European migrant crisis
The European migrant crisis refers to a significant increase in the number of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees arriving in Europe, particularly during 2015, driven by conflicts and instability in regions such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This influx, spurred by the Syrian civil war and other humanitarian crises, saw over one million individuals arrive in Europe by sea in that year alone, including a substantial number of children. Historically, Europe has been a destination for migrants since ancient times, and this recent crisis reflects longstanding patterns of migration influenced by economic opportunity and the search for safety.
While many European nations initially welcomed migrants, the sudden surge led to challenges in resource allocation and policy coordination, prompting some countries to impose border restrictions within the Schengen area. The crisis has raised concerns over social integration, economic impact, and national security, leading to a rise in nationalist and xenophobic sentiments in certain regions. The humanitarian toll has been profound, with thousands drowning while attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
In response, the European Union has initiated measures such as the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement and naval operations to manage and mitigate the flow of migrants. Efforts to create resettlement policies and improve conditions in migrant origin countries are ongoing, but the situation remains complex and politically charged, with varying responses across EU member states. As many migrants continue to seek refuge, the crisis presents a critical intersection of human rights, politics, and humanitarian aid in contemporary Europe.
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European migrant crisis
Migrants from Africa and the Middle East have been attracted to Europe since the 1950s because of its reputation for peace and stability, employment and education opportunities, and generous social welfare benefits. For many years, most Europeans accepted the steady trickle of economic migrants seeking work and a better life. The numbers were manageable, but in 2015, refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war and instability in such countries as Iraq and Afghanistan dramatically increased migration to Europe. In 2015, more than one million migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees arrived in Europe. The majority arrived by sea. One-quarter of the sea arrivals in Europe in 2015 were children. The year 2015 saw the highest levels of forced displacement worldwide since World War II, and the European Union (EU) received more than 1.2 million first-time asylum claims, more than double the claims registered in 2014 (563,000). In March 2016, the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement sought to stop the flow of migrants into Europe.
Neither individual European nations nor the European Union have been able to allocate adequate resources or coordinate efforts to physically settle waves of migrants and provide them with safe harbor or safe passage. Several countries have attempted to refuse or restrict entry to migrants, fearing threats to their treasuries, cultures, and legal systems, with some Europeans espousing xenophobia and nativism. Some EU countries enacted border restrictions within the Schengen area, the European Union's area of passport-free travel, in order to reduce the arrivals of migrants and refugees into their countries. Others are suspicious that terrorists or criminals are arriving alongside refugees. The result is that tens of thousands of displaced persons are housed in overcrowded detention camps while they await processing.
Brief History
Europe has been a destination location for migrants stretching back centuries. Nearly 75 million migrants were in Europe in 2015. After the Romans conquered Syria, from Palestine beginning in 63 BCE, large numbers fled annihilation to what became Russia and Europe. By 1900, millions of Jews, whose ancestors had been refugees and migrants, lived across Europe.
The years from 376 to 800 CE became known as the Migrant Period in Europe, with people fleeing conquerors and falling empires. Germanics dominated the Western Roman Empire. By 700 CE, Slavs settled in Central Europe; Bavarians and Franks were in Italy. Muslim armies followed by migrants dominated from 850 to the mid-1400s from the Middle East to Spain, Portugal, and Dover.
Following the collapse of European colonialism in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, five million Muslims migrated to France and constituted about 8 percent of the population in 2015. That year, Germany was home to 3.5 million immigrants from Turkey, who came as guest workers.
The European migrant crisis in 2015 was the result of refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war, the terrorist and militant organization the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and political, economic, and civil instability in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Eritrea, among others. Other migrants arrived from Nigeria, Pakistan, Guinea, Gambia, Sudan, and Cote d'Ivoire in search of a better life in Europe. Many sought political asylum. Others were refugees with little documentation of their origins, and some were economic migrants.
Some migrants arrived by land, primarily through Turkey and Albania. However, the majority traveled by sea. Migrants pushed off in boats from the shores of Turkey, Lebanon, and North Africa. They crossed the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas on their way to Greece and Italy, with a small minority crossing the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain. Thousands died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, often in overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 3,771 migrants and refugees died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2015, and 5,079 people died in 2016. The IOM also reported total arrivals by sea to Europe at slightly more than one million in 2015, almost five times 2014's total of 219,000. By 2016, this number had decreased significantly but remained substantial. Between January and early May 2017, nearly 50,000 people arrived in Europe by sea, most of whom arrived in Italy, with smaller numbers of people arriving in Greece, Cyprus, and Spain. This represented a significant decrease from the same period in 2016, which saw more than 187,000 arrivals. Between January and early May 2017, more than 1,300 people died or went missing while crossing the Mediterranean.
