E.g., 04/16/2024
E.g., 04/16/2024
Moving Europe Beyond Crisis

Moving Europe Beyond Crisis

Europe faced its worst refugee crisis since the Second World War, with more than 1 million people applying for asylum in 2015 and 2016. As the systems that were designed to manage these flows were under intense pressure—not least the Common European Asylum System (CEAS)—the international community needs new ideas to manage mixed flows and create sustainable long-term solutions for refugees. To address these knowledge gaps, MPI Europe has invested in a series of research and data reports, commentaries, data tools, and multimedia primers to shed light on ongoing policy debates and offer innovative solutions, collected on this page.

EUOfficer Asylum Greece

Featured

As maritime arrivals climbed in 2015, EU policymakers struggled to mount a coordinated response. A range of ad hoc crisis-response tools emerged, but many officials worry that if another migration emergency were to hit Europe, the European Union may still be unprepared. This report traces the evolution of the EU response to the 2015–16 crisis and lays out recommendations to lock in progress and shore up weaknesses.

_SyrianRefugeesGreece

Featured

Many of the structural issues that resulted in European asylum systems being stretched to the breaking point in 2015-16 remain unresolved. This report critically evaluates the legal and operational shortcomings of the Common European Asylum System at a time when reform is on the table.

Recent Activity

MPIEurope MoriaCommentary UNHCR Flickr
Commentaries
September 2020
Greece’s Moria Tragedy: The Crash Test for the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum
By  Hanne Beirens
Measuring Up? Using Monitoring and Evaluation to Make Good on the Promise of Refugee Sponsorship
Policy Briefs
June 2020
Measuring Up? Using Monitoring and Evaluation to Make Good on the Promise of Refugee Sponsorship
By  Hanne Beirens and Aliyyah Ahad
EuropeAsylumCOVID_FlickrNicolasVigier
Commentaries
April 2020
The COVID-19 Pandemic Suggests the Lessons Learned by European Asylum Policymakers After the 2015 Migration Crisis Are Fading
By  Hanne Beirens
coverthumb MPIE ChasingEfficiency EuropeAsylum
Reports
March 2020
Chasing Efficiency: Can Operational Changes Fix European Asylum Systems?
By  Hanne Beirens
Preparing for the Unknown: Designing Effective Predeparture Orientation for Resettling Refugees
Reports
May 2019
Preparing for the Unknown: Designing Effective Predeparture Orientation for Resettling Refugees
By  Susan Fratzke and Lena Kainz
Coverthumb MPIE EUfunds migrationpolicy
Policy Briefs
March 2019
Money Wise: Improving How EU Funds Support Migration and Integration Policy Objectives
By  Hanne Beirens and Aliyyah Ahad
Coverthumb MigrantDecisionmakingGreece
Policy Briefs
August 2018
Deciding Which Road to Take: Insights into How Migrants and Refugees in Greece Plan Onward Movement
By  Katie Kuschminder
Coverthumb_RefugeeIntegrationCostBenefitAnalysis
Reports
July 2018
A Needed Evidence Revolution: Using Cost-Benefit Analysis to Improve Refugee Integration Programming
By  Meghan Benton and Paul Diegert

Pages

Measuring Up? Using Monitoring and Evaluation to Make Good on the Promise of Refugee Sponsorship
Policy Briefs
June 2020
Measuring Up? Using Monitoring and Evaluation to Make Good on the Promise of Refugee Sponsorship
By  Hanne Beirens and Aliyyah Ahad
coverthumb MPIE ChasingEfficiency EuropeAsylum
Reports
March 2020
Chasing Efficiency: Can Operational Changes Fix European Asylum Systems?
By  Hanne Beirens
Preparing for the Unknown: Designing Effective Predeparture Orientation for Resettling Refugees
Reports
May 2019
Preparing for the Unknown: Designing Effective Predeparture Orientation for Resettling Refugees
By  Susan Fratzke and Lena Kainz
Coverthumb MPIE EUfunds migrationpolicy
Policy Briefs
March 2019
Money Wise: Improving How EU Funds Support Migration and Integration Policy Objectives
By  Hanne Beirens and Aliyyah Ahad
Coverthumb MigrantDecisionmakingGreece
Policy Briefs
August 2018
Deciding Which Road to Take: Insights into How Migrants and Refugees in Greece Plan Onward Movement
By  Katie Kuschminder
Coverthumb_RefugeeIntegrationCostBenefitAnalysis
Reports
July 2018
A Needed Evidence Revolution: Using Cost-Benefit Analysis to Improve Refugee Integration Programming
By  Meghan Benton and Paul Diegert
Coverthumb_EU CrisisResponse
Reports
June 2018
After the Storm: Learning from the EU Response to the Migration Crisis
By  Elizabeth Collett and Camille Le Coz
Coverthumb_SI4RI ConferenceReport 2018
Reports
May 2018
Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion Conference Report: Maintaining Momentum and Creating Lasting Change
By  Liam Patuzzi and Alexandra Embiricos

