Managing migration in the Mediterranean : is the EU failing to balance state security, human security, and human rights?

Abstract

In the early summer of 2015, when this contribution was written, migration across the Mediterranean was one of most hotly debated topics by the European media, political classes, and the general public. With the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers arriving on Europe’s doorstep at their highest levels ever, and scores drowning while crossing the Mediterranean, pictures of dead bodies floating in the sea dominated the press. Right-wing parties across Europe issued warnings of a threat to European culture and identity. In a passionate speech, the president of one EU member state identified migration as a threat to Europe’s existence, linking the growth of irregular migration to the rise of terrorism, higher unemployment, and increasing crime rates. At the same time, civil society organizations and numerous citizens and politicians invoked human-rights obligations and humanitarian concerns, and a wave of civic engagement was evident in many European countries, manifesting itself, for example, in the private Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) initiative to rescue migrants at sea. As to the European Union’s response to the tragedy unfolding in the Mediterranean, it has been an ungainly combination of humanitarian and security concerns. The EU’s dominant understanding is that migration is a security issue, which has led to a focus on border management and policing, and even military elements. In the field of security studies, a rethinking and broadening of the understanding of what constitutes a security threat has led, since the 1980s, to migration being seen largely as a security issue: “The duality of threats apparently caused by migration to both national sovereignty and human security are largely reflected in much of the recent academic literature.” This contribution asks whether migration can justifiably be considered a security issue, and under which circumstances this may be the case. It focuses on two approaches to migration: a state-centric approach related to the notion of national security, and a human-security approach, based on human-security and human-rights considerations. It concludes with a brief evaluation of the EU’s response to the migration crisis in the Mediterranean, arguing that Europe is betraying the principles on which it is founded by focusing insufficiently on the primacy of human rights. The contribution will not consider issues related to the reception, accommodation, and integration of migrants making their way across the Mediterranean Sea, as these are issues that deserve separate in-depth consideration. Nor will it discuss the Eurocentric nature of the debate on migration in the Mediterranean, which emphasizes the concerns of developed countries over those of developing countries (which host far more migrants with significantly less material means to cope with them).