration control, control of the external borders and the digitalization of border control. This is an essential resource, presenting a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of today’s border management challenges.

Niovi Vavoula, Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi, Valsamis Mitsilegas (a cura di), Intertwining Criminal Justice and Immigration Control in the EU, Routledge, 2025

This book offers a contemporary understanding of the state of the art of “crimmigration” with a focus on the European Union and challenges this paradigm of intersecting criminal justice and immigration control. The contributions to this book explore the conceptual and philosophical underpinnings of EU and national policies intertwining criminal and migration law, as well as their practical use (and abuse). They analyse migration control through criminal law from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, incorporating insights from law, philosophy, and criminology. The book revisits fundamental questions on the suitability of criminal law to regulate and govern migration and provides insights as to whether and how the law should be amended to limit the negative consequences of the criminalisation of migration. The authors critique the key legal challenges crimmigration poses in terms of legality, fundamental rights, and rule of law adherence. Finally, this volume outlines, through concrete examples, how criminalisation of migration translates into the emergence of hostile environments for migrants and those who assist them. This book will be of interest to criminologists, sociologists, legal scholars, and all those engaged in studies on migration and the European Union.

Jennifer Ferng, Corporate Ethics and the Architecture of Asylum. Offshore Processing at Manus Island, Papua New Guinea and Nauru, Routledge, 2025

Corporate Ethics and the Architecture of Asylum engages innovative perspectives to understand our contemporary crisis of forced displacement and detention practices in the Pacific. Multinational contractors responsible for the construction and maintenance of regional processing centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru have flourished as powerful historical actors, exerting global dominance over the lives of asylum seekers wishing to come to Australia. Transitioning from the policeman or security guard towards the subject of the asylum seeker, this book contends that entanglements between architecture and law represent important epistemic models to interrogate how asylum can be understood and reconceptualised. Proposing diverse forms of visual and textual evidence, asylum is repositioned as a dynamic, ever-changing countermeasure against xenophobic sentiments around offshore processing. Over six chapters, Corporate Ethics examines how the regional processing centres of Manus Island and Nauru are deeply connected to the intellectual discourses of care, environmental precarity, human rights, and sovereignty. From Rembrandt’s De Nachtwacht or Night Watch (1642) to recent advancements in artificial intelligence and legal testimonies, picturing the future of asylum serves as a critical tool to resist state authoritarianism and the rise of corporate malfeasance in the built environment. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of humanitarian architecture, architectural history, and Asia Pacific politics.

Ruth Rubio Marín, Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Benedita Menezes Queiroz, Fulvia Staiano (a cura di), Handbook on Migration and Human Rights, Elgar, 2025

This Research Handbook examines the complex issues faced by migrants and refugees in securing their human rights. By challenging and reformulating the crisis narrative often perpetuated by states and international organizations, it provides a gendered, cutting-edge, in-depth investigation of key themes central to the human rights implications of migration.

Articoli

Katharine Charsley & Nicole Hoellerer, Migrantisation: a key concept, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Migrantisation has become a key concept among scholars attempting to de-naturalise and de-centre the migrant/citizen binary. It has, however, been used in a variety of ways that have not always been clearly delineated. In this paper we tease out the strands of development of the concept, distinguishing different usages of migrantisation, and propose a new terminology to clarify the ways in which the term can serve a variety of purposes at different analytical levels. In particular, we identify two separate strands in the literature: ‘demographic migrantisation’ and ‘categorical migrantisation’. The latter is most consequential for Migration Studies, and so forms the main focus of this article, along with two further contributions developing from the categorical migrantisation approach: ‘migrantisation as an analytical perspective’, and the recently introduced concept of ‘experiential migrantisation’. Our discussion foregrounds the multi-dimensional nature of categorical migrantisation, which takes place across multiple domains, and is intersectional and contextual in character. In creating a more systematic understanding of the concept of migrantisation, we hope to lay clearer foundations for future research.

Laura Magi, La portata dell’obbligo di soccorso in mare ai sensi della Convenzione SAR: le sezioni unite sul caso “Diciotti”, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2025, n. 2

The Order No. 5992 of the 7th of March 2025 of the Italian Court of Cassation declared that the Italian authorities acted in violation of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 13 of the Italian Constitution refuting for several days the authorization to disembark in the Italian territory of people rescued in the Maltese search and rescue area by the Italian Coast Guard. The Court of Cassation clarified that the obligation of the State responsible for the SAR area to provide assistance to those in danger of life at sea does not exclude that other States Parties to the SAR Conventions are required to take action in the event that the State primarily responsible does not fulfil its obligations. Moreover, the Court of Cassation rejected the interpretation of the obligation to provide assistance as an obligation that would grant the authorities required to carry out the rescue a margin of discretion in determining the moment in which to assign the PoS. According to the Supreme Court the SAR Convention imposes on the State the obligation to ensure a PoS in the shortest possible time.

Karolina Michková, David Kosař, Designation of the Safe Countries of Origin in EU Member States: Uniform Rules, Divergent Practices? CV v Ministerstvo vnitra ČR, in Common Market Law Review, 2025, n. 4

Judith Kohlenberger, Bernd Parusel, and Daniele Saracino, A Different Kind of Spillover: Wider Implications of Current Tendencies in EU Asylum Policy, in European Journal of Migration and Law, 2025, n. 2-3

This article offers new insights on how current tendencies in EU asylum policy, in light of the results of the recent reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), asylum policy implementation in the member states, and externalisation efforts, show spillover effects on the EU’s position on the global stage (foreign affairs), its internal functioning (rule of law), and member states’ ability to compete in the global economy (labour migration). Much of the critique of the CEAS reform, adopted in May 2024, has focussed on the questionable prospects for success the reform can provide for either the practical challenges of receiving people seeking protection in the EU or the resolution of political conflicts between member states in European asylum policy. In our contribution, we add to the debate three pivotal and often overlooked implications for other areas that current tendencies in EU asylum policy impact. First, we look into foreign policy and cooperation with third countries, including development cooperation, to scrutinise the EU’s credibility as a regulatory superpower that promotes a rules-based order. Second, we examine rule of law backsliding not only regarding refugee protection, but also in terms of CEAS provisions, policy implementation within member states, and illegal, yet normalised state practices at EU borders. Third, we illuminate implications for regular (skilled) migration to the EU against the backdrop of increasing demand for migrant workers due to demographic change and shifts within European labour markets. By employing rigorous policy and legal analysis, we demonstrate the detrimental spillover effects that current tendencies in EU asylum policy have on other crucial EU policy objectives.

Sara Tonolo, ‘Decreto flussi’, Commissioni territoriali e modifiche alla procedura di valutazione delle domande di protezione internazionale, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2025, n. 2

This work aims to explore the new features introduced in Italy by the ‘decreto flussi’ in the procedures for evaluating international protection applications. The role of EUAA is investigated, as well as its compatibility with the protection of fundamental rights of international protection applicants.

Irina Fehr, State-perpetrated Crimes against Migrants? Addressing Accountability in Croatian Migration Control through Criminal Law, in European Journal of Migration and Law, 2025, n. 2-3

European states continuously adopt harmful migration control practices. While human rights litigation remains the main avenue for accountability, it often fails to hold perpetrators responsible or prevent future violations. This article addresses the under-explored potential of domestic criminal law to litigate state-perpetrated harms against migrants, focusing on pushbacks in Croatia. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative analysis of 263 testimonies, it identifies various pushback practices as crimes under Croatian law. However, practical challenges and the absence of convictions reveal the limits of this approach. Still, adopting a criminal law perspective intersects with human rights litigation and helps redirect attention from the overstated criminality of migrants to the crimes committed against them by the state. Hence, this article positions criminal law as a strategic and conceptual tool for understanding and challenging European migration control practices.

Sander Mensink, Marlies Glasius, Imrat Verhoeven, Front stage contestation and back stage consultation: how Amsterdam navigated the governance of undocumented migrants, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Migration governance is one of the most contentious issues of our time, not just between political orientations but also between different levels of government. At the local level, the reality of undocumented migrants’ existence often places municipal authorities in an awkward split between acting in accordance with intransigent national policies and the need to guarantee public order and provide basic care. The academic literature on the ‘local turn’ in migration governance has not given attention to how municipal authorities may navigate the interplay between contestation and consultation in their relations with their national government. Focusing on two periods in which Amsterdam’s executive authorities tried to establish a form of shelter for undocumented migrants, we find that municipal authorities may publicly contest national authorities and privately consult with them at the same time. While the escalation of front stage contestation actually gives birth to back stage consultation, back stage consultation is continually constrained and threatened by the pressures on both municipal and national political actors to act out expected positions on the front stage. Over time, increased knowledge and trust between municipal and national actors can mitigate this vulnerability and stabilise backstage consultation to some extent.

Teresa Weber, From avoidance to empowerment? Understanding the (in)significance of the law for migrant care workers in Austria, in International Journal of Law in Context, 2025, n. 3

Migrant care workers are a marginalised group within Austrian society. Based on semi-structured interviews, this paper explores their real-life experiences and the problems they face and asks whether and how the law is relevant to their struggles. In short, migrant care workers are aware of some aspects of the law of the country in which they work, but they are reluctant to mobilise the law. Instead, they avoid disputes by using strategies such as leaving, denying or playing down conflicts. This behaviour can be understood by looking at the situation of migrant care workers in Austria. This paper also highlights the important role of migrant care workers’ networks and how these networks compensate for the lack of individual legal mobilisation.

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Vasiliki Apatzidou, The Shifting Frontier: The Advocate General’s Opinion in Joined Cases C‑50/24 to C‑56/24 (Danané), in EU Law Analysis, 11 settembre 2025

Border procedures – the swift processing of asylum applications before granting legal entry into the territory – is one of the concepts that have dominated policy debates in the EU the last years, especially as the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum mainstreamed these procedures making them obligatory in some cases. As the implementation of the new EU asylum legislation is taking shape, CJEU’s interpretations will be decisive. The Advocate General’s recent opinion in Danané (Joined Cases C-50/24 to C-56/24) has reignited one of the most delicate debates regarding border procedures: where exactly does the “border” end?

Matteo Zamboni, The judgment of the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the Italy-Albania Protocol, in EU Law Analysis, 1° settembre 2025

On 1 August 2025, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published its judgment in joined cases C-758 and 759/24 (Alace and Canpelli) regarding the Italy-Albania Protocol, and more specifically the designation of safe countries of origin under Article 37 of EU Directive 2013/32 (the currently applicable asylum procedures Directive). In previous blogs on the public hearing of 25 February 2025 and the opinion of the Advocate General (AG) of 10 April 2025, I gave some information on the context of the case and its high political stakes at Italian and European level. Indeed, the plan is not only critical to the political capital of the Italian government but also admired by foreign heads of government, including the UK Prime Minister, and taken as an example (or a ‘general rehearsal’) by the President of the EU Commission.

Jeremy Bierbach, EU citizenship to get “thicker”: a case note on a public hearing, in EU Law Analysis, 3 settembre 2025

In Eric Stein’s groundbreaking 1981 article on the then-Court of Justice of the European Communities, “Lawyers, Judges, and the Making of a Transnational Constitution”,[1] he wrote: Tucked away in the fairyland Duchy of Luxembourg and blessed, until recently, with benign neglect by the powers that be and the mass media, the Court of Justice of the European Communities has fashioned a constitutional framework for a federal-type structure in Europe. But the Court is now consciously stepping out from its traditional hermitage to give greater exposure to its role in upholding the rule of law in the European Union, at a moment in time when courts in many legal systems are increasingly being called on to rule on the permissibility of governments’ attempts to limit citizens’ rights.

Alex Geraki Trimi, Asking Migrants to Document Their Killing: Almukhlas and Al-Maliki V. Greece, in Strasbourg Observer, 5 settembre 2025

The case of Almukhlas and Al-Maliki v. Greece concerned the interception of a yacht carrying 94 migrants near the Greek island of Symi by members of the Greek Coast Guard and Frontex (under the Joint operation Poseidon) that resulted in the killing of a child of Iraqi nationality, Ameer, by the shootings carried out by a member of the Greek Coast Guard and head of the Symi Port Authority, V.M. Although the Court condemned Greece on other grounds, it did not find a violation of Art. 2 for excessive use of force. This post discusses the mechanism behind and the implications of this conclusion.

Libri

Júlia Zomignani Barboza, Undesirable but Unreturnable Migrants: the Challenges of Dealing with Criminal Migrants in Need of Protection. A Comparative Analysis of Australia, Belgium and Canada, Brill, 2025

This book studies how States regulate the situation of migrants in need of international protection who have a criminal background or pose a threat to public order. Regulating the situation of these migrants is a challenge to States, which may sometimes resort to measures that violate human rights. The book thus evaluates the solutions applied, identifying best practices and suggesting a possible human rights compliant solution for this situation.

Jennifer Ferng, Corporate Ethics and the Architecture of Asylum. Offshore Processing at Manus Island, Papua New Guinea and Nauru, Routledge, 2025

Corporate Ethics and the Architecture of Asylum engages innovative perspectives to understand our contemporary crisis of forced displacement and detention practices in the Pacific. Multinational contractors responsible for the construction and maintenance of regional processing centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru have flourished as powerful historical actors, exerting global dominance over the lives of asylum seekers wishing to come to Australia. Transitioning from the policeman or security guard towards the subject of the asylum seeker, this book contends that entanglements between architecture and law represent important epistemic models to interrogate how asylum can be understood and reconceptualised. Proposing diverse forms of visual and textual evidence, asylum is repositioned as a dynamic, ever-changing countermeasure against xenophobic sentiments around offshore processing. Over six chapters, Corporate Ethics examines how the regional processing centres of Manus Island and Nauru are deeply connected to the intellectual discourses of care, environmental precarity, human rights, and sovereignty. From Rembrandt’s De Nachtwacht or Night Watch (1642) to recent advancements in artificial intelligence and legal testimonies, picturing the future of asylum serves as a critical tool to resist state authoritarianism and the rise of corporate malfeasance in the built environment. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of humanitarian architecture, architectural history, and Asia Pacific politics.

