The evolution of immigration and asylum policies in the European Union from public good-collective action perspective

Abstract

As the issues of immigration and asylum began to occupy more space in the 1980s in the lives of a wide range of people in Europe, from immigrants to the citizens of the receiving societies, from refugees to the politicians at local and national levels, these issues have inevitably become concerns also for the European Union (EU). This study aims to assess the evolution of immigration and asylum policies of the EU, and to explain why there has been more communitarization in some areas of this broader policy domain and not in others. It was found that, there has been closer intergovernmental cooperation and further communitarization in the asylum and visa policies than there has been in the policies related to the rights and integration of third country nationals (TCNs) who are legally resident in the EU, although both of them are “high” political areas. The removal of the internal borders of the EU and the freedom of movement created a collectively shared area whose external borders have to be managed in common due to the need to trust each other's controls. This change made not only external border controls but also the procedure on which TCNs enter the EU, including asylum seekers, concerns for collective action, as a result of which perceived public goods such as security, domestic popularity and economic gain are produced. Therefore, instead of employing the analytical tools of the intergovernmental distinction between high and low politics, a public good-collective action approach provides for a better framework to explain the cooperation-communitarization of immigration and asylum in the context of the EU.