A Place for the Asylum Seekers. European migration policies and their socio-spatial impacts

Project Information

PASS

Grant agreement ID: 752021

DOI

10.3030/752021

Project closed

EC signature date 28 March 2017

Start date 15 February 2018

End date 14 February 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 165 598,80

EU contribution

€ 165 598,80

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PASS (A Place for the Asylum Seekers. European migration policies and their socio-spatial impacts)

Reporting period: 2018-02-15 to 2020-02-14

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Marie-Curie project A Place for Asylum Seekers. European migration policies and their socio-spatial impacts (PASS) analysed the socio-spatial impact of asylum legislation in the European Union since 2013 - when the latest Dublin III Regulation (No. 604/2013) and communitarian efforts to achieve an integrated system on migration had become an increasingly central issue in EU policies.
In this context, “socio-spatial” impact referred to two primary and concomitant aspects. On the one hand, the controlled formal spaces and practices implemented in order to manage the phenomenon: checkpoints, sorting centres, reception procedures, and the EU Relocation Programme. On the other hand, it concerns the daily life of migrants who are divided into different categories defined by the legislation itself, such as legal/illegal, forced/economic, asylum seekers/refugees and so on.
The project included a dual perspective: 1. A top-down perspective, involved in the analysis of the European, Italian and Dutch immigration policies; and 2. A bottom-up perspective, embedded in the migration experience and focused on the migrants' agency. The project wished to give visibility and resonance to the richness and complexity of migrants' life stories and desires, as well as a deeper understanding of the difficulties encountered during their journey and stay in Europe; not least as a result of a more stringent legislation. In the PASS project, the personal reasons and choices at the base of individual mobility are observed alongside broader social, political, and economic processes.

The final goal of PASS was to elaborate empirical data in order to build more human rights-oriented policies, in line with the needs expressed by migrants and by the European Commission (Understanding and Tackling the Migration Challenge: The Role of Research, 4-5 February 2016), which requests the dissemination of results as a means to combat migrant misconceptions. This goal is intended to foster more inclusive societies that undoubtedly entail a more in-depth review of how migration management is imagined and executed.

Migration issues are still one of the main points on the EU political agenda. Given the tensions arise between the EU Member States on the asylum system recently, the topic remains still crucial for the EU society, and the same goes to PASS research and its impact (see below, section n. 3).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"In order to understand the socio-territorial impact of asylum legislation and policies in the EU, several different research tools were deliberately used during the project. Firstly, the researcher analysed the European legislative texts on asylum and the Italian parliamentary debates on the Ddl. Security and immigration 840/2018; the most recent act amending the Italian asylum system. Focusing on the “law-spatial-nexus” (Bennett & Layard, 2015, cited p. 418, see Blomley and Clark) allows us to move ""from the visual and political order of representation to the spatial transformations they generate"" (Tazzioli, 2015, p. 6). Laws and policies implemented by the Member States provide the basis for the establishment of specific subjects’ categories (e.g. asylum-seekers/irregular/refugees) as well as for the structure of asylum procedures, by defining temporal and spatial structures (different types of centres and their location).

Secondly, different ethnographic fieldworks were carried out with the aim of more closely understanding the socio-territorial impact of the legislation and, above all, its implementation on the ground. To this end, the researcher interviewed both migrants and individuals involved in the asylum and reception system in Italy and in the Netherlands, including NGO workers, public officials, and political representatives. During the fieldwork research, the researcher tried to understand - in connection with the previous discursive analysis - the impact of the law and the reception system on migrants with different legal status, as well as the autonomous actions carried out by migrants in (more or less stark) contrast with policies at EU and/or national level.

Given the project topic and aims, the most important achievements reached by the Project are represented by 1. scientific results; 2. dissemination results set up in order to meet a broad and non-academic audience; 3. data and analysis useful for policy-makers. In particular:

1. Wide academic dissemination of the results was ensured through conferences and guest lectures held in different countries (Italy, the Netherland, Britain, USA) as well as via different papers. The scientific quality of the results is certificated by their inclusion in peer-reviewed journals and books [see the “Publication list” included in the webdoc].
2. The fellow took different actions in order to reach a broad and non-academic audience. In collaboration with the University of Genoa, the researcher was involved in the scientific committee of an exhibition of migrants’ drawings, held in Genoa in May 2019. Furthermore, she set up a website - the PASS web-doc - which contains data, information, links, bibliography, the researcher’s scientific publications as well as the illustration of the fieldwork in Italy (the Graphic Novel “Diary from the border”).
3. A map of the Italian reception centres and the explanation of the Italian Asylum System was included in the XIII Annual Report of the Italian Geographical Society (2018), presented in Rome at the Chamber of Deputies on the 22 October 2018 [D 4.1]. Moreover, a list of recommendations was included in the PASS web-doc for policy-makers involved in migration management."

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The scope of the academic publication and of the public presentation was to contribute to the state of the art within Border studies, Migration and Refugees’ studies and to further the critical debate on the EU asylum system and migration management. In particular, the published and under review publications are inherently part of the broad debate on migrants’ agency and migration policy with specific attention given to formal and informal camps and shelters.

The dissemination and communication of all results obtained were extensive as possible through different media both on paper and in electronic form, paying particular attention to different targets, in particular through the PASS web-doc targeted at both academic public and the general public.

PASS project has essential societal implications because it contributes to a more inclusive EU asylum-seeker police. Underlining critical aspects of the implementation of the asylum system both at the EU and at the national level, the project brings important benefits for society as a whole.

In particular, addressing the issue including also migrants' perspective (even of the irregular ones), PASS aimed to a) improve the understanding of immigrants' experiences and problems; b) dispel common myths on refugees and immigrants in Europe; c) combat misconceptions about them; and, c) report the worsening of asylum policies.

In doing so, the project is also in line with the ECRE, UNHCR and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, which have highlighted critical aspects of Dublin Regulation accusing it of undermining refugee rights, impeding the personal welfare of asylum-seekers, separating of families and denial of an effective opportunity to appeal against transfers and, also, creating an uneven distribution of asylum claims among the Member States.

The Roja Camp in Ventimiglia