Samuel Singler, Outsourcing Crimmigration Control. Digital Borders, the IOM, and Biometric Statehood, Oxford UP, 2025

Digital technologies have reshaped the boundaries of criminal justice and border control, and the merger of these fields has resulted in technologically mediated practices of ‘crimmigration control’ on a global level. This book explores the role of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) in shaping these digital crimmigration control practices. Outsourcing Crimmigration Control: Digital Borders, the IOM, and Biometric Statehood draws on interdisciplinary scholarship to develop a new theoretical framework for understanding the political effects of new surveillance technologies. Examining empirical data gathered through elite interviews, document analysis, and field observations in Abuja, this book reveals how the deployment of MIDAS in Nigeria was underpinned by political and epistemic postcolonial hierarchies between Global North states, the IOM, and Nigerian federal authorities. This technical system resulted in the emergence and expansion of historically unprecedented digital crimmigration control practices in Nigeria, which created new risks to human rights and justice. Through this in-depth study, Samuel Singler advances the Southernization and decolonization of criminology, as well as the development of more just and equitable digital futures at the border. Outsourcing Crimmigration Control will be a vital read for students and academics in the fields of criminology, law, international relations, and sociology, as well as practitioners and civil society organizations working on border management, international humanitarian efforts, and criminal justice.

Ruth Rubio Marín, Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Benedita Menezes Queiroz, Fulvia Staiano (a cura di), Handbook on Migration and Human Rights, Elgar, 2025

This Research Handbook examines the complex issues faced by migrants and refugees in securing their human rights. By challenging and reformulating the crisis narrative often perpetuated by states and international organizations, it provides a gendered, cutting-edge, in-depth investigation of key themes central to the human rights implications of migration.

Articoli

Salvatore Amato, Nuove tecnologie e gestione delle migrazioni: profili critici e questioni giuridiche, in Rivista OIDU, 2025, n. 4

The use of new technologies and, in particular, automated decision-making systems, can speed up administrative proceedings for the benefit of an effective and efficient Public Administration, as well as the individuals. However, new technologies can also lead to new vulnerabilities or enhance existing vulnerabilities that impact certain individuals, such as migrants. This paper aims to analyse the gaps in protection and the possible aporias that could theoretically impact migrants rights in light of what are defined as biases based on “race”, “skin color” or “origin”. Critically analysing the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence systems in the management of migration flows and highlighting constitutional and procedural impacts and risks of algorithmic discrimination through the examination of cases and tools actually used (iBorderctrl, Etias, Sari Real Time, Lado, the Chatbots) and of the current legislation – in particular Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 and Law n. 132 of 23 September 2025 – the paper assesses the implications in terms of transparency, data quality, obligation to state reasons, human oversight and procedural safeguards, attempting to offer an assessment of the “first” applications of AI in the field of migration management, proposing a precautionary approach geared towards reaffirming anthropocentric logic.

Kristin E. Fabbe, Eleni Kyrkopoulou, Mara E. Vidali, Between Human Dignity and Security: Identifying Citizen and Elite Preferences and Concerns Over Refugee Reception, in Comparative Political Studies, 2025

After humanitarian crises involving asylum seekers, how do citizens and elites view reception policies? What concerns drive their preferences? This paper examines these questions using an original survey of 5916 citizens and 586 politicians in Greece, a critical European front-line case. Using experimental and text analysis methods, we find aggregate support for controlled national management of reception sites featuring geographic distancing, restricted mobility, and limited size. However, substantial polarization emerges among citizens regarding asylum seekers’ freedom of movement and facility administration, irrespective of crisis exposure. Left-wing respondents prioritize humanitarian obligations and human dignity, while right-wing citizens emphasize security concerns and legalistic deservedness. Elites appear less polarized than citizens, and right-wing citizens express greater threat perceptions than their elite counterparts. These findings suggest reception approaches providing organized accommodation while spatially segregating residents and restricting mobility may be democratically viable, but risk generating values-based polarization around human dignity, security, and administrative authority.

Hein de Haas, Towards a global migration paradigm. And the imperative of ridding ourselves of the ‘push-pull’ model, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Migration studies is a strikingly undertheorized field of social inquiry. Over three decades ago, in their seminal review of migration theories, Massey and his colleagues (Massey et al., 1993, p. 432) concluded that much thinking on migration “remains mired in nineteenth-century concepts, models, and assumptions. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then. This reveals a lack of research interest in studying actual processes of migration, as well as a concomitant overall inability to conceptualize migration as an intrinsic part of broader processes of national and global change. It also reveals a broader bias within migration studies towards the impacts of immigration on Western destination societies. This ‘receiving-country bias’ has led to a one-sided focus on issues such as integration, segregation, race and identity from a Western perspective. This has gone along with a striking lack of interest in, and research on, the causes and consequences of migration from the perspective of non-Western ‘sending countries’.

Alessio Rauti, Cittadinanza europea, vincoli per gli Stati membri e genuine link. La specificazione del “limite Micheletti” fino alla sentenza della Corte di giustizia sulla c.d. “cittadinanza per investimento”, in Rivista Eurojus, 2025, n. 4

Il contributo analizza la decisione della Corte di giustizia dell’Unione Europea sul programma maltese di cittadinanza per investimento, ripercorrendo il percorso giurisprudenziale sui rapporti fra cittadinanza europea e cittadinanze nazionali e, in particolare, sui presupposti che hanno determinato un aumento progressivo dei casi in cui le scelte degli Stati membri incontrano limiti nel diritto dell’Unione. In particolare, la pronunzia sul caso Malta segna uno step ulteriore di questa evoluzione, valorizzando la Corte il limite del genuine link in relazione ad una vicenda di acquisto della cittadinanza statale da parte di soggetti privi della cittadinanza europea. Per quanto la CGUE sembri limitarsi ad un controllo esterno su casi eccezionali di manifesto contrasto della normativa nazionale con il diritto dell’Unione, la decisione de qua pone alcune questioni relative agli altri criteri di acquisto dello status civitatis ed al futuro della stessa cittadinanza europea.

Luca Paladini, L’epilogo della stagione dei “passaporti d’oro” nell’UE, in Rivista OIDU, 2025, n. 4

This article offers a comprehensive analysis of the legal consequences stemming from the EU Court of Justice’s ruling in Commission v. Malta (C-181/23), which declared Malta’s investor citizenship scheme incompatible with EU law. The judgment marks a decisive end to the “golden passport” era, a period during which citizenship was commodified and granted in exchange for financial investment, often in the absence of any substantive connection to the host Member State. The article first reconstructs the trajectory of Citizenship by Investment (CBI) and Residence by Investment (RBI) programs across several Member States, underscoring the mounting institutional resistance within the EU—particularly from the Commission and Parliament—due to concerns over internal security, corruption, and the erosion of mutual trust. It then turns to the Court’s reasoning, focusing on the lack of genuine residence and integration requirements in Malta’s scheme, which compromised the integrity of EU citizenship and infringed Articles 20 TFEU and 4(3) TEU.

Eva Fortes, Rethinking integration: applying the capabilities approach to immigrant incorporation, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

Despite intensifying criticism of the concept of integration in the field of migration studies, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers continue to rely on integration as a benchmark to assess the life trajectories of migrants and their descendants in comparison to native populations, shaping policies aimed at addressing disparities. In this paper I use an interdisciplinary perspective to shine a light on the drawbacks of the traditional integration paradigm and to propose quality of life using the capabilities approach as a viable alternative. First, I examine the scientific concerns scholars have raised over decades, including integration as an ill-defined and underdeveloped concept with ambiguous dimensions and more recent normative and epistemological concerns that question the directionality of integration along with its underlying nationalist and colonialist foundations. Then I examine the capabilities approach through the same criticisms. Finally, drawing from a study of people with a migration background in Barcelona, I illustrate how these conceptual flaws become even more conspicuous when the integration paradigm is applied to the descendants of migrants. This empirical demonstration of applying the capabilities approach in migration studies highlights issues like family, discrimination, and violence, that do not appear in a traditional integration assessment.

Sonja Fransen, Kerilyn Schewel, The Societal Determinants of Climate Risk: A Refugee Corridor Analysis of Hazard Exposure, Vulnerability and Coping Capacity, in IMI Working Paper, 2025

Research provides ample evidence on how climate hazards interact with migration patterns, but less attention has been given to climate risks faced by displaced populations. This study addresses this gap by analyzing refugees’ climate risks in their origin and destination countries, focusing on global trends and providing a case study of Africa—a region hosting large numbers of refugees and facing severe climate risks. Drawing on the Climate-driven INFORM Risk Index and UNHCR Population Statistics from 2013 to 2022, we study three sub-dimensions of climate risk: hazard exposure, vulnerability, and coping capacity. We then apply a migration corridor analysis to study how climate risks (low, medium, or high) evolve when refugees move from origin to host countries. Our analysis reveals a global rise in the number of refugees originating from countries with high climate risk and finds that 75% of global refugees remain in high or medium climate risk host countries. In Africa, we find that shorter-distance displacement—particularly to neighboring or regional host countries—reduces exposure to hazards but not overall climate risk, as many refugees remain in countries with high levels of social and institutional vulnerability. Those who travel longer distances, particularly intercontinentally, typically encounter lower climate risks. Our findings underscore the societal determinants of climate risk—social and institutional factors in both sending and receiving nations overshadow hazard exposure in determining climate risk—and highlight the possibility of ‘societal traps’ where entrenched socio-political vulnerability and limited institutional capacity at destination reproduce persistent high-risk environments.

Paolo Iafrate, Rifugiati e richiedenti asilo LGBT: profili comparativi tra Finlandia e Italia, in Rivista OIDU, 2025, n. 4

This paper aims to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of international protection systems for LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers in Europe, taking Finland and Italy as specific case studies. Specifically, the article aims to demonstrate how sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) fully fall within the notion of “membership of a particular social group” within the meaning of the 1951 Geneva Convention. The comparison between the two EU Member States with different cultural and legal approaches highlights how both countries implement European and international legal principles in practice, highlighting good practices and persistent critical issues. Their different implementation of these common standards provides an ideal case study for assessing the actual harmonisation of asylum policies in the Union and for understanding the resistance and challenges that remain at national level, despite an increasingly defined supranational framework. In summary, the comparison between Italy and Finland allows us to move from an abstract analysis of legal principles to a concrete assessment of their implementation in different socio-institutional contexts, revealing that the protection of LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers is a complex challenge that requires not only good laws, but also cultural change, specific training and adequate resources, elements that both countries, albeit in different ways, are struggling to fully guarantee.

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Hanna Eklund, Ethnically Stratified Citizenship. What the Advocate General Sidestepped, and the Court Should Note before Deciding the Danish Ghetto Area Case, in Verfassungsblog, 24 ottobre 2025

The ECJ is soon to render its judgment in C-417/23, Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab, also known as the Danish Ghetto Area case. The case turns on the question of whether a Danish law requiring development plans, including evictions of public housing tenants, in areas where more than 50 percent of people are classified as  “non-western immigrants and their descendants” constitutes discrimination based on race or ethnic origin. In her opinion, Advocate General Ćapeta framed the issue as being about discrimination of residents based on their ethnic origin. Her framing sidestepped an important aspect of the case, one that the Court should consider in its deliberations, namely, that in Denmark, people classified as  “non-Western immigrants and their descendants” can be Danish citizens. This case is therefore about EU citizenship and raises the specific question of whether EU law should accept stratification of EU citizenship along ethnic lines. I will argue that the Court should not.

Sophie Capicchiano Young, The US Proposal to Reinvent International Refugee Law, in EJIL: Talk!, 9 ottobre 2025

Several weeks ago, it was reported by Reuters that the United States would seek to radically reshape the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention) at a side event it had organised at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly. On the date on writing – 25 September 2025 – the Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, hosted a panel entitled, ‘Global Refugee Asylum System: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It.’  The recording of the event is publicly available, and I encourage those interested to listen to it in full here.  At the event, Landau advanced “five critical principles that the United States would like to put on the table” (at 12:00) for the modification of the 1951 Convention: 1. That every nation ultimately has the right to control its own borders; 2. That there is no right to immigrate or to receive asylum or refugee status in the country of an individual’s choice; 3. That refugee status is temporary; 4. That sovereign States, and not transnational bodies, should be making the determination whether the conditions in a country of origin permit return; 5. That every country must agree to accept expeditiously the return of its national.

Philipp Schönberger, E.A. and H.A.A. V. Greece: a U-Turn on Reception Conditions in Greek ‘Hotspots’, in Strasbourgobservers, 17 ottobre 2025

The European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) inadmissibility decision in E.A. and H.A.A. v. Greece published on 4 September 2025 marks a potential turning point in its assessment of asylum seekers’ reception conditions in the Greek ‘hotspots.’ The case signals a regressive shift in the Court’s jurisprudence, one that lacks sound justification, but fits within the broader trend of limiting the Convention’s protection for those seeking refuge in Europe.

Ulrike Brandl, How to determine the safety in a country of origin: The concept of safe country of origin in the Procedures Directive as interpreted by the CJEU in the Alace and Canpelli judgment, in Rivista Eurojus, 20 ottobre 2025

Fair procedural rules and effective remedies against negative decisions play an important role in determining whether a person asking for international protection in a Member State of the EU is granted asylum or subsidiary protection. The way and the criteria to assess the situation in the country of origin are important aspects in the determination procedure. Recently, the CJEU in its Alace and Canpelli judgment clarified the criteria and the procedural rules for the determination of safe countries of origin by Member States and the legal remedies for applicants to challenge the general presumed safety in their country of origin. The judgment especially points to the fact that applicants and national courts must get full access to all sources relied upon by the authorities for the determination of safety. The judgment is a follow up of a previous ruling from 4 October 2024, where the CJEU already made important statements regarding the designation of states as safe. The judgments are crucial steps in assuring a uniform interpretation of the concept of safe country of origin in Member States and – even more important – clarifying the national procedure for the determination and strengthen the rights of applicants regarding the disclosure of information.

Libri

Dagmar Rita Myslinska, Law, Migration, and the Construction of Whiteness. Mobility Within the European Union, Routledge, 2025

This book addresses the hidden dynamics of race within the European Union. Brexit supporters’ frequent targeting of European Union (EU) movers, especially those from Central and Eastern Europe, has been popularly assumed as at odds with the EU project’s foundations based on equality and inclusion. This book dispels that notion. By interrogating the history, wording, omissions, assumptions and applications of laws, policies and discourses pertinent to mobility and equality, the argument developed throughout the book is that the parameters of CEE nationals’ status within the EU have been closely circumscribed, in line with the entrenched historical positioning of the west as superior to the east. Engaging current legal, economic, political and moral issues–against the backdrop of Brexit and contestations over EU integration and globalisation–this work opens avenues of thought to better understand law’s role in producing and sustaining social stratifications. Europe is a postcolonial space, as this book demonstrates. By addressing fractures within the construct of whiteness that are based on ethnicity, class and migrant status, the book also provides a theoretically nuanced, and politically useful, understanding of contemporary European racisms. This book will appeal to scholars, students and others interested in migration, EU integration and EU citizenship, equality law, race and ethnicity, social policy, and postcolonialism.

