The attempts of the European Union (EU) to externalize its immigration policy towards non-EU member states have significantly increased in momentum during the 20 00s in response to intensifying concerns about the changing context of the EU’s external security challenges and its strategic aim to guarantee stability and peace in its neighborhood through fostering development. Accordingly, four main developments have characterized the external dimension of the EU’s immigration policy. Firstly, the 2004 and 2007 eastern enlargements brought a new debate to the EU concerning the security of its expanded borders, especially against increasing flows of irregular migrants and asylum seekers. Secondly, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the subsequent attacks in Madrid and London, and the Paris attack in 2015 led to an increasing emphasis on linking migration issues with security and terrorism. Thirdly, owing to intensifying demographic challenges in the EU, migration started to be addressed within a Europe-wide debate about the transformation of European welfare states and the consequent need for new migrants within Europe’s labor markets. Lastly, following the Arab Spring and civil war in Syria, European states are confronted with the biggest migrant and refugee crisis on their doors since World War II. Thus, the EU’s perception of immigration has become somewhat paradoxical: on the one hand, the EU views increasing migration flows as a security challenge to be controlled through establishing effective cooperation mechanisms with third countries and influencing their migration policies in order to ensure the sustainability of the EU’s internal security; on the other hand, it also recognizes that migration can be a tool for development, in both the EU and non-member third countries. As a result of this tension that has developed around the twin discourses of ‘security’ and ‘development’, the gradual evolution of the external dimension of the EU’s immigration policy and its implications for third countries has emerged as a new and challenging field worthy of study, both theoretically and empirically.
Given this context, this book investigates how the external dimension of the EU’s immigration policy is evolving, through which instruments, mechanisms and frameworks the policy is expanding beyond EU borders, to what extent it effectively influences third countries, and whether it achieves the shared strategic policy targets. Taking as its starting point the debate concerning the tension between the securitization of migration and migration’s developmental aspects, this study also examines which one of these dominates the EU’s external actions in immigration policy by focusing on possible consistencies and contradictions between the EU’s rhetoric and practice. Accordingly, it discusses the critical questions concerning whether the EU’s externalization of immigration policy really represents ‘burden sharing’ with third countries, as suggested by EU rhetoric, or whether it is more ‘burden shifting’ onto partner countries.
1.1 The Purpose and Relevance of the Study
The overall purpose of this book is to conceptualize the development and institutionalization of the external dimension of the EU’s immigration policy and its implications for transit countries by conducting a comparative case study of Turkey and Morocco. The main research questions for this study are why the EU has been developing an external dimension to its immigration and asylum policy, and why and how it has attempted to govern and transform the immigration policies of non-member third countries beyond its borders. In an attempt to address these questions, the book first aims to identify the reasons that have influenced the EU to externalize its immigration policy by considering the EU’s need for third country cooperation in order to better manage migration and asylum flows into Europe. Secondly, this study seeks to understand the institutionalization of policy externalization by focusing on relevant gradually evolving legislation, pillarization and conflicts of competence between EU institutions, and identifying the evolving policy instruments. Thirdly, applying relevant theoretical approaches of ‘external governance’ (Lavenex 2004; Lavenex and Schimmelfennig 2009) and ‘Europeanization beyond Europe’ (Schimmelfennig 2012) with a focus on ‘external horizontal differentiation’ (Schimmelfennig et al. 2015), the study also aims to conceptualize the external dimension of the EU’s immigration policy by analyzing its implications for transit countries. These implications are evaluated in two ways: (a) the success and effectiveness of the EU in stimulating policy expansion and change in non-EU member transit countries in terms of the transformation and Europeanization of their domestic policies in migration management; (b) the consequences of the EU’s policy externalization of immigration to transit countries, with a focus on the increased negative externalities for them. Finally, two specific cases, Turkey and Morocco, will be examined in order to better explain and understand how, and to what extent, the EU has successfully externalized its migration policy. This not only provides a comparison between the Europeanization of migration policies in the two countries, but also provides a unique study field for understanding the successes and limits or constraints of the relevant approaches by applying them specifically to the migration field and to specific country cases.
1.2 Methodology
In order to respond to the academic challenge posed by the broad and complicated context of the policy area, this study uses three different research methodologies interchangeably in different parts of the research. First, it attempts to conceptualize the development of the external dimension of the EU’s immigration policy with a focus on its reasons, aims and policy instruments through a descriptive and qualitative analysis. One of the innovative contributions of this part is that it provides a categorization of the policy instruments used in the two case studies, on Turkey and Morocco. The main driving force of EU policy evolution in general is analyzed with reference to the approaches of ‘remote-control’ and ‘root-cause’, first proposed by Boswell (2003). Second, based on the findings of the literature review, the study uses a qualitative method derived from the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of ‘external governance’ and ‘Europeanization beyond Europe’, applying them to the migration policy field. Of these two approaches, the Europeanization literature is taken as the main overarching theoretical approach to apply throughout the study as it provides the most relevant framework for the cases of both Turkey and Morocco. The external governance literature is also useful to an extent, in terms of its contribution to the debate on modes of governance. Third, in the last part of the study, a comparative analysis of Turkey and Morocco is conducted in order to understand how the EU’s externalization of immigration policy affects migration patterns and policies in these two important transit countries.
