Migration

This article is a new approach that the Proorasis team is offering to everyone interested and it is called “voices from the field”. We are happy to have a network of people that work on the field and they are called to share their experience with us. After all, anyone can understand that many times theory and real-life practice have many differences.

In this article, our special coordinator gives us a glimpse of how working with migrants can affect your personality and teach you experiences that will follow you in your later life as well as providing you with information regarding the way the asylum system is functioning in Europe and also give you with ideas on immigration management.

Immigrant, refugee, asylum seeker, how do these words sound to someone who works in the field and how does he/she change as a person while working with migrants? People often do not distinguish between the three terms but let’s see the meaning of those three, just to have a better understanding.

WHAT EXACTLY IS A REFUGEE, AN ASYLUM SEEKER AND A MIGRANT?

The terms “refugee”, “asylum seeker” and “migrant” are used to describe people who are on the move, who have left their countries and have crossed borders. The terms “migrant” and “refugee” are often used interchangeably but it is important to distinguish between them as there is a legal difference.

1. Who is a refugee? A refugee is a person who has fled their own country because they are at risk of serious human rights violations and persecution there. The risks to their safety and life were so great that they felt they had no choice but to leave and seek safety outside their country because their own government cannot or will not protect them from those dangers. Refugees have a right to international protection.

2. Who is an asylum seeker? An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Seeking asylum is a human right. This means everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum.

3. Who is a migrant? There is no internationally accepted legal definition of a migrant. Like most agencies and organizations, migrants are considered to be people staying outside their country of origin, who are not asylum seekers or refugees. Some migrants leave their country because they want to work, study or join family, for example. Others feel they must leave because of poverty, political unrest, gang violence, natural disasters or other serious circumstances that exist there. Lots of people don’t fit the legal definition of a refugee but could nevertheless be in danger if they went home .

From now on we will use the term asylum seeker since it is the most precise term when we are referring to people fleeing their country and asking protection from another country.

Before I started working on migration in Europe, I thought that NGOs were the ones who basically dealt with the subject, however they are not the only ones but besides the national authorities of each country, there are also other organizations such as the European Union Agency for Asylum, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which provide aid to countries burdened by migration flows, such as mainly Mediterranean countries.

But what happens when a person enters to an EU country and requests international protection?

The European Union is an area of protection for people fleeing persecution or serious harm in their country of origin. Asylum is a fundamental right and an international obligation for countries, as recognized in the 1951 Geneva Convention on the protection of refugees. In the EU, an area of open borders and freedom of movement, member countries share the same fundamental values and joint approach to guarantee high standards of protection for refugees. EU countries have a shared responsibility to welcome asylum seekers in a dignified manner, ensuring that they are treated fairly and their case is examined following uniform standards. This ensures that, no matter where an applicant applies for international protection, the outcome will be similar. Procedures must be fair, effective throughout the EU, and impervious to abuse.

The purpose of all EU states and the EU itself is to create the appropriate infrastructure and mode of operation so that all countries operate in the same way regarding the management of immigration, with a view to justice, objectivity and the fair treatment of all applicants of international protection.

In this purpose, the EU has established a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) in 1999 and in 2020, the European Commission proposed to reform the system through a comprehensive approach to migration and asylum policy based on three main pillars: -efficient asylum and return procedures, -solidarity and fair share of responsibility and -strengthened partnerships with third countries.

The Common European Asylum System sets out common standards and co-operation to ensure that asylum seekers are treated equally in an open and fair system – wherever they apply. The system is governed by five legislative instruments and one agency:

• The Asylum Procedures Directive aims at setting out the conditions for fair, quick and quality asylum decisions. Asylum seekers with special needs receive the necessary support to explain their claim and in particular protection of unaccompanied minors and victims of torture is ensured. Specifically, creates a coherent system to ensure that decisions on applications for international protection are taken efficiently and fairly, by:

-setting clear rules for registering and lodging applications, making sure that everyone who wishes to request international protection can do so quickly and effectively. -setting a time-limit for the examination of applications (in principle six months at the administrative stage), while providing for the possibility to accelerate for applications that are likely to be unfounded or were made in bad faith. -allowing for border procedures and safe country concepts. -training decision makers and ensuring access to legal assistance. -providing adequate support to those in need of special guarantees – for example because of their age, disability, illness including by ensuring that they are granted sufficient time to participate effectively in the procedure. -providing rules on the right to stay and appeals in front of courts or tribunals.