Ludger Pries, Stephanie Schütze, Ximena Alba Villalever, Berna Safak Zülfikar Savci, Forced Migration in Transit Migrant Experiences of Organized Violence in Mexico and Turkey, Routledge, 2025

This book compares the life courses of forced migrants in two of the world’s most important transit countries: Turkey and Mexico. It examines the local, regional, and global contexts of their experiences, trajectories, and biographical projects, caught between return, stay, and forward movement. Forced migration has increased rapidly around the world in recent years, with Mexico and Turkey experiencing particularly high numbers of migrants, as conflict, violence, authoritarian regimes, environmental disasters, economic instability, lack of opportunity, and generalized violence have driven people to leave their homes in search of a better life. With a special focus on organized violence, this book analyzes the specific impact of organized violence on the trajectories and biographies of forced migrants, situating these life courses in the political, economic, cultural, and social contexts of the countries of origin (Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria; El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) and in the country of transit (Turkey and Mexico). Using extensive original empirical data and analysis, it argues that forced migration is a long-lasting social process based on everyday actions and social practices throughout the migration trajectory. Systematically comparing two of the world’s most important transit countries, this book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of migration, politics, international relations, and sociology.

Articoli

Freedom, Security & Justice: European Legal Studies – Focus: Migration and Religion in International Law: Research-based Proposals for Inclusive, Resilient, and Multicultural Societies 

Giuseppe Pascale, An Introduction to the Focus on Migration and Religion in International Law: Research-based Proposals for Inclusive, Resilient, and Multicultural Societies

Maria Irene Papa, The Protection of Migrants’ Freedom of Religion in the United Nations System

Tarak El Haj, Credibility Assessment of Religion-based Asylum Claims from a Comparative Perspective

Elisa Olivito, Migration and Religious Freedom in Europe: Searching for Constitutional Secularism

Carmelo Danisi, The Problem of (Racialized) Religious Profiling in Law Enforcement Operations on the Ground and with AI: What Obligations for European States?

Francesca Romana Partipilo, On Islamophobia and the Religious Rights of Muslims in Europe

Sara Tonolo, Religion, Gender, and Migrations through the Lens of Private International Law

Francesca Angelini, Multiculturalism, Religious Freedom, and School

Davide Monego, Religious Migration, Health, and Healthcare Organization

Silvia Venier, Non-native Religious Minorities in Europe and the Right to Preserve their Faith

Luciano Mauro, Migrants’ Religious Beliefs, Social Capital, and Economic Performance

Maria Caterina Amorosi, Esternalizzare i confini, disconoscere i diritti: riflessioni a partire dalla sentenza S.S. e altri c. Italia, in Osservatorio costituzionale, 2025, n. 6

L’articolo analizza la sentenza della CEDU SS. e altri c. Italia e, partendo dalle conclusioni della Corte, affronta le ricostruzioni della giurisprudenza sui criteri per riconoscere la giurisdizione extraterritoriale e le conseguenti criticità in relazione alla mancata tutela dei diritti. A tal proposito, l’autrice, dopo una breve ricostruzione delle politiche migratorie e degli accordi fra Italia, Unione europea e Libia, si sofferma sulle politiche di gestione del fenomeno migratorio basate sulla esternalizzazione delle frontiere e sulla tecnica del “controllo senza contatto” che si sono consolidate negli ultimi anni.

Francesco Munari, Alace, Canpelli e… l’insicurezza dei paesi terzi sicuri, in Unione europea e diritti, 2025, n. 3

L’articolo analizza criticamente la sentenza Alace e Canpelli della Corte di giustizia, quale seguito della precedente decisione CV, con particolare riferimento alla nozione di “paese terzo sicuro” nella direttiva 2013/32. Dopo aver contestualizzato il quadro normativo e politico europeo in materia di asilo e flussi migratori, l’autore esamina i quattro quesiti pregiudiziali posti dal Tribunale di Roma, evidenziando come le risposte della Corte, ribadendo la possibilità di un controllo giurisdizionale sulla designazione dei Paesi sicuri, nei termini in cui vengono motivate rischino di compromettere il principio di uguaglianza della legge e la distinzione tra discrezionalità legislativa e sindacato giurisdizionale, rispetto ai quali assai più precisa appare la giurisprudenza della Cassazione e della Corte costituzionale, di cui comunque i giudici di merito italiani dovranno tener conto. L’articolo critica la posizione della Corte di giustizia sulla impossibilità di considerare “sicuro” un paese che presenti criticità solo per alcune categorie di persone, evidenziando la scarsa coerenza di tale soluzione alla luce della ratio della protezione internazionale e dell’evoluzione normativa introdotta dal regolamento (UE) 2024/1348, rispetto al quale, tra l’altro, il principio di interpretazione conforme avrebbe suggerito soluzioni diverse, come peraltro prospettate anche dall’Avvocato generale. L’autore conclude che Alace rappresenta un’occasione mancata: le motivazioni della Corte appaiono sbrigative e rischiano di generare tensioni tra giudici e legislatore, oltre a possibili derive conflittuali in una materia ad alto tasso di sensibilità politica.

Gizem Orgev, Abigail Cooke, Double-layer deterrence: cascading externalization for irregular migration control, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

To control irregular migration, many destination countries try to find ways to outsource their liabilities to third countries or deter migration at its origin. This article offers an examination of the cascading effects of externalization practices for migration deterrence, documenting how transit countries in the Global South reproduce the externalization processes of destination countries in the Global North by domestic and/or external space-making practices. By integrating analyses of primary data with secondary resources, this article contributes to studies of externalization and argues that spaces of double-layer deterrence are created by transit countries to control the mobility of irregular migrants toward destination countries. The article conceptualizes double-layer deterrence through the case study of Türkiye, focusing on the transit space and space-making strategies. The study then compares these practices in Türkiye and Mexico by offering a multidimensional approach to assess key patterns of double-layer deterrence in transit countries. The article concludes that double-layer deterrence, as a set of spatial barriers executed by transit countries, is a rising phenomenon and brings a new understanding to deterrence practices against irregular migrants, obstructing their path to permanent protection.

Eleonor Spaventa, A very valuable citizenship? European values and citizenship after Commission v Malta, in Common Market Law Review, 2025, n. 6

Mariano Manuel Bartiromo, Il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale alle donne esposte a discriminazioni e violenze di genere nella recente giurisprudenza della Corte di giustizia dell’Unione europea, in Eurojus, 2025, n. 4

Il presente studio esamina il contenuto delle recenti sentenze con le quali, facendo seguito all’adesione dell’UE alla Convenzione di Istanbul, la Corte di giustizia ha definitivamente riconosciuto la rilevanza del sesso e del genere ai fini della valutazione delle domande di protezione internazionale, ammettendo la possibilità di considerare le donne come appartenenti ad un «determinato gruppo sociale» sia «nel loro insieme» che in quanto facenti parte di gruppi più ristretti identificabili sulla base di una «caratteristica comune supplementare». Mettendo in luce come le sentenze in questione abbiano introdotto non obblighi ma possibilità per i giudici degli Stati membri, si proverà a dimostrare che le stesse non corrono il rischio né di prestarsi a strumentalizzazione né di provocare una spoliticizzazione delle domande di asilo delle donne, rappresentando invece un certo passo in avanti per la protezione di donne vittime di regimi che arrivano a comprimerne i diritti fino ad annullarne l’identità e la personalità.

Antonello Ciervo, La quarantanovesima ora. Sulla recente giurisprudenza costituzionale in materia di trattenimento amministrativo degli stranieri, in Osservatorio costituzionale, 2025, n. 6

Il saggio analizza la recente giurisprudenza costituzionale in materia di trattenimento amministrativo degli stranieri, in particolare le sentenze nn. 73 e 96 del 2025. Ad avviso dell’autore, il nuovo filone giurisprudenziale della Consulta risente del consolidarsi di un diritto vivente della Corte di Cassazione molto più garantista rispetto al passato, anche con riferimento ai precedenti dello stesso Giudice delle leggi. In questa prospettiva, la sentenza n. 96/2025 lascia in sospeso una serie di interrogativi che rendono criticabile l’impiego da parte della Corte costituzionale di una sentenza monitoria per risolvere l’annosa questione delle modalità di trattenimento nei CPR, ai sensi dell’art. 13 Cost.

Tone Sommerfelt, Mathilde Bålsrud Mjelva, Jørgen Carling, Maryam Aslany, Systematic literature reviews in migration studies: approaches to context-sensitive synthesis, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2025

With a burgeoning literature on migration, taking stock of what is known about a topic, pattern, or process is challenging. In many scientific fields, systematic literature reviews (SLRs) are a widespread response to this need. In migration research, SLRs are relatively rare. Most existing literature reviews are non-systematic and often geographically specific. The rarity of comprehensive SLRs might partly reflect migration researchers’ sensitivity to context-specificity and variation, and their well-founded scepticism towards empirical generalizations. In this article, we make a case for the value of SLRs for synthesizing quantitative findings on migration across diverse contexts. However, we foreground the interpretative nature of quantitative research in migration studies and explore approaches to synthesis that recognize exceptions and diversity as much as the search for unifying answers. Our discussion seeks to increase comparability in syntheses across contexts, all the while allowing reviews to convey disparity of findings. In contrast to common advice to narrow down research topics in SLRs, we demonstrate the feasibility of broader review questions. We exemplify our approach with reference to an extensive review of determinants of migration aspirations, drawn from survey-based research, in which determinants were differentiated in terms of the relative consistency and certainty of results.

Vladislava Stoyanova, Integrating the beneficiaries of international protection after T.G. (Keren), in Common Market Law Review, 2025, n. 6

Denard Veshi, Will forced displaced persons due to climate changes impact on the EU labor market? Using previous research studies to predict the future, in Freedom, Security & Justice, 2025, n. 3

This paper examines the potential impact of climate-induced displacement on EU host countries, with a particular focus on the labor market implications. It reviews key national case law addressing the protection of climate-displaced persons, distinguishing between substantiated claims and unfounded applications. Building upon existing scholarship on migration and EU labor markets, the paper investigates how future displacement driven by climate change may affect labor dynamics across the Union. Finally, it proposes targeted policy measures aimed at fostering fair and effective integration of climate-displaced persons into the EU’s socioeconomic framework.

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Meltem Ineli Ciger, Misreading the Temporary Protection Directive? The CJEU sets the record straight on access to subsidiary protection in Framholm (C-195/25), in EU Law Analysis, 21 novembre 2025

Framholm (C-195/25), delivered on 20 November 2025, is the Court of Justice’s third ruling interpreting the Temporary Protection Directive (Council Directive 2001/55/EC, TPD) following Joined Cases C‑244/24 and C‑290/24 (Kaduna) (cf. analysis here), and Case C‑753/23 (Krasiliva) (cf. analysis here). The ruling provides further clarification of Articles 3, 17 and 19 of the TPD and, crucially, confirms that temporary protection does not exclude access to subsidiary protection, ie the type of international protection available for those who do not qualify for refugee status. It therefore marks an important step in aligning the TPD, an instrument drafted in 2001, with the contemporary Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice originated in Sweden, where several third-country nationals displaced from Ukraine were granted temporary protection and subsequently applied for subsidiary protection. For years, the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) had maintained a practice of automatically rejecting subsidiary protection applications lodged by temporary protection beneficiaries, without any examination on the merits. It interpreted Swedish law as allowing temporary protection beneficiaries to apply only for refugee status and treated all subsidiary protection applications as per se inadmissible. Faced with this restrictive and legally questionable approach, the Göteborg Administrative Court for Immigration Matters asked the CJEU whether EU law really permits a Member State to deny access to subsidiary protection solely because the applicant already enjoys temporary protection. The Court’s answer is unequivocal: No.

Alessandra Favi, La responsabilità condivisa di Frontex e degli Stati membri: alcune questioni procedurali alla luce della causa WS e altri c. Frontex, in BlogDUE, 23 novembre 2025

La causa WS e altri c. Frontex (causa C-679/23 P), attualmente pendente davanti alla Corte di giustizia, offre l’opportunità per approfondire le implicazioni procedurali e sostanziali dell’azione per responsabilità extracontrattuale dell’Unione ex artt. 268 e 340, par. 2, TFUE, nei casi in cui un medesimo danno sia ascrivibile congiuntamente a un’agenzia dell’Unione, come Frontex, e a uno Stato membro. Il contributo analizza, in primo luogo, le modalità con cui può configurarsi una responsabilità condivisa nell’ambito di operazioni congiunte di rimpatrio e, conseguentemente, le ricadute in termini di individuazione del giudice competente, accertamento delle condizioni sostanziali della responsabilità e riparazione del danno. Particolare attenzione è dedicata a quest’ultimo aspetto, con riguardo sia alla giurisdizione competente sia alla quantificazione del danno. A tal proposito, in assenza di un’espressa previsione nel diritto derivato, si valuta se un principio generale del diritto dell’Unione possa giustificare il riconoscimento di una responsabilità in solido dei due attori coinvolti, al fine di garantire l’effettiva riparazione del danno ai ricorrenti.

Lorenzo Grossi, L’esternalizzazione della gestione dei centri di permanenza per il rimpatrio e il rispetto dei diritti fondamentali. Nota a Consiglio di Stato, Sez. III, 7 ottobre 2025, n. 7839, in Eurojus, 24 novembre 2025

Con la sentenza del 7 ottobre 2025, n. 7839, la Terza Sezione del Consiglio di Stato ha in parte riformato la pronuncia del 29 ottobre 2024, n. 19012, del Tar Lazio, Roma, Sez. I-ter, annullando il decreto del Ministro dell’Interno del 4 marzo 2024, con il quale era stato approvato lo schema del capitolato d’appalto per la gestione e il funzionamento dei centri di permanenza per il rimpatrio (cpr). L’arresto del Consiglio di Stato si offre come un’importante occasione per riflettere sui delicati problemi che riguardano la c.d. “detenzione amministrativa” alla luce della recente pronuncia del 9 luglio 2025, n. 96 della Corte costituzionale.