Concerning the comparative part of the study, Turkey and Morocco were chosen as case studies. These two countries act as the two main gates of the EU’s external borders because they serve as two significant transit countries, especially for irregular migration and asylum flows heading for Europe. Both are located between the prosperous West and other politically and economically unstable regions, which makes them an attractive destination for many irregular migrants and asylum seekers. As the largest share of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Europe come from the Middle East and Africa, Turkey has become the preferred gate for flows from Middle Eastern countries, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, whereas Morocco is an important gate for flows from Africa. When compared with the economic and political situations in the migrants’ countries of origin, Turkey and Morocco can be considered to have relatively much better situations for their region. This also puts both countries at risk of becoming attractive destination countries. Moreover, both countries have a vested interest in maintaining their economic and political stability at the external borders of Europe, in contrast to the increasing tensions in the region, such as the ‘Arab Spring’ and, more recently, the ‘Syrian crisis’. Accordingly, Turkey and Morocco are both highlighted as two main transit countries that the EU should strengthen cooperation with in many areas. Another prominent factor is that both countries have a strong interest to cooperate with the EU and maintain a two-way process, which increases the degree of intended and unintended effects of EU actions on their policy changes. In contrast to some other North African countries, such as Libya, which did not firmly respond to EU actions, this dialogue is more reciprocal in the cases of Turkey and Morocco. As a candidate country, Turkey is dealt with within the EU’s enlargement policy while Morocco is dealt with within the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), and lacks the prospect of EU membership perspective, although there is still a strong interest to develop closer cooperation with the EU. Rapprochement with the EU represents a fundamental foreign policy choice of Morocco, which provided a conducive environment to test the progress of ‘policy transfer’ or ‘policy adaptation’ in many areas. Finally, both countries share a long history and experience in policies of migration management as Turks and Moroccans have formed two of the largest migrant communities in Europe.
1.3 Structure of the Book
Chapter 2 presents a broad theoretical and conceptual framework for analyzing and explaining the externalization of the EU’s immigration policy. It scrutinizes the relevant theoretical framework, approaches and concepts that include various common, interlinked themes, concepts and also potential constraints on the formulation and implementation of policy externalization. More specifically, ‘external governance’ and ‘Europeanization beyond Europe’ are studied to guide the research. The empirical links and tools discussed in this chapter are then applied to the migration field with a focus on the nature, scope, actors, modes and limits of cooperation concerning relations between the EU and third countries. Finally, after providing a general theoretical framework for analyzing the external dimension of the EU policies, two main approaches namely ‘remote control’ and ‘root cause’ that help to explain the essential motives behind the EU’s externalization of its migration policy towards third countries are examined.
Chapter 3 provides an overview of some milestones in the emergence, institutionalization and further development of the external dimension of the EU’s immigration policy. It examines the specific policy areas in externalizing European immigration policy by focusing on border management, mobility partnerships, visa policies, readmission agreements and asylum policy. The significance of the chapter results from its attempt to lay out these policy areas which are reviewed in detail to assess the impact and progress of the Europeanization of the immigration policies of Turkey and Morocco. Lastly, the EU’s cooperation with third countries is considered in the context of the debated issue of ‘shifting the burden’ or ‘sharing the burden’ by referring to the negative externalities occurring for third countries as the result of their cooperation with the EU. It provides a basis for a critical policy analysis of the interaction between EU rhetoric and practice to understand whether the EU’s policy practice meets its policy objectives, before applying them to the case studies of Turkey and Morocco.
Chapter 4 explores the conceptualization of Turkey as a transit migration country and assesses the implications of the EU’s actions to externalize its migration policy within the enlargement process. It analyzes the way in which transit migration in Turkey has been approached within the EU’s enlargement policy under existing dynamics concerning Turkey on the one hand and the EU’s efforts to externalize its immigration policy on the other. The chapter reviews international migration patterns from and to Turkey under the categories of regular migration, irregular migration, shuttle/circular migration and asylum seeking. Europeanization of Turkey’s immigration policy is tested in terms of its progress on legislative adaptation, border management, visa policy, readmission agreements and asylum policy. The limits and deadlocks of cooperation that reveal the negative externalities imposed on Turkey are also studied as influential factors concerning the transformation and the success of cooperation in the policy field. After examining how effective technical and financial mechanisms are for inducing policy change in Turkey, the chapter also highlights the negative implications for Turkey as result of the Eurocentric externalization of EU migration policies.
Chapter 5 analyzes to what extent and how Morocco’s immigration policies are affected by the EU, and what the implications are for Morocco of the EU’s externalization of its immigration policy. The chapter first describes the migration experience of Morocco, particularly its evolution from being an emigration country to a transit and a destination one. It moves on to consider the strategic importance of Africa for EU migration policy, with the ENP being used to demonstrate Morocco’s distinctiveness in being granted ‘advanced status’ by the EU. Following this descriptive analysis, it explains the progress and limits of the cooperation, using the same policy benchmarks employed for the Turkish case, including harmonization of legislation, border management, visa policy, readmission agreements and asylum policy. In doing so, although there are significant differences between the two transit countries concerning the mechanisms of cooperation (enlargement and neighborhood policy), the study tries to highlight both convergence and divergences of policy cooperation in migration, irrespective of grand policy frameworks, but rather by attending to the similar deadlocks concerning migration policy. The negative externalities raised for Morocco are studied to understand how EU immigration policy may have similar implications for third countries, which might help explain the resistance of these countries to accepting further EU externalization.
Chapter 6 presents the concluding remarks derived from three main strands of analysis: theoretical debate, conceptual and institutional analysis, and comparative analysis. Accordingly, the research findings examine the relevance of current theoretical debates and also consider a number of shortcomings in explaining the general framework concerning EU policy externalization in general. The comparative analysis between Turkey and Morocco indicates that the debate over the EU’s externalization of its immigration policy is more likely to be perceived as shifting the burden of keeping unwanted migrants onto non-member transit countries, rather than sharing the burden with them. Finally, given the relevance and timeliness of this book to current developments the chapter provides some policy suggestions for the future prospects of cooperation on migration management.
References
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