Pages

RefugeeBoat BenWhite CAFOD
Feature
June 22, 2016
Asylum Seeker and Migrant Flows in the Mediterranean Adapt Rapidly to Changing Conditions

Movements of migrants and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean have shown to be highly fluid, adapting quickly to changing conditions at origin, transit, and destination. This article examines the shifts in flows across the three major Mediterranean routes since 2008 and the complex web of often interconnected factors underpinning these movements.

RefugeesinFYRM StephenRyanIFRC Flickr
Feature
September 24, 2015
Europe’s Migration Crisis in Context: Why Now and What Next?

As Europe struggles to reach a consensus on how to respond to the refugee crisis, the seemingly unending flow of migrants and refugees arriving on its shores is bringing national asylum systems to their breaking point. This article analyzes the context of the crisis, discussing the root causes of the flows, why they are spiking now, and growing protection challenges.

archive >
MPIEurope MoriaCommentary UNHCR Flickr
Commentaries
September 2020
Greece’s Moria Tragedy: The Crash Test for the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum
By  Hanne Beirens
EuropeAsylumCOVID_FlickrNicolasVigier
Commentaries
April 2020
The COVID-19 Pandemic Suggests the Lessons Learned by European Asylum Policymakers After the 2015 Migration Crisis Are Fading
By  Hanne Beirens
EUTurkeydeal Commentary2018
Commentaries
March 2018
Turkey-Style Deals Will Not Solve the Next EU Migration Crisis
By  Elizabeth Collett
AsylumProcessingGermany
Commentaries
January 2018
Borderline Irrelevant: Why Reforming the Dublin Regulation Misses the Point
By  Elizabeth Collett
_Refugees
Commentaries
March 2017
The Migration Crisis Is Over: Long Live the Migration Crisis
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou
_DutchElections
Commentaries
March 2017
The Dutch Elections: How to Lose and Still Shape the Direction of a Country—and Possibly a Continent?
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
_TunisiaCamp
Commentaries
February 2017
New EU Partnerships in North Africa: Potential to Backfire?
By  Elizabeth Collett
SyrianChildren UNHCR Flickr
Commentaries
April 2016
Children: The Forgotten Aspect of the EU-Turkey Deal
By  Hanne Beirens and Paul Clewett
Boat SteveEvans Flickr
Commentaries
March 2016
The Paradox of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal
By  Elizabeth Collett
Commentaries
September 2015
The Asylum Crisis in Europe: Designed Dysfunction
By  Elizabeth Collett

Pages

_ZaatriChildren (fz)
Video, Audio
May 24, 2017

Building an Evidence Base to Support Refugee Resettlement

Marking the release of an MPI Europe report commissioned as part of the EU-FRANK project, this webinar examines critical gaps in the research and evaluation of refugee resettlement programs and recommendations for improving evidence gathering and knowledge sharing between resettlement countries. 

Event PH 2016.10.27 Kate Hooper and Kathleen Newland
Video, Audio
October 27, 2016

Taming the Seas: Safety, Protection, and Attempts to Create Order in Maritime Migration Corridors

Marking the release of All at Sea: The Policy Challenges of Rescue, Interception, and Long-Term Response to Maritime Migration, this book discussion explores the different facets of maritime migration and the challenges governments, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations face in tackling this issue together. Presenters discuss the overwhelming Mediterranean crisis and movements across the Bay of Bengal/Andaman Sea, the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden, in the Caribbean, and the waters around Australia; and the particular challenges for policymakers in each of these cases.