Darren Seiffert, Lena Riemer, Undermining Asylum Protection Through Administrative Shortcuts, in Verfassungsblog, 28 novembre 2025

What happens to transparency and the rights of asylum seekers when a government takes an administrative shortcut? As Constantin Hruschka argued on this blog, Germany is dismantling access to asylum in everyday practice while leaving the law itself formally intact: Asylum remains a symbolic guarantee, yet administrative measures systematically block meaningful access. One illustration of this is the German government’s recent legislative proposal to designate “safe countries of origin” (SCO) via executive decree (Rechtsverordnung) rather than through Parliament. The SCO concept is based on the presumption that nationals of certain countries are generally not at risk of persecution, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or indiscriminate violence, as defined in Article 9 of the Qualification Directive (2004/83/EC). Under the Asylum Procedures Directive (APD), Member States may designate third countries, or parts thereof, as safe, provided the set-out conditions are met. The APD does not prescribe which authority must decide on SCO status, leaving modalities to national discretion, but emphasizes that the designation is a formal, pre-emptive act applied independently of individual asylum cases. Declaring a country “safe” has profound implications for the fundamental rights of affected asylum seekers. For example, it allows authorities to reject applications as “manifestly unfounded” quicker (§29a Asylum Law). This presumption also shortens appeal deadlines and limits legal protections, while also worsening the applicant’s residence status, for example, through mandatory residence in initial reception centres (§ 47(1a) Asylum Law) or restrictions on employment (§ 61(1) Asylum Law).

Libri

Catherine Briddick, Violence against Women and Regimes of Exception. Undoing Discrimination in Migration Law, Oxford UP, 2025

Violence against Women and Regimes of Exception provides a wide-ranging examination of how migration law discriminates against women, heightening their risk of being subjected to violence and intensifying their experiences of it. Catherine Briddick identifies patterns of disadvantage, scrutinizes justifications for differential treatment, and delineates legal obligations relating to violence against women. Structured around the legal challenges that migrant women have brought to the regimes determining their status, this book reveals the devastating impact of flawed rules that increase vulnerability to violence, deny effective protection, and render victims at risk of destitution, detention, and deportation. Integrating doctrinal, empirical, and theoretical material, it explores the difference that migration status makes to an experience of violence, investigates where existing regimes fall short, and establishes how the resulting compounded disadvantage should be remedied. The analysis begins in the UK and with the European Convention on Human Rights, broadening to connect with European Union law and the Council of Europe’s Trafficking and Istanbul Conventions. This approach provides valuable insights into the role and ability of national courts, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union to scrutinize different forms of discriminatory treatment. By bringing together distinct responses to violence experienced in the context of migration control, the book outlines a new framework for their evaluation and determines how rights and protection could better be secured. A groundbreaking work that centres the experiences of those marginalized by migration law, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of violence, gender, and migration.

Nick Gill, Nicole Hoellerer, Jessica Hambly, Daniel Fisher, Inside Asylum Appeals. Access, Participation and Procedure in Europe, Routledge, 2025

Appeals are a crucial part of Europe’s asylum system but they remain poorly understood. Building on insights and perspectives from legal geography and socio-legal studies, this book shines a light on what takes place during asylum appeals and puts forward suggestions for improving their fairness and accessibility. Drawing on hundreds of ethnographic observations of appeal hearings, as well as research interviews, the authors paint a detailed picture of the limitations of refugee protection available through asylum appeals. Refugee law can appear dependable and reliable in policy documents and legal texts. However, this work reveals that, in reality, myriad social, political, psychological, linguistic, contextual and economic factors interfere with and frequently confound the protection that refugee law promises during its concrete enactment. Drawing on evidence from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom, the book equips readers with a clear sense of the fragility of legal protection for people forced to migrate to Europe. The book will appeal to scholars of migration studies, legal studies, legal geography and the social sciences generally, as well as practitioners in asylum law throughout Europe and beyond.

Lydia Morris, Citizen Rights, Migrant Rights and Civic Stratification, Routledge, 2025

This book explores the concept of civic stratification and examines its contemporary relevance for analysis and understanding of the functioning of rights in society. David Lockwood’s (1996) concept of civic stratification outlines the way in which the rights associated with citizenship can be a source of inequality by virtue of their formal granting or denial by the state, or by informal impediments to their full realisation. The purpose of this book is to explore the meaning and significance of this concept, and elaborate its potential in offering a framework for understanding the dynamic nature of rights. Lockwood’s model reverses Marshall’s (1950) view of citizenship as guaranteed inclusion in society and is linked to the way that the differential entitlement and the qualifying conditions associated with certain rights can be harnessed as a means of control. While both Marshall and Lockwood were principally concerned with the rights attaching to citizenship, this book extends the insights of these two authors to show how such controls apply in various ways to both citizens and non-citizens alike. Building on Lockwood’s conception of ‘moral resources’ the book set out a theoretical framework and empirical illustration of how the position of different groups within society is subject to shifting perceptions of social worth and is engaged both in claims to fuller access to rights and in justifications of their denial or removal. This book will appeal to scholars and higher-level students with relevant interests in sociolegal studies, sociology, social policy and politics.

Natale Serón Arizmendi, Unaccompanied Migrant Children and International Law. The Role of Strategic Litigation in Advancing Human Rights, Routledge, 2025

In light of the failure of traditional legal methods to provide justice for unaccompanied migrant children, this book argues the need for alternative forms of legal advocacy. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, it examines whether strategic lawyering may be capable of bringing about transformative bottom-up changes that go beyond isolated ad hoc decisions. Taking the case of the R.Y.S. v. Spain, the work identifies the factors that strategists must keep in close consideration throughout litigation in order to amend the law and improve public policies. It analyses the wide range of international tribunals and UN committees that are accessible to individuals, with a focus on those available to unaccompanied migrant children. It further outlines the criteria for selecting the most appropriate legal forum, explores the critical challenges that litigants may encounter in practice, and studies how to integrate non-legal actors to improve the overall strategy. Finally, the book proposes means for determining whether the strategy implemented has resulted in an impact and, if so, what that impact has been. Combining theoretical analysis with empirical insights, the book will equip academics, advocates and policy-makers with the necessary tools to maximise the effectiveness of strategic litigation in advancing migrant children’s rights.

Steven Dhondt, Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage, Leire Aldaz Odriozola (a cura di), Technology, Globalisation and Migration. Interconnected Challenges for Inequality and Skills, Edward Elgar, 2025

This timely book examines three impactful changes to the labour market in recent decades: the rapid automation of production processes, surging international trade, and greater cross-border mobility and migration of workers. Expert authors assess how workers have benefited and suffered from these shifts and provide.

Ihsan Yilmaz, Sharia as Informal Law. Lived Experiences of Young Muslims in Western Societies, Routledge, 2025

This book takes a comprehensive approach to investigate how Sharia influences and manifests in the everyday lives of young Muslims, aiming to unravel the meaning and relevance of Sharia-driven laws and practices in English-speaking Western societies. By focusing on the grassroots level, it provides a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of Muslims and their relationship with Sharia. The presence of Muslims in Western countries has a long history, with recent waves of migration and conversions contributing to their increasing numbers. This study recognizes the diverse nature of the Muslim community, comprising both migrants and local converts, who have become integral parts of the pluralistic fabric of multicultural societies. The research draws on in-depth interviews with 122 young Muslim individuals from diverse backgrounds representing three different Western countries: Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Diversity of participants allows for a broader exploration of the Muslim community and the inherent diversity of opinions, interpretations, and practices regarding Sharia. This approach moves beyond theoretical debates, providing concrete insights into the practical implications of Sharia for young Muslims in their respective Western contexts. The book also sheds light on the evolving landscape of information and knowledge acquisition in the age of digital technologies and cyberspace. It explores how young Muslims access and seek knowledge in the twenty-first century, recognizing the impact of changing sources and modes of information on their religious practices and beliefs. This aspect adds a valuable dimension to the study, capturing the dynamic nature of knowledge dissemination and acquisition among young Muslims in Western societies. The book will be fascinating reading for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of Law, Political Science, Minority Studies, Religious Studies, and Islamic Studies.

Articoli

European Journal of Migration and Law, 2025, n. 4

Giuseppe Campesi, Elisabetta de Robertis, Francesco Oziosi, Human Rights Monitoring and Forced Returns. Ethical and Methodological Challenges

Alexandra Xanthaki, Ermioni Xanthopoulou, Migration Predictions with a Pinch of Salt: Definitions and Reliability

Deyana Marcheva, The External Components in the EU Comprehensive Approach to Migration and Asylum: a Pathway to Lawless Zones

Julia Motte-Baumvol, Tarin Cristino Frota Mont’Alverne, Gabriel Braga, Climate Change, Migration, and the Limits of EU Solidarity: Rethinking the Temporary Protection Directive

Marta Paz Martínez, Five Grounds and a Persistent Gap

Cinzia Ingratoci, Il controllo integrato delle frontiere marittime dell’Unione alla prova del diritto. Profili di responsabilità e tutele esperibili, in Ordine internazionale e diritti umani, 2025, n. 5

The article analyzes the role and responsibilities of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) in the surveillance of the Union’s external maritime borders, in light of the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 and the interpretations provided by European oversight and control bodies (the European Ombudsman, OLAF) and by case law. In particular, the establishment and deployment of a standing corps of European border guards, who report directly to the Agency and its chain of command, offer new insights for further examination of Frontex’s role in sea rescue activities arising from joint surveillance operations.

Sarah Tas, Europol and the Schengen Information System: A Dangerous ‘Unsupervised’ Extension of Powers, in European Papers, 2025, n. 3

Regulation (EU) 2022/1190 amending the Regulation (EU) 2018/1862 on the use of the Schengen Information System (hereafter ‘SIS’) in the field of police and judicial cooperation was adopted on the 6th of July 2022. The Commission stated in the Explanatory Memorandum attached to the proposal that ‘[t]his is an important paradigm change for SIS’. Initially, the idea was to allow Europol to enter information alerts on suspects and criminals and thereby to not only have access but formally update the SIS. Due to the reluctance of some Member States, the reform did not go as far as this. The current legal framework, however, still gives Europol a crucial role, as the Agency can propose Member States to enter information alerts in the SIS. While this is a step down compared to the Commission proposal, this article shows that this remains a paradigm change not only for the SIS, but also for Europol as an agency, and ultimately for the nature of supervision. The article first discusses the new changes of the SIS and their ensuing challenges in relation to data quality, lack of transparency, lack of clarity of the procedure and the extended scope of actions. It then addresses the supervisory challenges that may emerge in this new legal architecture. The issue of supervision shall be addressed pre-alert, before the proposal for an alert has been made, during the alert, when an alert is proposed, and finally post alert after an alert has been entered into the system.

Maria Dicosola, Diritto d’asilo offshore e Paesi sicuri, tra Legislativo, Esecutivo e Corti, in Diritto pubblico comparato ed europeo, 2025, n. 4

This article comparatively analyses offshore asylum agreements in Australia, the UK and Italy, focusing on the use of “safe country” designations. It finds that in all three States courts assert their constitutional authority to review these acts, grounding this power in the need to protect fundamental rights when their violation is at stake in the concrete application of migration policies. This exercise of judicial oversight systematically triggers institutional conflict with empowered executives, which have often legislated to override adverse rulings. The effectiveness of these constitutional checks ultimately depends on national legal frameworks, with Italy’s multi-layered system, reinforced by EU law, offering the most robust protections.

Joseph Lelliott, Matisse Reed, The Crimmigrant Child: Locating Rights in the Boundaries of Criminal and Immigration Law, in The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2025, n. 4

Migrant children are increasingly exposed to criminal-like measures in immigration systems, as well as immigration consequences for criminal offending. The growing intersection between criminal and immigration law has been referred to as a process of “crimmigration”, a key feature of which is the decoupling of the punitive characteristics of criminal law from its traditional rights-based guarantees. In the context of children this includes rights set out in Article 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Drawing on Australia as an example, this article argues that the blurring of criminal and immigration measures by States necessitates a reconceptualisation of certain rights traditionally limited to criminal justice contexts. It further calls for a broader challenge to the common siloing of children’s rights discourse in the fields of crime and immigration, given the growing intersections between these areas in practice.

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Lorenzo Acconciamessa, È possibile riformare la CEDU in materia migratoria senza deformarla nel suo complesso? Sul ‘processo di riforma’ avviato il 10 dicembre 2025, in SIDIBlog, 16 dicembre 2025

Il 10 dicembre 2025 è stato formalmente avviato da parte degli Stati membri del Consiglio d’Europa (CoE) un nuovo ‘processo’ di riforma del sistema della Convenzione europea per la salvaguardia dei diritti umani e delle libertà fondamentali del 1950 (CEDU o ‘Convenzione’). Ironicamente, si tratta del giorno del settantasettesimo anniversario dalla proclamazione, nel 1948, della Dichiarazione universale dei diritti umani. La direzione imboccata oggi dagli Stati europei sembra infatti relegare l’art. 1 della Dichiarazione universale – secondo cui «[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights» – a ricordi nostalgici di un’epoca in cui la fiducia nel diritto internazionale dei diritti umani sembrava una conquista irrinunciabile e unidirezionale dell’umanità. In particolare, all’esito di una ‘conferenza ministeriale informale’, tenutasi a Strasburgo nell’ambito del Comitato dei ministri del CoE, gli Stati europei hanno adottato per consensus delle ‘conclusioni’. Queste ultime invitano il Comitato dei ministri ad avviare una serie di iniziative volte a raggiungere l’obiettivo, definito ancora in termini abbastanza generici, di adeguare la Convenzione, o quanto meno l’interpretazione che di essa rende la Corte europea dei diritti umani (‘Corte’), alle ‘sfide’ poste da quella che viene definita ‘migrazione irregolare’. Ciò con specifico riferimento alle problematiche – senza dubbio di natura «real and legitimate», come affermato dal Segretario generale del CoE – poste dall’applicazione della Convenzione alle misure adottate dagli Stati contraenti per reagire a fenomeni quali «[the] instrumentalisation of migration, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, and other criminal activities that threaten stability and security» degli Stati europei.