The number of arrivals in Europe peaked in 2015, with the number of newly arrived migrants and refugees falling in 2016 after stricter border policies were implemented in Macedonia and Turkey and an operation by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was launched in the Aegean Sea to stem illegal trafficking and migration in March 2016. By the end of 2016, approximately 363,348 migrants and refugees had arrived in Europe by sea, less than half the number in the previous year. However, the number of refugees and migrants who died or went missing while crossing the Mediterranean in 2016 increased from 2015 to more than five thousand people, exemplifying the major and ongoing humanitarian crisis. In response, the European Union launched the EU Naval Force Mediterranean, a military operation commonly known as Operation Sophia that ran from 2015 to 2020. Operation Sophia sought to interrupt migrant smugglers and traffickers and reduce the number of migrant deaths at sea.
Impact
The European migrant crisis has had significant social, political, and economic effects. Government budgets in Europe have been strained to manage the economic costs of domestic social spending and law enforcement in the near term. Some European countries have a labor gap caused by an aging and declining population, so refugees could contribute to an expansion of the gross domestic product. However, in the short term, the massive numbers of new arrivals have placed significant strains on social services. Other countries feared large influxes of migrants and refugees could increase unemployment and competition for jobs, reducing wages; however, economists suggested that immigration would only have a minor impact on employment or wages. Some economists have pointed to studies showing immigrants create new demands for goods and services and, in the long term, contribute to expanding the host economies.
There is a terrible toll on human life for the migrants to Europe. The IOM called Europe the most dangerous destination and the Middle East "the world’s most dangerous border crossing" in 2015. In September 2015, a picture went viral of a Turkish policeman carrying the body of a drowned three-year-old boy, Aylan Kurdi, after an overcrowded boat carrying Syrian refugees capsized while sailing to Greece. Similarly viral was a video of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel comforting a Lebanese fourteen-year-old girl on the list for deportation who innocently sobbed, "I have goals in life like everyone else. I want to go to university; that’s a goal I want to achieve."
Some Europeans expressed concerns that asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants may become significant ethnic minorities who will not assimilate to their new countries. The European Union and other European countries began working toward a consensus on a resettlement policy. North American countries accepted a small portion of refugees and migrants in the 2010s, particularly from Syria, but not nearly as many as Europe. Between 2011 and 2016, the United States only accepted 18,007 Syrian refugees but donated some $4 billion in humanitarian assistance. Between November 2015 and October 2016, Canada welcomed more than 33,000 Syrian refugees. However, these numbers pale in comparison to the total number of refugees in Europe, Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, as well as those who were internally displaced within their country of origin. Although the number of refugees arriving in Europe declined in 2016, more than 6 million people remained internally displaced in Syria.
There were calls from Europeans to build asylum centers for housing refugees and migrants until they could be vetted and their documents authenticated. However, this can take years. Others believed these centers would become long-term detention camps, reawakening memories of Europe’s most inhumane acts in World War II. By 2017, EU member states relocated more than thirteen thousand people, representing less than 10 percent of the asylum seekers that the EU had committed to resettled from camps in Italy and Greece in 2015. In 2017, only two EU member states, Malta and Finland, were on track to meet their obligations for resettlement, and Hungary, Austria, and Poland were refusing to participate in resettlement efforts.
Politically, Europe is urging massive aid packages to improve living conditions in the countries of origin of migrants and refugees, military interventions to resolve the civil wars and unrest, increased border restrictions to prevent more refugee border crossings, and naval patrols close to Middle Eastern and North African shores to turn boats back, arrest smugglers and traffickers, and rescue migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in crisis.
In 2015 and 2016, there was also a significant rise in the popularity of nationalist, protectionist, and xenophobic political statements and policies—especially in Hungary, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For example, the migrant crisis was considered a major factor in Brexit, the referendum in which UK voters opted to withdraw from the European Union. No one knows the lasting effect of the political pendulum shift.
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