• The Reception Conditions Directive ensures that common standards for reception conditions (such as housing, food and clothing and access to health care, education or employment under certain conditions) are provided for asylum seekers across the EU to ensure a dignified standard of living in accordance with the Charter of fundamental rights. The Directive:

-ensures that applicants have access to housing, food, clothing, health care, education for minors and access to employment (within a maximum period of 9 months) -provides particular attention to vulnerable persons, especially unaccompanied minors and victims of torture. EU countries must conduct an individual assessment to identify the special reception needs of vulnerable persons and to ensure that vulnerable asylum seekers can access medical and psychological support. -includes rules regarding detention of asylum seekers and consider alternatives of detention in full respect of the fundamental rights.

• The Qualification Directive clarifies the grounds for granting international protection and therefore making asylum decisions more robust. It also provides access to rights and integration measures for beneficiaries of international protection. The Qualification Directive sets out criteria for applicants to qualify for refugee status or subsidiary protection status and sets out the rights afforded to persons who have been granted one of those statuses. They include the right to a residence permit, travel document, access to employment, access to education, social welfare, healthcare, access to accommodation, access to integration facilities, as well as specific provisions for children and vulnerable persons. More specifically, it:

-clarifies the grounds for granting and withdrawing international protection -regulates exclusion and cessation grounds -improves the access of beneficiaries of international protection to rights and integration measures -takes into account the specific practical difficulties faced by beneficiaries of international protection -ensures that the best interest of the child and gender-related aspects are taken into account in the assessment of asylum applications, as well as in the implementation of the rules on the content of international protection.

• The Dublin Regulation enhances the protection of asylum seekers during the process of establishing the State responsible for examining the application, and clarifies the rules governing the relations between states. It creates a system to detect early problems in national asylum or reception systems and address their root causes before they develop into fully fledged crises. Its objective is to ensure quick access to the asylum procedures and the examination of an application on the merits by a single, clearly determined EU country. The Regulation establishes the Member State responsible for the examination of the asylum application. The criteria for establishing responsibility are, in hierarchical order:

-family considerations, -recent possession of visa or residence permit in a Member State and -whether the applicant has entered EU irregularly, or regularly.

• The EURODAC Regulation supports the determination of the Member State responsible under the Dublin Regulation and allows law enforcement authorities access to the EU database of the fingerprints of asylum seekers under strictly limited circumstances in order to prevent, detect or investigate the most serious crimes, such as murder, and terrorism.

• The European Union Agency for Asylum contributes to improving the functioning and implementation of the Common European Asylum System. It provides operational and technical assistance to Member States in the assessment of applications for international protection across Europe.

Thus, we can understand that a chain of interdependent procedures must be created, which without going into many details, starts from the entry of an applicant into the territory of a European state, the granting of the possibility for this person to apply for international protection (in the first stage only the application is made) explaining the reason he/she left his/her country and requests protection. This person is provided with basic necessities, such as clothing, medical care and protection of vulnerable groups (women alone with children, unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, people with disabilities, elderly people, people possible victims of human trafficking etc.). After they have been provided with shelter and food, the aim is to be able to process their request as soon as possible, so that they do not have to wait for a long time and the state itself is not burdened to a large extent, however there are cases where people wait years for their case to be assessed.

Eventually we reach at the stage of the examination of the request for international protection, where after an interview in which the asylum seeker is given the opportunity to explain in detail the reasons, he/she left his/her country, a decision is issued by the national authorities of the state where the applicant applied for international protection, regarding the granting or not of a protection status to this person (refugee status or subsidiary protection status). The system has taken care of all possibilities and it is possible for an applicant to appeal and have their request reexamined in case of a rejection, however we will not go into further details in this article.