Jasper Krommendijk, Lina Sophie Möller, A Divided Response to Migration. On the Council of Europe’s December Meeting, in Verfassungsblog, 15 dicembre 2025

On 10 December, the Council of Europe (CoE) ministers met to discuss proposals that could potentially recalibrate the treatment of migration-related issues under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This meeting deliberately shifted a debate that had been unfolding in political arenas for months onto the Council’s formal institutional stage. The CoE now finds itself caught between, on the one hand, states driven by internal security concerns and seeking greater discretion, and, on the other hand, the demanding  task of upholding the Court’s role as an independent interpreter of the Convention. While the formal conclusions call, in diplomatic terms, for a political declaration to be prepared for adoption in May 2026, a separate joint statement of 27 States Parties reveals a harsher line, illustrating the CoE’s internal divisions.

Izabella Majcher, The Council of the EU’s Position on the Return Proposal: Trump-Inspired Approaches Dominate, in EU Law Analysis, 20 dicembre 2025

On 11 March 2025, the European Commission published a proposal for a Return Regulation intended to replace the 2008 Return Directive. The stated objective of the proposal is to increase the number of people returned, with the Commission regretting that only around 20% of persons issued with a return decision actually leave. As the proposal explains, it seeks to streamline and harmonise return procedures, attributing the perceived ineffectiveness of EU return policy to divergent national approaches. In this spirit, the Commission proposes replacing the directive with a regulation that would establish “modern, simplified and common” procedures. EU institutions have repeatedly asserted that the current return framework is complex and outdated. However, this claim is difficult to verify, as is the assumption that the proposed regulation would effectively increase return rates. This is largely due to the Commission’s failure to conduct a prior impact assessment, despite this being required under its own Better Regulation Guidelines.

Steve Peers, Asylum Pact 2.0: the EU moves towards more stringent rules on ‘safe third countries’ and ‘safe countries of origin’, in EU Law Analysis, 13 dicembre 2025

The EU’s asylum pact, agreed in 2024, is mostly not fully in force yet; it will largely apply from 12 June 2026. But even before that date, the EU is planning to make its rules more stringent – and even to apply some of them in advance. The prospect of these planned changes moved closer recently, as both the European Parliament and the EU Council, ie Member States’ ministers firmed up their negotiation positions on two separate proposals, and may negotiate an agreed final text of them both in the near future. This blog post summarises the proposals in their context, and then examines the proposed amendments coming from the EP and the Council, concluding with an assessment of the main issues arising from the negotiations – including the prospect of a ‘Rwanda clause’ in EU law, mirroring the last UK government’s attempt to designate that country as ‘safe’ even for asylum-seekers who had not travelled through it, and the European Parliament’s suggestion to curtail judicial review in a way that would obviously breach the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Hannah Pütter, Salvatore Nicolosi, The Ghost of Dublin Still Among Us, in Verfassungsblog, 10 dicembre 2025

On 11 November, the European Commission inaugurated the first Annual Migration Management Cycle by publishing its Implementing Decision under Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1351 on Asylum and Migration Management (RAMM). This marks one of the first concrete steps toward implementing the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, adopted in May 2024. The RAMM can be considered the direct descendant of the Dublin III Regulation. The latter was put to the test during the migratory pressure of 2015, stressing its asymmetrical and unfair allocation of responsibilities over asylum applications for frontline States, which triggered extensive secondary movements.

Cristina delli Carri, Facing the Elephant in the Room: Competence Issues in the Italy-Albania Agreement, in Eurojus, 30 dicembre 2025

On 11 November 2025, the Rome Court of Appeal submitted a further preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union, questioning the compatibility with EU law of Protocol signed between Italy and Albania for the strengthening of cooperation on migration matters. It is worth recalling that, compared with other externalization models recently proposed or discussed across Europe, the Italy-Albania Protocol has a distinctive structure. It authorizes Italy to use two areas of Albanian territory to construct facilities intended to carry out “border or return operations” (as stated in Article 4, para. 3 of the Protocol), which are to operate under Italian control and full jurisdiction.

Salvo Nicolosi, Agostina Pirrello, The Luxembourg Showdown: Access to Justice in light of the Grand Chamber’s ruling in Hamoudi and WS and Others v. Frontex, in Eurojus, 2 gennaio 2026

On 18 December, the Frontex judicial saga to establish the agency’s liability for its involvement in the human rights violations occurring in joint operations came to a long-awaited end with the two judgments Hamoudi (Case C-136/24 P) and WS and Others (Case C-679/23 P). The previous episodes (see here, here and here) had offered little hope for meaningful access to justice for migrants seeking redress against the agency. Finally, the CJEU discarded the hackneyed image of Frontex as a mere executor and clearly stated that Frontex is legally responsible for the activities it oversees and coordinates and that its founding Regulation obliges the agency to guarantee respect for fundamental rights and the principle of non-refoulement in all its activities.

Giuseppe Pascale, I 27 stati ‘ribelli’ potrebbero davvero invocare il mutamento delle circostanze? Ancora sul ‘processo di riforma’ della CEDU avviato il 10 dicembre 2025, in SIDIBlog, 23 dicembre 2025

Come già illustrato anche in questa sede, lo scorso 10 dicembre, all’esito di una sessione informale del Comitato dei Ministri tenuta a Strasburgo, gli Stati membri del Consiglio d’Europa (CoE) hanno adottato delle Conclusioni, riguardanti le diverse sfide poste dal fenomeno migratorio al sistema europeo di tutela dei diritti umani e volte a orientare la sessione ordinaria del Comitato dei Ministri in programma per il 14 e 15 maggio 2026 a Chisinau (Moldavia). È ormai risaputo che 27 di essi – che potrebbero, nemmeno tanto ironicamente, definirsi ‘ribelli’ – hanno contestualmente diffuso un Comunicato congiunto, nel quale hanno manifestato il loro malcontento nei confronti della situazione in cui attualmente verserebbe il sistema della CEDU, principalmente a causa della presunta ‘deriva’ interpretativa della giurisprudenza della Corte europea dei diritti umani, ritenuta fin troppo zelante nella protezione dei diritti dei migranti e degli stranieri irregolari o autori di reati e, di contro, poco attenta alla tutela della sicurezza nazionale e dell’ordine pubblico in Europa. Anche per questi aspetti, il Comunicato congiunto si colloca sulla falsariga della Lettera aperta che 9 Stati avevano rivolto alla stessa Corte europea il 22 maggio di quest’anno in adesione all’iniziativa della Presidente del Consiglio italiana e della Prima Ministra danese. Il gruppo dei ‘ribelli’ si è dunque allargato nel giro di pochi mesi, passando da 9 a 27 dei 46 Stati membri del CoE. Non mi soffermerò oltre sul quadro generale, di cui si è già ampiamente occupato Acconciamessa, al quale rinvio anche per la citazione dei diversi altri contributi finora apparsi online (in aggiunta vale la pena menzionare solo il recentissimo post di Forde e Donald). Infatti, l’obiettivo di questo intervento è di concentrarsi sul riferimento, contenuto nel Comunicato congiunto, alla regola sul mutamento delle circostanze, meglio nota come clausola rebus sic stantibus.

Rebecca Thorburn Stern, When Permanent Turns Temporary. Recent Developments in Swedish Migration Policy, in Verfassungsblog, 5 dicembre 2025

In late September 2025, a Swedish government commission of inquiry presented a proposal that would fundamentally alter the legal position of thousands of people with protection status: a new law revoking permanent residence permits previously granted on asylum-related grounds. The law, intended to enter into force on 1 January 2027, would require affected individuals to obtain Swedish citizenship, qualify for a temporary residence permit, or ultimately leave the country. Although the proposal is only at the beginning of the legislative chain, it has already stirred attention due to its retroactive nature and the potential impact on large groups of individuals. Retroactive revocation effectively turns “permanent” into “until further notice”, destabilising the legal status of non-citizens and reflecting a prioritisation of state control over individual rights. This contribution provides a brief account of the proposal and situates it within the ongoing paradigm shift in Swedish asylum and migration policy. It highlights concerns regarding legal certainty, predictability, and proportionality.

Libri

Diego Ginés Martín, When Deportation Fails. Non-Removable Migrants in the European Union, Oxford UP, 2026

Statistics show that deportation rates in the European Union remain strikingly low and are decreasing. However, successfully resisting deportation does not guarantee a residence permit, often leaving migrants in legal limbo-unable to return home yet unable to gain legal residence. The existence of non-removable migrants challenges long-established migration categories and highlights the ambiguities of a framework that fails to meet its deportation aims while clinging to migration control impulses. When Deportation Fails examines this legal category on the margins of the law, exploring its normative and empirical foundations. It analyzes the processes and legal frameworks that create non-removability in the EU, explaining why, despite the normalization, legalization, and legitimization of deportation, EU Member States struggle to deport as much as they aim to. Furthermore, the book reveals the legal implications of non-removability and proposes solutions. It argues that EU law stratifies the rights of non-removable migrants into distinct sub-categories and explores regularization as a desirable policy to end protracted irregularity and non-removability. Covering diverse issues in migration studies, asylum and citizenship law, and migration policy theory, this comprehensive study will appeal to academic scholars and those working on migration issues in EU organizations and the non-governmental sector.

Virginia Passalacqua, Legal Mobilization for Migrant Rights. Opportunities and Barriers at the European Court of Justice, Oxford UP, 2026

The European Court of Justice plays a key role in the interpretation and enforcement of EU law. Yet, we still know little about the conditions under which cases arrive at the Court via preliminary reference and why they are so unevenly distributed across the EU Member States. Previous studies have shown how the legal elites played a central role in feeding the Court with cases to increase their power and influence. Legal Mobilization for Migrant Rights tells a different story. Focusing on the migration domain, this book shows that EU litigation can also be used to defend powerless groups. To explore the conditions under which EU legal mobilization for migrants emerges, the author compares three countries where EU migration law was mobilized before the European Court of Justice (Italy, the UK, and the Netherlands) and one where it was not (Greece). Combining empirical and doctrinal methods, this volume draws on interviews with key stakeholders and an original database of 505 migration preliminary references. Rather than focusing only on courts, Legal Mobilization for Migrant Rights sheds light on the role of lawyers, academics, and civil society in activating EU justice to oppose restrictive national migration policies. Crucially, the book ultimately reveals that EU legal mobilization struggles to emerge in some contexts due to a lack of resources and limited awareness of EU legal opportunities, which stand as significant obstacles to justice and migrant rights enforcement.

Lauren Sakae Nishimura, Climate Change, Human Rights, and Adaptive Mobility, Oxford UP, 2026

The potential for climate change to cause vast human movement is a major global issue. Dominant approaches to climate-related migration take mobility as the starting point, exploring legal frameworks that tend to provide protection for migrants only after they move and overlooking measures that could help avoid forced movement in the first place. In contrast, Climate Change, Human Rights, and Adaptive Mobility provides a new conceptual and legal approach to human mobility in the context of climate change, one that seeks to compel and shape more proactive, anticipatory action. The author anchors her arguments in the international climate change regime, turning to obligations on adaptation found in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. These obligations, though understudied and underutilized, have the potential to be a powerful legal tool. The book therefore seeks to lend them concrete legal meaning. It draws on international climate change and human rights law to weave together doctrinal analysis that considers treaty interpretation, regime interaction, and principles of environmental law with case studies in Bangladesh, the Pacific Islands, and the Sahel. At its core, the book argues that adaptation obligations require states to take measures to address foreseeable risks and ensure human rights. It further argues that developed countries that have contributed most to climate change have legal duties to support others in adapting to its effects, adding a collective dimension to the problem of climate change and mobility.

Articoli

Elizabeth Chacko, Marie Price, Elastic Borders: Fluctuating Policies of Securitization, Deterrence, and Expulsion in the United States, in Geopolitics, 2026

Grounded in critical border theory, this paper introduces the concept of elastic borders to analyse abrupt and fluctuating migrant regulation and deterrence policies in the United States of America between 2017 and 2025. Elastic borders are pliant over space and time, contracting inward through securitisation and digital tactics within the nation’s territory while simultaneously expanding outwards to externalise migration control to select (often neighbouring) countries through legal agreements while also restricting ingress through technological means. Elastic bordering practices are created through policy decisions regarding migrant status and management, causing frequent shifts in bordering practices. Elasticity is an essential aspect of the complex and ambiguous system to hinder the mobility of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants across US and other borders. As both internal and external bordering strategies multiply through elasticity, migrant precarity is often heightened and mobility is controlled. While our case study is of the United States, we contend that states, along with actors at local and supranational administrative levels, are increasingly relying upon elastic borders to limit and manage migration, drastically reducing regularised pathways.

Sara Poli, Luigi Lonardo, The attribution of national citizenship by Member States and its impact on EU values, in federalism.it, 2026, n.1

This article examines the attribution of national citizenship by Member States. Its core focus is Malta’s citizenship-by-investment scheme, which was declared illegal by the CJEU in the ruling in case C-181/23 Commission v Malta. This case shows that EU law imposes substantive obligations on Member States on citizenship attribution. The conclusion of the Court which is based, amongst other grounds, on solidarity as an EU value, is criticised for a number of reasons; it is also claimed that citizenship attribution is subject to obligations under the Common Foreign and Security Policy. A brief contrast is drawn with Hungary’s extension of nationality to ethnic kin abroad, which raises concerns regarding its democratic ethosbut falls outside EU competence because it does not create new EU citizens. The article argues that both cases raise concerns for respect of EU values. Yet, while the Maltese legislation comes within the scope of EU law, making citizen attribution subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice, the Hungarian legislation does not. Nonetheless, in the latter case citizenship attribution may affect  the  value  of  democracy,  thus  pushing  the  outer  boundaries  of  what  the  Union  should  tolerate  from  its Member States. It cannot be excluded that the ruling Commission v Maltamay constitute an important precedent for the Court of Justice to consider the Hungarian measures incompatible with EU values of art. 2 TEU, should the Court of Justice have the opportunity to rule on this issue in future direct or indirect actions.

Lea Giulia Reiß, Who gets to return? Party politics and the selectivity of European emigrant return policies, in Migration Studies, 2026, n. 1

Why do European governments encourage the return of some emigrants but not others? Across the EU, emigrant return policies tend to be highly selective, prioritizing specific emigrants, such as young people, skilled professionals, or entrepreneurs. Drawing on an original dataset of eighty-one national-level emigrant return policies adopted by seventeen EU member states (2004–23), alongside in-depth case studies of Ireland and Portugal, this study investigates how and why governments prioritize certain emigrants for return. The study argues that governments’ ideological outlook, core constituencies, and their strategic positioning in electoral competition play a central role in shaping the design and targeting of policies. The analysis reveals that the party family of the strongest governing party, rather than the government’s position on the left–right spectrum, determines the primary target group of return policies. Social democrats tend to favour workers, liberals prioritize highly skilled professionals and entrepreneurs, while conservatives, Christian democrats, and far-right parties more frequently target families. The case studies further reveal that electoral incentives and timing shape policy targeting, especially in the run-up to national elections. The article contributes to research on migration governance and party politics, highlighting how migration promotion policies, such as emigrant return policies, are not neutral responses to current demographic and economic needs but serve as strategic tools in political competition.

