Migration in the Euro-Mediterranean region : between International law and EU policies

Abstract

It is important for the EU and its Member States to place the phenomenon of migration in its proper context. Contextualising the issue of migration will assist in avoiding sensationalist language or overreaction by the EU, its Member States and the citizens of the Member States at large. The first basic fact that needs to be factored in any discussion about migration is that migration itself is an entirely natural phenomenon that has taken place continuously throughout human history1. Indeed, the history of Europe itself is a history of immigration and emigration. In recent European history, there have been large movements of peoples within Europe in the aftermath of the two world wars, as well as large scale migration from Europe to North America and Australia throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century.