In addition, the European countries that are not host countries of the applicants in order to relieve disproportionately burdened countries, have given the possibility, after processing the data, to a certain number of people to relocate to the respective country so that their application can be examined there and not in the host country. Also, EU has enabled applicants who enter a host country but who have a connection with persons recognized with a protection status in another European country to go directly there, while respecting the conditions that exist, such as being dependent members.

We saw the rights that an asylum seeker has in EU states, but an asylum seeker does not have only rights but also obligations, which are mostly the same within the European countries but they might have minor differences. Let’s see the rights and obligations that an asylum seeker has within Greece : No matter where an asylum seeker is in the process of your asylum application, they always have the following rights and obligations:

I. The right to receive information about their asylum application, rights and duties in a language they understand. II. The right to access basic assistance including shelter, food, legal, medical and psycho-social assistance from UNHCR and other organizations. III. Obligation to cooperate fully with the Greek authorities.

As soon as they have their asylum seeker card, they have certain rights and obligations:

i. They can legally live in Greece until the asylum service has made a final decision on their asylum case. This means they cannot be returned to another country against their will, while they wait for the decision. ii. Children can go to school. iii. While in possession of their pre-registration card, they can move freely within Greece, but they are NOT allowed to go to another country. iv. The Greek State will provide them with a place to live in a site on the mainland. They will not have to pay any rent there. They cannot choose which site the State offers them. They do not have to live there, if they do not want to. v. They can get access to primary health care, but for some advanced services they may have to pay a minimal fee. vi. While they are pre-registered, they do NOT have the right to work in Greece. After they are fully registered, they have the right to work in Greece. If they work, they will have to pay national taxes. vii. They must respect and follow the law of the country; breaking national laws will result in the suspension of their rights as an asylum seeker. viii. They must cooperate with the authorities who are examining their application. ix. They must tell the asylum office every time their address or phone number changes.

Let’s continue and have a view of the so-called camps, the examination centers where asylum seekers are firstly been guided when entering into the territory of a European state illegally/irregularly. What is a refugee camp?

Refugee camps are temporary facilities built to provide immediate protection and assistance to people who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution or violence. While camps are not established to provide permanent solutions, they offer a safe haven for refugees and meet their most basic needs such as food, water, shelter, medical treatment and other basic services during emergencies. In situations of long-term displacement, the services provided in camps are expanded to include educational and livelihood opportunities as well as materials to build more permanent homes to help people rebuild their lives. These services are also offered to host communities .

The camps are like a micro-society, which has peaceful people but also riots, what matters is that there is justice in dealing with them and an effort to smoothly integrate into the respective countries society where they stay to live and create families.

For people working in the field, this is a demanding workplace which initially gives you mixed feelings, seeing the hardships each person may have gone through to reach a country but also seeing the joy and gratitude they feel for the opportunity of a new beginning given to them in each country. The employee in this field must develop his/her interpersonal and multicultural skills, so that he/she can manage people who have completely different cultures from his/her own, a condition that often brings you into questioning. There are days when you think you are helping people, days when you have to manage the reality that unfortunately you can’t do anything for someone, but also days when you question the fact that you have become resistant to difficult everyday images and stories that often make you not want to go to work.

Seeing images that you have never before seen in your life, and having everyday necessities for granted, many of us don’t think about what we would do if we lost them. The daily contact with people who were mostly forced to leave their countries is a great life lesson and reminder of the importance of living in peace, dignity and with human rights.

Since the majority of the asylum seekers are coming from eastern countries, different societies regarding the way of life, the perspective towards genders and women specifically, the question is, are they eventually able to integrate into a western society and adapt into different laws, the acceptance of them and be able to make concessions on matters important to them such as religion?

“Migration into Europe in the last decade triggered numerous negative reactions, fueled by a public discourse inducing fear and resentment towards people arriving from other countries. The term “integration” identifies a dynamic process of mutual adaptation where both migrants and host societies bear some responsibilities in its fulfillment. Integration is a long-term investment in human capital. The ultimate aim is inclusion or an inclusive participation from both sides, which implies that all members of the society have the opportunity to participate in social, cultural and political life, encouraging a sense of togetherness.