George Mavrommatis, The geopolitics of asylum from the part of those seeking it: Refugee subjects and freedom as possibility, in Migration Studies, 2026, n. 1

The European Union (EU)’s politics of asylum is a form of geopolitics with clear and bounded geographical rules. Apart from the top-down EU geopolitics of asylum, there is also the politics of asylum of member states. These politics become revealed through the reception policies that member states implement in their territories. This article is based on in-depth interviews, informal conversations, and participant observation with Syrian asylum seekers residing in a reception facility in Western Peloponnese, Greece. Most informants sought refugee status in Greece and subsequently aimed to relocate to other EU countries to reapply for asylum. Apart from the official EU geopolitics of asylum, a form of bottom-up refugee geopolitics was enacted on the ground. It was practised by refugee subjects, who exercised their freedom against the power of the Common European Asylum System and Greek reception policies. However, this freedom was enacted as a form of possibility without knowing the outcomes of such actions. Freedom as possibility may represent a further step towards a more nuanced understanding of refugee agency, helping to avoid simplifications, particularly in an era marked by the EU and its member states’ increasingly restrictive and inhumane forms of humanitarian–migration governance.

Post

Petra Bárd, Ziobro’s Asylum in Hungary. Accountability, Mutual Trust, and Autocratic Legalism, in Verfassungsblog, 20 gennaio 2026

In early January 2026, media reports indicated that Hungary had granted political asylum to Zbigniew Ziobro, Poland’s former Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General and a leading figure of the Law and Justice (PiS) government, who is currently facing criminal investigations in Poland. The granting of political asylum by one EU Member State to a citizen of another Member State is not merely unusual; it is structurally exceptional under EU law. The Treaties proceed from the premise that Member States are safe countries of origin for one another and that asylum is not an instrument for insulating intra-EU political or judicial conflicts from their normal channels of accountability. When Hungary granted asylum to Ziobro and simultaneously modified its surrender rules to shield recognised refugees from surrender, it did not simply offer protection to an individual claiming persecution. It raised the question whether a Member State may, through unilateral action, set aside a Treaty-level constraint designed to prevent such uses of asylum.

Francesco Luigi Gatta, Pressione governativa e interpretazione restrittiva della CEDU: la (contro)riforma sulle espulsioni collettive è (quasi) compiuta, in SIDIBlog, 27 gennaio 2026

Come noto, il 22 maggio 2025 i Governi italiano e danese hanno diffuso una lettera aperta, firmata da altri sette Stati membri dell’UE e del Consiglio d’Europa, volta ad attirare l’attenzione sulla necessità di (re)interpretare in senso restrittivo la Convenzione europea dei diritti umani (CEDU o ‘Convenzione’) in materia di migrazione (in argomento, v. Acconciamessa; Gatta). La posizione dei firmatari si basa essenzialmente su tre assunti: (i) il regime normativo internazionale di tutela del soggetto migrante risulta obsoleto e inadeguato rispetto alle odierne sfide per la sicurezza e i controlli di frontiera che gli Stati sono chiamati ad affrontare; (ii) rispetto alla CEDU, in particolare, l’interpretazione ad opera della Corte europea dei diritti umani (di seguito anche solo ‘Corte’) ha dilatato in senso eccessivamente generoso la tutela dello straniero, nel contempo indebitamente comprimendo le prerogative statali nel controllo del territorio e nel contrasto all’immigrazione irregolare; (iii) si rende urgente e necessario, in un’ottica correttiva, un cambio di rotta nell’interpretazione, così da consentire agli Stati di riconquistare gli spazi di azione ‘espropriati’ dalla giurisprudenza, per concentrarsi sulla legittima e doverosa difesa degli interessi nazionali. L’insofferenza dei governi si manifesta, in particolare, con riguardo all’esercizio del potere di espellere, asseritamente compresso e imbrigliato in garanzie di eccessivo favor verso lo straniero: la Corte si sarebbe spinta «too far» nel proteggere «the wrong people», si legge nella lettera.

Adrian Gjoshi, Will The Hague Really Look North? The ICC and EU Crimes Against Migrants, in EU Law Analysis, 25 gennaio 2026

Europe and the International Criminal Court (ICC) stand at a pivotal moment. For the first time, EU migration policies and senior European officials are subject to direct international criminal scrutiny regarding the treatment of migrants in the Mediterranean. Following a six-year investigation, Front-Lex and international lawyers Omer Shatz and Juan Branco submitted a 700-page communication (communication II) to the ICC, alleging that 122 officials from the EU institutions and several Member States committed crimes against humanity against migrants on the Central Mediterranean route between 2014 and 2020. The submission is based on testimony from 77 witnesses and potential suspects, including several Heads of State, and provides a detailed mapping of agencies and their involvement. The comprehensive collaboration between lawyers, scholars, and students from a Parisian public university highlights the gravity of the allegations.  As a doctoral researcher and lawyer focused on migration-related crimes as potential crimes against humanity, this case is particularly resonant. The communication builds on an earlier filing from 2019, which contended that these crimes are not incidental but result from EU migration policies that intentionally cause deaths at sea and delegate refoulement to third countries. This recent communication is both explicit and specific: it identifies alleged perpetrators; maps agencies involved and supplies extensive evidence. The communication alleges that more than 25,000 migrants drowned during 2014-2019, and over 150,000 were intercepted and forcibly transferred to Libya, where they were systematically subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, enslavement, and other inhumane treatment.

Antje Kunst, Frontex before the EU Courts: Damage, Causation, and Liability under Article 340(2) TFEU, in EU Law Analysis, 5 gennaio 2026

n two judgments delivered on 18 December 2025 – Hamoudi v Frontex (Case C-136/24 P) and WS and Others v Frontex (Case C-679/23 P) – the Court of Justice significantly clarified the scope of Frontex’s responsibility for fundamental rights violations. By referring both cases back to the General Court for re-examination, the Court of Justice highlighted serious flaws in how the General Court approached burden of proof, causation and Frontex’s fundamental rights obligations in actions for damages against the Agency. In both cases it emphasized that Frontex bears its own obligations to protect the fundamental rights of individuals affected during its operations. This is a positive development which was long overdue. Frontex, like any other EU Agency, must be held accountable for the consequences of its operations. EU law, in particular the Frontex Regulation in connection with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is unambiguous on this point, despite the Agency’s persistent attempts to argue otherwise. In Hamoudi, the Court held that the General Court failed to adapt the burden of proof when assessing whether a pushback operation, in which Frontex was involved, had occurred and whether the applicant was present. In WS and Others, the Court underlined that causation must be assessed in concreto, taking into account the specific circumstances of each case, particularly the vulnerability of asylum seekers.

Chiara Scissa, Riconoscimento dello status di rifugiato ad una cittadina europea, in Questione Giustizia, 22 gennaio 2026

Il 10 ottobre 2025, il Tribunale ordinario di Bologna – Sezione Specializzata in materia di Immigrazione, Protezione internazionale e Libera circolazione cittadini UE ha emesso un decreto di grande rilevanza per il diritto di asilo così come concepito nell’ordinamento europeo. Per la prima volta i giudici italiani hanno accertato l’ammissibilità di una domanda di protezione internazionale di una cittadina di un altro Stato Membro con annesso riconoscimento dello status di rifugiato. Nel caso di specie decade, quindi, la presunzione (in molti casi automatica, si veda ad esempio qui e qui per la prassi in Irlanda, Austria, Repubblica Ceca, Ungheria) vigente tra gli Stati Membri dell’Unione di considerarsi reciprocamente Paesi d’origine sicuri a tutti i fini giuridici e pratici connessi a questioni inerenti l’asilo.

Giuliano Cardenio, Il Custode delle Frontiere è tenuto a vigilare anche sul rispetto dei Diritti fondamentali: la recente stretta della Corte di giustizia alle operazioni di rimpatrio di Frontex, in Eurojus.it, 19 gennaio 2026

Nel dicembre scorso, la Corte di giustizia dell’Unione europea si è pronunciata nei casi Hamoudi c. Frontex (C-136/24 P) e WS e altri c. Frontex (C-679/23 P), relativi ad azioni di responsabilità extracontrattuale intentate nei confronti dell’Agenzia europea della guardia di frontiera e costiera. Con tali pronunce, la Corte ha parzialmente annullato le decisioni adottate dal Tribunale circa un anno prima (T-136/22; T-600/21), rinviando le cause a quest’ultimo per un nuovo esame. Queste sentenze hanno contribuito a chiarire alcuni profili critici concernenti gli ostacoli che limitano, per le vittime di espulsioni collettive (pushback), l’effettivo accesso alla giustizia dinanzi ai giudici dell’Unione, precedentemente commentati su questa stessa rivista.

Sarah Ganty, Racialized, but Equal? Denmark’s Housing Law before the CJEU, in Verfassungsblog, 21 gennaio 2026

EU lawyers had been awaiting 18 December with particular anticipation, which coincidentally or not, was also International Migrants Day. On that day, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered several significant judgments, including two concerning Frontex’s involvement in push-backs and unlawful returns of migrants, and one addressing the Danish housing law under the EU Race Equality Directive. The category of “non-Western immigrants and their descendants” was central to that latter case. These cases emerged in a politically charged context regarding migration. Across Europe, migrants are increasingly portrayed as threats, both from “outside” and from “within”. Few governments have been willing to articulate a genuinely positive discourse on migration, despite its broadly beneficial effects. At the same time, racism (here and here) and xenophobia have intensified markedly. Importantly, this racism does not operate only at the level of individual prejudice. It is also reproduced through law and institutions, through the cultural process identified by sociologists as “racialisation” which entrenches ethno-racial hierarchies irrespective of the subjective intentions of policymakers.

Libri

Leandro Mancano, The Law of EU Border Controls. Constitutional Compliance and Conditions for an Area without Internal Frontiers, Oxford UP, 2026

The law of EU border controls is diverse and dynamic, involving multiple governance levels with distinct objectives. It addresses various ‘control subjects’ through a mix of soft and hard law sources. Dr Leandro Mancano evaluates how this diversity affects the constitutional compliance of EU border controls and explores the conditions necessary for the EU to remain an area without internal frontiers. By providing a comprehensive analysis of both external and internal border controls, and offering insights into the laws and practices of specific member states, this research addresses how to effectively manage or overcome the challenges posed by this heterogeneity within the EU legal framework. Ultimately, The Law of EU Border Controls: Constitutional Compliance and Conditions for an Area without Internal Frontiers highlights the impact of European integration on national sovereignty and enhances the understanding of EU border law as part of the unique EU legal system. It is an essential resource for academics and practitioners interested in migration and asylum law.

Diego Ginés Martín, When Deportation Fails. Non-Removable Migrants in the European Union, Oxford UP, 2026

Statistics show that deportation rates in the European Union remain strikingly low and are decreasing. However, successfully resisting deportation does not guarantee a residence permit, often leaving migrants in legal limbo-unable to return home yet unable to gain legal residence. The existence of non-removable migrants challenges long-established migration categories and highlights the ambiguities of a framework that fails to meet its deportation aims while clinging to migration control impulses. When Deportation Fails examines this legal category on the margins of the law, exploring its normative and empirical foundations. It analyzes the processes and legal frameworks that create non-removability in the EU, explaining why, despite the normalization, legalization, and legitimization of deportation, EU Member States struggle to deport as much as they aim to. Furthermore, the book reveals the legal implications of non-removability and proposes solutions. It argues that EU law stratifies the rights of non-removable migrants into distinct sub-categories and explores regularization as a desirable policy to end protracted irregularity and non-removability. Covering diverse issues in migration studies, asylum and citizenship law, and migration policy theory, this comprehensive study will appeal to academic scholars and those working on migration issues in EU organizations and the non-governmental sector.

Engin Isin, Citizenship. New Trajectories in Law, Routledge, 2026

This book outlines a critical theory of citizenship, with an emphasis on how citizenship institutes power relations and organises the rights and obligations of those who become its subjects. Whether it is the question of the rights of animals, children, migrants, minorities, mothers, or mountains, and whether such rights are protected or guaranteed by national law, international law, or human rights law, the issue of citizenship has already indelibly marked the 21st century. As an institution, citizenship governs the relationship between a polity and its peoples by dividing them into citizens and noncitizens, with differentiated rights and obligations. So necessarily, this book argues, citizenship is an institution of domination and emancipation that brings into play the struggles of those who want to protect certain privileges and the struggles of those who are against being caught in either second-class or noncitizen categories. Deconstructing dominant theories and practices of citizenship, a critical theory of citizenship must, therefore, not only analyse intersecting rights, but also connect citizenship to these broader social struggles. For it is these struggles, the book maintains, that give meaning to citizenship itself.

Maria Sophia Aguirre, Antonio Argandoña, The Search for Home among Forced Migrants and Refugees. People on the Move, Routledge, 2026

This book explores the role of “home” in the lives of displaced people, including voluntary and forced migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people and temporary workers. For displaced people, home is something lost, longed for and sometimes found anew. It is a community of people in an environment of relationships and a physical dwelling that provide a sense of safety, security, hope and belonging. Much of the efforts of refugees, migrants and exiles are devoted to rebuilding a home, through a combination of personal effort and collaboration with the political and social environment of the host community. Maria Sophia Aguirre and Antonio Argandoña bring together an interdisciplinary collection of contributors to analyse these challenges through the lenses of economics, law, sociology, psychology, communications, management and political science. The book offers numerous suggestions for assistance aimed not only at the short-term problems of displaced people but also at ensuring their human dignity.

