Brief
Migrations: what solidarity with Italy?
In Italy, a government strongly disputing the lack of European migratory solidarity is taking shape. At the same time, NGOs denounce EU policies that help to increase the number of migrants and refugees detained in Libya in unworthy conditions, and the European Council of June 2018 is expected to adopt the revision of the European common asylum system. In this context, what about European responses to the successive arrivals of migrants in Italy?
In six years, Italy has experienced two influxes of migrants that have sparked lively debate within the Italian political class. At the beginning of 2011, at the time of the “Arab Springs”, it had received nearly 30,000 people. In the first half of 2017, after the closure of the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean, almost 100 000 people arrived in Italy, which represents an increase of more than 20% compared to the same period in 2016. Even though the second influx episode did not last long, with Italy having even recorded a sharp drop in irregular migrant arrivals overall since the summer of 2017, this second episode contributed to the success of the populist, anti-system and anti-european political parties in the parliamentary elections of 4 March 2018. Among the complaints of the new coalition of the Five-Star Movement and the Northern League towards Europe, the question of solidarity of the European migration and asylum system has figured in a good position.
Faced with these repeated Italian requests, Corinne Balleix analyzes the way in which European migration policy has evolved.
Only available in French