Event PH 2016.10.27 EU in UN summit follow up flickr European Parliament
Audio
October 26, 2016

Cooperation on Migration: The Role of the European Union in the Follow-Up to the UN Summit

One month ago, world leaders gathered at the United Nations for a summit to discuss movements of refugees and migrants, however the absence of concrete commitments in the resulting New York Declaration disappointed many observers and the slow progress on multilateral cooperation around migration has particular salience for the European Union, since the arrival of more than 1 million asylum seekers to Europe in 2015. This panel brings officials together from a range of institutions mandated to consider the future of cooperation, whether bilaterally, regionally, or at the global level, and asks: What is possible, what is desirable, and what is likely?

MEPS visits a group of Afghan refugees_Flickr_GUE_NGL
Video, Audio
April 13, 2016

Asylum Reception in the European Union: A Flexible Model for the Future?

Experts discuss how European governments have responded to pressure brought by the recent influx of migrants and refugees, and how the EU asylum reception system can be strengthened to better respond to fluctuation in needs for capacity, improve efficiency and quality, and meet national

Event PH 2016.2.17 Demetri at Europe Migration Crisis
Video, Audio
February 17, 2016

Europe’s Migration Crisis: A Status Report and the Way Forward

MPI's Demetrios Papademetriou discusses the current policy responses to the refugee and migration crisis at EU and national levels, and possible options for dealing more effectively with the crisis and longer-term integration challenges.

Pages

Recent Activity

Commentaries
September 2020

Greece’s Moria Tragedy: The Crash Test for the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum

The fires that devastated the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos have further raised the stakes for the soon-to-be unveiled EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. If Moria persists as a concept—with asylum seekers prevented from onward movement elsewhere in Europe—this becomes an integral pillar of future EU asylum practice, whatever is written on paper, as this commentary explores.

Policy Briefs
June 2020

Measuring Up? Using Monitoring and Evaluation to Make Good on the Promise of Refugee Sponsorship

A growing number of countries, particularly in Europe, have piloted or implemented refugee sponsorship programs in recent years. Yet there is limited evidence of how well these programs, which tap community members and civil society to take key roles in refugee resettlement, are working and how they can be improved. This issue brief explores how building monitoring and evaluation activities into sponsorship programs can help answer these and other critical questions.

Commentaries
April 2020

The COVID-19 Pandemic Suggests the Lessons Learned by European Asylum Policymakers After the 2015 Migration Crisis Are Fading

As European asylum systems are tested again by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has injected the need for social distancing during processing and in reception centers, it appears lessons learned during the 2015-16 migration and refugee crisis may be fading. Chief among them: A number of Member States have phased out their buffer capacity. This MPI Europe commentary explores the diametrically different approaches taken to asylum during the pandemic.

Reports
March 2020

Chasing Efficiency: Can Operational Changes Fix European Asylum Systems?

Brussels is searching for bright ideas on how to fix the Common European Asylum System. While recent EU-level legal reforms have stalled, this report examines the many innovative, operations-focused approaches Member States have used since the 2015-16 migration crisis to improve registration and reception systems, asylum case processing, and options for returning failed asylum seekers.

Reports
May 2019

Preparing for the Unknown: Designing Effective Predeparture Orientation for Resettling Refugees

Refugees encounter a range of challenges after resettlement—from adjusting to a new culture and language, to finding a job. Many resettlement countries invest in predeparture orientation to help refugees develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to face these challenges. This report explores the many forms these programs take, highlighting important design questions and key elements that effective programs share.

Policy Briefs
March 2019

Money Wise: Improving How EU Funds Support Migration and Integration Policy Objectives

European policymakers are negotiating the blueprint for the next EU funding cycle—a plan that will determine how much money is available for migration and integration aims, what it can be used for, and who can access it. This policy brief explores some of the limitations of EU funds, as well as strategies that could help them more effectively serve migration and integration policy goals.

Policy Briefs
August 2018

Deciding Which Road to Take: Insights into How Migrants and Refugees in Greece Plan Onward Movement

EU policy debates about moving asylum seekers from overburdened frontline countries, such as Greece and Italy, to other Member States rarely consider how migrants form and act on preferences for certain destinations—and how difficult it may be to change these views. This issue brief explores decision-making among migrants in Greece, including how living conditions, jobs, and legal status factor in.

Reports
July 2018

A Needed Evidence Revolution: Using Cost-Benefit Analysis to Improve Refugee Integration Programming

European countries have ramped up their investments in helping refugees find work and integrate into society. Yet little hard evidence exists of what programs and policies work best. This report proposes a new framework for thinking smartly about integration programming, using cost-benefit analysis to look beyond short-term, economic outcomes to also measure indirect benefits through a social-value concept.

Pages