Aina Backman, Anthropology and Immigration Detention Work in Sweden. Being an Outsider Inside the Fence, Routledge, 2026

This book offers an anthropological inquiry into the labor underpinning immigration detention in Sweden, examining the daily practices, institutional efforts, and forms of knowledge production that sustain the detention regime. Drawing upon fieldwork involving time spent with detention workers while wearing a uniform, the author offers a rare, immersive perspective, providing insights from detention departments, offices, meetings, training sessions, isolation cells, and control rooms. By situating these practices in relation to the European and international deportation industry, the book analyses how detention is not only executed but also increasingly optimized and made the subject of social scientific understanding. Through this lens, the study sheds light on the operational procedures that shape contemporary immigration control. By bringing Martin Heidegger’s critique of modern technology into dialogue with this anthropological study of detention work, the book offers an analytical lens on how technology shapes not only practice but perception. Rather than treating technological systems within detention as tools to be studied, this book foregrounds the idea that technological thinking preconditions how detention is conceived, analyzed, and understood.

Giuseppe Gabrielli, Roberto Impicciatore, Children of Immigrants in Southern Europe. Overcoming Ethnic Penalties, Routledge, 2026

The goal of successfully incorporating ethnic minorities represents a decisive challenge for modern societies. However, migratory background continues to negatively affect the life trajectories of migrants’ descendants. ‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ barriers determine long-term inequality gaps and low intergenerational social mobility in both longstanding and more recent European immigration countries. This book complements the sparse findings on education, labour market outcomes, and wellbeing relating to immigrant offspring by providing original research in order to individuate strategies for removing the obstacles that the migrants’ descendants face.  Chapters offer in-depth analyses that have been performed for specific Southern European contexts to explore the specific inequality patterns that are emerging in these more recent and unexplored immigration contexts. The main findings suggest that the lower academic performances of immigrants’ descendants can be raised through language-support programmes, mentoring programmes, positive role and disciplinary climate, extra-scholastic activities, and parental involvement. Equality opportunities in education should support school-to-work transitions and better allocate the underutilised human capital reserves of migrants’ descendants. Conversely, long-lasting penalties in educational careers and integration processes may arise when children are physically separated from their parents because of delayed family reunification.

Articoli

Iris Goldner Lang, EU values as a shield and a sword in EU migration and asylum law, in Common Market Law Review, 2026, n. 1

European Union values increasingly shape the EU’s migration and asylum governance, invoked both as a shield to protect migrants’ rights and as a sword to justify their restriction. This paper frames these two positions as protective and restrictive approaches to the same set of EU values. It identifies the legal ‘red lines’ that cannot be crossed without negating the essence of EU values and assesses the extent to which EU values and Article 2 TEU are capable of serving as enforceable legal standards in this field. The analysis of the protective approach shows that EU law provides migrants with a dense web of human rights. On the other hand, the restrictive approach illustrates how values are increasingly mobilized to justify migrants’ integration duties and stronger border controls against irregular migration. The paper concludes that the coexistence of both approaches is not in itself problematic provided it does not undermine the essence of the values concerned and leaves intact absolute rights such as non-refoulement and the right to life.

Ilaria Pifferi, La politica di “pull-back” italo-libica al vaglio della Corte europea dei diritti umani: sulla decisione “S.S. e altri c. Italia”, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2025, n. 3

In the recent case of “S.S. and Others v. Italy”, the European Court of Human Rights was called upon to rule on Italy’s responsibility, in light of the relevant provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, for violations perpetrated in the context of the Italian-Libyan pull-back policy along the central Mediterranean route. The Strasbourg Court had to assess whether Italy’s involvement in rescue operations conducted by the Libyan Coast Guard – especially through the technical, financial and operational support provided by Italy to the Libyan Government under the “Memorandum” of Understanding of February 2017 – was sufficient to establish a ‘jurisdictional link’ with the defendant State, so that it could be called to answer before the ECtHR for the human rights violations perpetrated in that context. Following an examination of the legal and socio-political framework of the ruling – namely, the new practice of outsourcing European maritime border controls, with a focus on the pull-back measures adopted under the Italian-Libyan “Memorandum” of Understanding – this paper aims to examine the argumentative path followed by the ECtHR in dealing with the case in question, which focused essentially on the issue of jurisdiction (and the extraterritorial application of the Convention). The ultimate goal is to outline the dictum of the decision and assess its impact on current strategies for managing migration by sea, characterised by an increasingly widespread state practice of circumventing relevant obligations to protect human rights in the context of search and rescue operations at sea.

Denard Veshi, Ervin Karamuço, Enkeleida Shyle, The Criminal Impact of (the EU) Externalization of the Asylum-Seeking Process on Local Community: The Case of the Italy-Albanian Protocol, in Federalismi, 2026, n. 7

This paper examines the implications of the European Union’s externalization of asylum procedures for third countries, with a specific focus on the Italy–Albania Protocol. It analyses the potential effects of this arrangement on Albania’s national security. Following a concise overview of the Protocol, the article identifies the categories of individuals who may be transferred to Albanian territory and situates this assessment within existing empirical studies on migration flows within the European Union or Turkey. Drawing on the available literature, the paper considers whether the profile of persons relocated under the Protocol could influence Albania’s crime patterns, while emphasising that refugees themselves are individuals fleeing persecution rather than drivers of insecurity. The analysis concludes by proposing evidence-based policy recommendations aimed at mitigating possible adverse effects on national security in countries that agree to host asylum seekers, using Albania as a case study.

Anna Closas, Allocating time in asylum systems: a dilemma between efficacy and equal treatment, in Comparative Migration Studies, 2026

The right to seek asylum is meant to offer protection to those suffering from persecution. Currently, numerous countries face severe delays in granting and adjudicating this right. This paper theorizes from the US asylum system, where a backlog of over 2.2 million cases poses the following dilemma: ensure an equal and fair process for asylum seekers, despite it likely leading to waiting periods that can reach several years, or implement efficiency policies to offer protection to the largest number of refugees possible, even when practitioners have deemed them a violation of asylum seekers’ equal rights to fair proceedings. Using insights gathered in in-depth interviews and participant observation, this paper explores this dilemma between efficacy and equal treatment and analyzes the moral costs of opting for one over the other. Even though this dilemma cannot be fully resolved, I offer pathways to mitigate it, with a focus on need-based and social membership considerations. Beyond furthering an effort in political theory to think normatively about time, taking this dilemma seriously forces us to re-evaluate how, as political communities, we want to grant the humanitarian protection we have signed up to provide.

Marcella Ferri, Il riconoscimento della protezione complementare al richiedente protezione internazionale. Una polifonia di fonti che rimane immutata (anche) dopo il d.l. 20/2023, in Giustizia Insieme, 2026

Come noto, il d.l. 20/2023 e la successiva legge di conversione 50/2023 hanno, tra l’altro, modificato la protezione complementare, andando così a costituire l’ultimo intervento del legislatore d’urgenza su un istituto che, negli ultimi anni, ha conosciuto vicende tanto alterne quanto travagliate. Per quanto qui interessa, il d.l. ha espunto dall’ordinamento la c.d. protezione speciale per integrazione sociale disciplinata dal terzo e quarto periodo dell’art. 19, comma 1.1, del TU sull’immigrazione. In particolare, la disposizione abrogata vietava il respingimento e l’espulsione in presenza di fondati motivi tali da ritenere che l’allontanamento avrebbe provocato una violazione del diritto alla vita privata e familiare dello straniero, a meno che esso non risultasse necessario per motivi di sicurezza nazionale, ordine e sicurezza pubblica e protezione della salute. La modifica non ha invece intaccato il divieto di respingimento qualora ricorrano gli «obblighi costituzionali o internazionali dello Stato italiano» richiamati dall’art. 5, comma 6, TU, che costituiscono ulteriore fondamento – oltre alle altre ipotesi in cui sussista un divieto di respingimento ai sensi dell’art. 19, commi 1 e 1.1 TU – per il rilascio di un permesso di soggiorno per protezione speciale.

Bob Mertens, Organisational determinants of administrative decision-making quality in European asylum offices: a qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), in Comparative Migration Studies, 2026

The article examines how organisational and structural configurations shape the quality of administrative decision-making in European asylum offices. Drawing on fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of 27 cases across nine countries between 2010 and 2022, it analyses variation in administrative decision-making quality using judicial overturn rates as a proxy. The findings show that variation and fluctuation in decision-making quality is best explained by specific combinations of organisational and structural conditions rather than by single factors such as application pressure or professional capacity alone. Higher quality emerges through a limited number of conjunctural pathways in which greater administrative insulation from political influence or lower application pressure function as enabling conditions. Organisational experience and caseworker competence contribute to quality only when embedded in supportive institutional settings. Overall, the findings indicate that differences in decision-making quality stem from asylum offices’ varying capacity to manage political and workload pressures.

Mario Gervasi, Diplomatic Asylum from the Perspective of Self-Contained Regimes, in International Community Law Review, 2026

More than 70 years since the Asylum and Haya de la Torre judgments, diplomatic asylum has come back before the ICJ in the Glas Espinel case. The dispute provides an opportunity to reflect on the 1954 Caracas Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, which so far has not been thoroughly examined within international law scholarship. This paper argues that the asylum regime under the Caracas Convention shows similarities with a self-contained regime. The right of the State granting asylum to unilaterally assess the requirements for diplomatic asylum essentially precludes the operation of dispute settlement mechanisms and of secondary norms on the content and implementation of State responsibility. Building on the comparison with a self-contained regime, the question arises as to whether the asylum regime under the Caracas Convention might “fail”: to such failure, the asylum regime shows some resistance. Overall, the parallel is consistent with the essence of diplomatic asylum as a Latin-American institution.

Martina Tazzioli, The Spatiotemporal Disguises of Asylum. The EU Pact Turning Asylum Seekers into Illegalised Migrants, in Geopolitics, 2026

This article investigates the tactical use of temporality for altering the legal geographies of asylum in Europe, that is by obstructing migrants from becoming asylum seekers. It does so by analysing how administrative measures arbitrarily enforced by Greece, such as the legal fiction of non-entry, have been systematised and turned into obligations under the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. The article argues that state authorities enforce spatiotemporal disguises, meaning by that a tactical use of geography and temporality in order to hamper migrants from getting access to asylum. Engaging with migration scholarship on temporal borders, the piece begins by conceptualising spatiotemporal disguises, exploring how these disjoin migrants’ physical presence from the legal one, positing that migrants are not there, yet. The article then focuses on three Greek islands – Crete, Gavdos and Lesvos: it illustrates how Greek authorities have tactically manipulated temporality and geography to widen the scope for enforcing discretionary measures. Spatiotemporal disguises have been put in place by lengthening rescue operations (Crete and Gavdos) and by deferring migrants’ identification (Lesvos). The final section situates spatiotemporal disguises within a broader colonial legacy of governing racialised populations and contends that any critique of the border regime should take into account the invisible temporal bordering mechanisms that disjoin migrants’ physical presence from the legal one.

Post

Emilio De Capitani, Come un pugno sul tavolo: il caso delle nuove norme europee in materia di “Paesi sicuri”, in Eurojus,it, 16 febbraio 2026

Nel preambolo della Carta dei diritti fondamentali si legge che l’Unione “Pone la persona al centro della sua azione” e si annuncia la trasformazione dell’Unione in uno spazio di libertà sicurezza e giustizia. Vasto programma, si dirà, e che richiede tempo, ma a giudicare dalle iniziative di questi ultimi anni in materia di lotta alle discriminazioni, trasparenza legislativa e amministrativa, o protezione dei dati viene da pensare che la direzione intrapresa dalle Istituzioni europee non sia quella prevista dalla Carta e dai trattati. Le politiche in cui questa regressione, rispetto al diritto primario, appare più evidente sono però quelle legate alla Human Mobility e alla Human Security ed in particolare le politiche legate alla protezione delle frontiere, alle migrazioni e all’asilo dove i diritti delle persone passano in secondo piano attraverso scelte politiche e amministrative che con i valori e i principi dei Trattati hanno ben poco a che fare. Mentre questi infatti proteggono e promuovono il diritto all’asilo e vietano le espulsioni le scelte legislative concrete circoscrivono sempre più l’esercizio del diritto d’asilo e promuovono le espulsioni.

Bernd Parusel, A Draconian Return System. High Humanitarian Cost of the Forthcoming Return of Irregular Migrants, in Verfassungsblog, 13 febbraio 2026

Unless the European Parliament puts up a fight to eliminate or amend the worst parts of the currently circulating draft regulation on a “common system for the return of third-country nationals staying illegally in the Union”, which looks unlikely, the EU may soon adopt a new approach. This draft regulation shows how far the EU has shifted towards positions of the far right, and how little it is interested in human rights and pragmatic solutions for rejected asylum seekers and other non-EU migrants who have lost, or not been granted, a permit to stay.

Steve Peers, Asylum Pact 2.0: the EU amends the rules on ‘safe third countries’ and ‘safe countries of origin’, in EU Law Analysis, 23 febbraio 2026

The EU has finally adopted two amendments to the EU’s asylum pact, entailing significantly more stringent rules as regards ‘safe countries’ of origin’ (adopted text here) and particularly ‘safe third countries’ (adopted text here). This blog post summarises the new laws in their context, and then examines how much they impact upon the ability to claim asylum in the EU in practice – in particular the introduction of a ‘Rwanda clause’ in EU law, mirroring the last UK government’s attempt to designate that country as ‘safe’ even for asylum-seekers who had not travelled through it.

Deborah Russo, Ancora sul progetto di riforma della CEDU avviato il 10 dicembre 2025: quale cambiamento potrebbe produrre la futura dichiarazione di Chișinău in materia di immigrazione?, in SIDIBlog, 2 febbraio 2026

Dal contesto politico ripetutamente turbato da attacchi e contestazioni nei confronti delle istituzioni internazionali non è rimasto immune il sistema della Convenzione europea dei diritti umani (di seguito CEDU o ‘Convenzione’). Dopo la ‘lettera aperta’ sottoscritta il 22 maggio 2025 da nove Stati membri del Consiglio d’Europa (e dell’Unione europea) guidati dall’Italia e dalla Danimarca (sulla quale si vedano le critiche di Acconciamessa e Ní Chinnéide e Sevrin) e il processo di riforma promosso dal Segretario generale del Consiglio d’Europa, il 10 dicembre 2025, per adeguare la Convenzione europea alle ‘sfide’ poste dall’immigrazione irregolare, gli Stati contraenti hanno adottato per consensus un testo di conclusioni che annuncia la prossima emanazione di una dichiarazione politica nell’ambito della sessione del Comitato dei ministri, prevista a Chișinău, nel maggio 2026. Benché non sia ancora facile prevedere la traiettoria che il processo di riforma seguirà e quale risultato sarà concretamente raggiunto è possibile iniziare a chiedersi quale cambiamento potrà produrre in concreto la dichiarazione di Chișinău.