The process of integration may demand special enabling measures to develop the ability of immigrants to achieve the same social and economic outcomes as natives, taking into account their characteristics. The host countries benefit from the successful integration of migrants and refugees. Successful integration benefits the whole society, maximizing the advantages for all parties involved in that process. Although the state has to invest money in integration, when the migrants arrive and a few years after, their macroeconomic impact becomes positive as they become permanent residents, are integrated in the labor market and pay taxes.

Migrants and refugees boost the working-age population, arrive with skills, and therefore contribute to human capital development and to technological progress. Furthermore, local communities can benefit greatly from the richness offered by the diversity of cultures, commitment to work hard to build a future for oneself and one’s family, and the new social contract that clarifies the rights and responsibilities of all actors in society” .

Each European country has its own way of integrating immigrants, a fact that probably does not add success in integrating policies of Europe. There is no consensus on the definition of ‘integration’ and it is true that there is no formal definition in international refugee law. The European institutions define integration as a two-way process in which both the host country and the immigrants themselves are responsible: ‘This dynamic two-way process on integration means not only expecting third-country nationals to embrace EU fundamental values and learn the host language but also offering them meaningful opportunities to participate in the economy and society of the Member State where they settle’. Hence immigrants have an obligation to respect the rule of law, European values, and our social model, tax system and political institutions.

Taking all these into account, can all immigrants be integrated into western societies? Let’s take for example Muslims, who are often the subject of debate because of their adherence to their religion. In my opinion, the actions of the majority of Muslims are drawn by the way of life Islam defines their life and choices. A Muslim cannot easily disobey the injunctions of the Koran, since Islam has its own rules, which in many ways are beyond the state’s rules, and every Muslim is pressured to follow them.

Let’s take for example woman’s value in Islam, the pressure to cover their face or the acceptance of homosexuality, values that are differently approached into modern European societies. It is a fact that many Muslim migrants will not be able to integrate into European societies thus the existence of “ghetto”, but on the contrary there are other migrants that despite the differences are trying to integrate and open their mindset to new stimuli.

Thus, in my opinion the integration of Muslims can be difficult and will demand a closer monitoring by each state authorities regarding its smooth application, but we cannot approach a portion of people by considering the actions of the majority. A question that might arise is since the majority of asylum seekers have as their goal to reach to Europe, until when Europe will be able to manage all these migrant flows?

The EU has been seeking to reform its asylum system since more than a million people reached its shores in 2015, and burdened countries of first arrival such as Greece and Italy. Just a few months ago, on the 4th of October 2023, EU member states’ representatives reached an agreement on the final component of a common European asylum and migration policy.

Member states sealed their negotiating mandate on a regulation on crisis situations, including instrumentalization of migration, and force majeure in the field of migration and asylum. The new law establishes the framework that would allow member states to address situations of crisis in the field of asylum and migration by adjusting certain rules, for instance concerning the registration of asylum applications or the asylum border procedure. These countries would also be able to request solidarity and support measures from the EU and its member states .

It is clear that Europe is making steps to prevent situations such as the 2015 migration crisis, but is also gradually changing its policies to always be ready to deal with unexpected entries. After all, the way immigration is managed is an issue closely related and intertwined with politics, and it is politics that decides on how to manage all situations.

Sources:

https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/common-european-asylum-system_en https://help.unhcr.org/greece/rights-and-duties/rights-and-duties-of-asylum-seekers/ https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/camps/ Council of Europe: Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons Integration of migrants and refugees: benefits for all parties involved Sage Journals: Lessons From Migrant Integration Into European Societies https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/1781685820913391 Migration policy: Council agrees mandate on EU law dealing with crisis situations, 04/10/2023, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/10/04/migration-policy-council-agrees-mandate-on-eu-law-dealing-with-crisis-situations/

Happy to see you again!