Georgios Athanasiou, Frontex Under Scrutiny. Hamoudi’s Burden Shifting Precedent and Its Implications for FM v Frontex, in Verfassungsblog, 13 febbraio 2026

In the evolving landscape of EU border accountability, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its ruling in Hamoudi v Frontex (C-136/24 P) on 18 December 2025. This Grand Chamber decision not only reversed the General Court’s (GC) dismissal but also fundamentally recalibrated the evidentiary standards for establishing Frontex’s liability for fundamental rights violations, as discussed here. As FM v Frontex (T-511/24), a closely related case, awaits its judgment, Hamoudi’s legacy in establishing Frontex’s accountability and lowering the burden of proof for vulnerable migrants, promises to reshape its outcome. This post initially analyzes Hamoudi’s doctrinal mechanics, draws parallels to FM, and sketches plausible trajectories for the latter, thereby illuminating Frontex’s emerging liability regime. The central claim advanced here is that the Court in Hamoudi revolutionized EU non-contractual liability under Article 340(2) TFEU by easing evidentiary burdens for migrants, shifting proof obligations to Frontex, and affirming the agency’s independent fundamental rights duties. In doing so, it sets the stage for the pending case FM v Frontex on aerial surveillance and data-sharing complicity.

Jacques Bellezit, The Mice that Roared: the EU’s list of known fantasy and camouflage passports, in EU Law Analysis, 3 febbraio 2026

Since the Grzelczyk judgment, the European Court of Justice has held that «Union citizenship is destined to be the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States», prioritizing the freedom of movement used by EU citizens over other EU fundamental freedoms. This prominence has driven the Court to condemn the Maltese investor citizenship scheme which “amounts to the commercialisation of the granting of the status of national of a Member State and, by extension, Union citizenship, which is incompatible with the conception of that fundamental status that stems from the Treaties” (point 100 of the  ECJ Grand Chamber “Commission v Malta” judgment of 29 April 2025). In conjunction with the principle of sincere cooperation outlined in TEU Article 4, one can better understand the importance of a good understanding of EU member States’ passports by national immigration and customs authorities.

Chiara Scissa, Mutual trust does not supersede human rights! Italian judges unprecedently recognize the refugee status to an EU citizen, in EU Law Analysis, 30 gennaio 2026

On 10 October 2025, the Tribunal of Bologna – Specialized Section on Immigration, International Protection and Free Movement of EU Citizens issued a decree of great importance for the right to asylum as conceived in EU law. For the first time, Italian judges have found that an application for international protection by a citizen of another EU Member State is admissible, granting her refugee status. In the present case, therefore, the presumption between the EU Member States to consider each other as safe countries of origin for all legal and practical purposes related to asylum issues (which in many cases is automatic, see for example here and here for the practice in Ireland, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary) is dropped.

Lucía López Zurita, Race Discrimination and Access to Public Housing: the Court of Justice’s Slagelse Decision, in Eurojus,it, 16 febbraio 2026

On 18th December 2025, the Court of Justice (the Court) issued its much-awaited decision on the case C-417/23, Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab,Afdeling Schackenborgvænge, (the “Danish Ghetto” case). A lot has been written about this ruling already (to name but a few: Serde Atalay, Boris Belortaja, Sarah Ganty, Marzia Genovese as well as during the Oxford–European Law Review online event with Iyiola Solanke, Tamara Ćapeta, Nozizwe Dube, Hannah Eklund, and Bruno de Witte). This contribution focuses on a relatively detailed description on the factual component of the case, and offers a brief discussion of the decision, also in the light of the AG Opinion.

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico del 25 gennaio 2024 (gennaio 2024)

Ministero dell’interno, L’interpretariato nella procedura di protezione internazionale in Commissione Territoriale (gennaio 2024)

Cour des Comptes, La politique de lutte contre l’immigration irrégulière (gennaio 2024)

EUAA, Practical Guide on Evidence and Risk Assessment (gennaio 2024)

Human Rights Watch, World Report 2024: Annual Review of Human Rights Around the Globe (gennaio 2024)

ICMPD, Carrots and sticks in migration cooperation: Three uncomfortable truths (gennaio 204)

ICMPD, Why integration monitoring matters and how to implement it effectively (gennaio 2024)

OECD, Migration and regional innovation in Australia, OECD Regional Development Papers n. 66 – 4 (gennaio 2024)

Right to Remain, Work Exploitation and Migrant Workers’ Rights (gennaio 2024)

Refugee Council, Safe routes for refugees plummet while dangerous Channel crossings continue (gennaio 2024)

UNHCR, Italy Fact Sheet November 2023 (novembre 2023)

European Ombudsman – Results of the inquiry into Frontex’s role in search and rescue operations (febbraio 2024)

EUAA – Latest Asylum Trends 2023 (febbraio 2023)

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico del 23 febbraio 2024 (febbraio 2024)

Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (Sieps), The Minimum Standards of International Protection applicable to the European Union (gennaio 2024) 

UNHCR, Commenti e raccomandazioni dell’UNHCR sul disegno di legge di “Ratifica ed esecuzione del Protocollo tra il Governo della Repubblica italiana e il Consiglio dei ministri della Repubblica di Albania per il rafforzamento della collaborazione in materia migratoria” (gennaio 2024)

Guild, N. Vavoula e V. Apatzidou (studio per il Parlamento europeo), Enhancing the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs): Facilitating access to the EU and supporting HRDs from third countries (febbraio 2024) 

Iniziative e studi sulla multietnicità (ISMU), Ventinovesimo Rapporto sulle migrazioni 2023 (febbraio 2024) 

EUAA, Practical Guide on Interpretation in the Asylum Procedure (febbraio 2024)

Council of Europe – Commissioner for Human Rights, Protecting the Defenders. Ending repression of human rights defenders assisting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Europe (febbraio 2024) 

EuroMed Rights, Human mobility in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation in the MENA region (febbraio 2024) 

ECRE, Policy Paper: The Right to Work for Asylum Applicants in the EU (gennaio 2024) 

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico del 25 marzo 2024 (marzo 2024)

UNHCR, Background note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness 2024 (marzo 2024)

ASGI, Per cambiare il vento – Breviario di giurisprudenza di legittimità sul trattenimento amministrativo

CESPI, Monitoraggio normativo. L’accoglienza dei MSNA in Europa ed Italia: quadro attuale e prospettivo (marzo 2024)

Fondazione ISMU, La doppia discriminazione delle donne con background migratorio nel mercato del lavoro (marzo 2024)

ECRE, Pathways to Protection: Mapping visa schemes and other practices enabling people in need of international protection to reach Europe safely (marzo 2024)

Brot für die Welt e Misereor, Country Brief on EU Migration Partnerships with Third Countries: Egypt – EU Support for “Fortress Egypt” (marzo 2024)

Commission on the Integration of Refugees, From Arrival to Integration: Building Communities for Refugees and for Britain (marzo 2024)

European Migration Network (EMN), Unlawful employment of third-country nationals in Austria (ottobre 2023)

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico del 24 aprile 2024 (aprile 2024)

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Addressing Racism in Policing (aprile 2024)

Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), Cases of criminalisation of migration and solidarity in the EU in 2023 (aprile 2024)

Naga, Attendere, prego. Report sugli ostacoli nell’accesso alla procedura per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale in Italia (aprile 2024)

ASGI, Mappatura delle prassi illegittime delle questure italiane. Lo studio pilota di ASGI (aprile 2024)

Asylos Research for Asylum, Albania: Trafficking (aprile 2024)

Border Criminologies, Border Violence Monitoring Network and Mobile Info Team, Detention Landscapes (aprile 2024)

International Organization for Migration, Afghanistan – Flow Monitoring Quarterly Report (January – March 2024) (aprile 2024)

International Organization for Migration, Bulgaria – Labour Market Integration of Refugees from Ukraine – Q4 Report (October-December 2023) (aprile 2024)

Jesuit Refugee Service, Detention under the spotlight – Issue 6: Italy (aprile 2024)

New Humanitarian, How European countries wrongfully classify children seeking asylum as adults (aprile 2024)

Observatory of Refugee Camps, Revue d’actualités – mars 2024, April 2024 Refugee Council, Keys to the City 2024: Ending refugee homelessness in London (aprile 2024)

Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado (CEAR), El Pacto Europeo sobre Migración y Asiloretos: Retos y amenazas para los derechos humanos (aprile 2024)

Asylum Information Database (AIDA), Country Report on Bulgaria – 2023 Update (aprile 2024)

Boat Refugee Foundation, EU-Turkey Deal. Visualising data from the Greek Hotspots 2016-2023 (aprile 2024)

Boat Refugee Foundation, EU-Turkey Deal. Documenting Conditions in the Greek Hotspots 2016 – 2023 (aprile 2024)

Border Violence Monitoring Network, Facilitation Directive: Feedback provided to the European Commission by the Border Violence Monitoring Network (Aprile 2024)

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico del 27 maggio 2024 (maggio 2024)

ECRE, Comments on the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on Asylum and Migration Management, Amending Regulations (EU) 2021/1147 and (EU) 2021/1060 and Repealing Regulation (EU) 604/2013 (maggio 2024)

ECRE, Comments on the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Addressing situations of crisis and force majeure in the field of migration and asylum, amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1147 (maggio 2024)

International Organization for Migration, World Migration Report 2024 (maggio 2024)

International Rescue Committee, IRC Italy Protection Monitoring Report (January-March 2024) (maggio 2024)

Civil Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Echoes No.12 (maggio 2024)

Klikaktiv – Center for Development of Social Policies, From migration to criminalization – growing oppressive treatment against people on the move in Serbia (maggio 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Cyprus – 2023 Update (maggio 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Belgium – 2023 Update (maggio 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Netherlands – 2023 Update (aprile 2024)

Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, Annual Report 2023 (maggio 2024)

Jesuit Refugee Service UK, After Brook House: continued abuses in immigration detention (maggio 2024)

Sea-Watch, Airborne Quarterly Factsheet: January-March 2024 (maggio 2024)

EUAA, Asylum Report 2024 (giugno 2024)

UNHCR, Mapping of Protection Services. A Routes-Based Approach to Protection-Services along Mixed Movement Routes (giugno 2024)

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico del 21 giugno 2024 (giugno 2024)

SOS Humanity, Humanity Overboard How the EU and its member states are obstructing search and rescue in the Mediterranean and depriving refugees of their human rights through migration policies (giugno 2024)

OpenPolis, Le gare d’appalto e il declino dell’accoglienza diffusa (giugno 2024)

OpenPolis, Come procede l’accoglienza dei minori stranieri non accompagnati (giugno 2024)

L’altro diritto – Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto, Rapporto sullo sfruttamento lavorativo e sulla protezione delle sue vittime (giugno 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Poland – 2023 Update (giugno 2024)

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Search and rescue operations and fundamental rights – June 2024 update (luglio 2024)

ECRE e PICUM, Beyond walls and fences: EU funding used for a complex and digitalised border surveillance system. Study on the use of the Border Management and Visa Instrument during the 2021 – 2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (luglio 2024)

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico del 24 luglio 2024 (luglio 2024)

Sistema accoglienza integrazione (SAI), Rapporto annuale SAI. XXII edizione (luglio 2024)

Amnesty International, Liberty and Dignity: Amnesty International’s Observations on the Administrative Detention of Migrant and Asylum-Seeking People in Italy (luglio mi2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Italy – 2023 Update (luglio 2024)

Frontex, Fundamental Rights: 2023 Annual Report (luglio 2024)

IOM, MMC e UNHCR, On This Journey No One Cares if You Live or Die. Volume 2. Abuse, Protection and Justice along Routes between
East and West Africa and Africa’s Mediterranean Coast (luglio 2024) 

AIDA, Country Report on Croatia – 2023 Update (luglio, 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Portugal – 2023 Update (luglio 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Switzerland – 2023 Update (luglio, 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Hungary – 2023 Update (luglio 2024)

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico giornaliero del 23 agosto 2024 (agosto 2024) 

Ministero del lavoro e delle politiche sociali, Gli stranieri nel mercato del lavoro in Italia. XIV rapporto annuale (luglio 2024) 

EUAA, Data analysis of unaccompanied minors in 2023. Fact Sheet No 29 (agosto 2024) 

EUAA, The Job of the Case Officer (agosto 2024)

AIDA, Country Report 2023 Update – Türkiye (agosto 2024) 

EUAA, Victims of human trafficking in asylum and reception. Situational Update No 21 (agosto 2024) 

European Court of Auditors – The EU trust fund for Africa. Despite new approaches, support remain unfocused

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico giornaliero del 20 settembre 2024 (settembre 2024)

FRA, Monitoring fundamental rights during screening and the asylum border procedure – A guide on national independent mechanisms (settembre 2024)

AIDA, AIDA Briefing – Asylum in Europe: The situation of applicants for international protection in 2023 (settembre 2024)

Migration Policy Group, Unpacking Structural and Institutional Racism in Europe: A Comparative Analysis Across 8 EU Member States: Key Issues and Policy Recommendations (settembre 2024)

Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, Exclusion by design: Unveiling unequal treatment and racial inequalities in migration policies (agosto 2024)

Women for Refugee Women, Coercion and Control: The treatment of women seeking asylum in hotel accommodation (settembre 2024)

Amnesty International, Türkiye: Eritreans at imminent risk of forced return (settembre 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Romania – 2023 Update (settembre 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Serbia – 2023 Update (settembre 2024)

AIDA, Country Report on Türkiye – 2023 Update (settembre 2024)

Human Rights Watch, “I Can’t Go Home, Stay Here, or Leave”: Pushbacks and Pullbacks of Syrian Refugees from Cyprus and Lebanon (settembre 2024) 

Refugee Support Aegean, Persisting severe reception deficiencies in understaffed camps (settembre 2024)

Ufficio del massimario e del ruolo della Corte di cassazione, Rassegna tematica della giurisprudenza della Corte di cassazione. Protezione internazionale. Maggio-giugno 2024 (luglio 2024)

European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Rapporto sull’Italia – sesto ciclo di monitoraggio (ottobre 2024)

Ministero dell’interno, Sbarchi e accoglienza dei migranti: tutti i dati. Cruscotto statistico giornaliero del 25 ottobre 2024 (ottobre 2024)

Frontex, EU external borders: Detections down 42% in first 9 months of 2024 (ottobre 2024)