Refugees and the Dublin Convention

Abstract

The Dublin Convention defines which EU State is responsible for the asylum application of third country nationals or stateless persons. According to this Convention, the first Member State in which an asylum seeker enters is responsible for the person’s asylum procedure. It thereby stands in gross contrast to the freedom of mobility of EU-citizens within Europe. While extensive research has focused on the attempts to build up a Common European Asylum System, mostly taking up an institutional perspective, only limited sociological research has concentrated on the perspective of refugees and on the way they are affected by the Dublin Regulation and react to it. This article explores the biographical impacts of the Dublin Convention and the reaction of concerned individuals to it through the method of biographical policy evaluation. It bases on 29 biographical interviews conducted with refugees affected by the Dublin Regulation in France. It provides an in-depth analysis of three key biographical moments regarding the Dublin Convention: the arrival in France, the process of integration and moments when refugees change the European State they live in after having sought for asylum. It shows that beyond the (intended) impact on the “choice” of the country of arrival, the Dublin Convention often impacts refugees’ integration processes in a long-lasting way.

“Return of Mental Borders”: A Diary of COVID-19 Closures between Kehl, Germany, and Strasbourg, France

“…It led to a return of mental borders long thought forgotten and even overcome which were being drawn along national lines. This could already be observed during the migration crisis in 2015, when the massive inflow of refugees into the EU caused problems of migrant integration and new waves of nationalism and xenophobia, also in France and in Germany (Bartel, Delcroix, & Pape 2020;Beaupré & Fischer 2020).…”

The The Swiss–French Border Closure During COVID-19: A Cross-border Worker’s View

“…The pandemic showed that Europe was not immune to this phenomenon. As the last decade has shown signs of a hardening of European borders especially in the context of the wave of terrorist attacks that flared up across Europe-especially in France in 2015-2016-and of the so-called migrant "crisis" that started in 2015 (Bartel, Delcroix, and Pape 2020;UNHCR 2020;Wassenberg 2020), this trend of chronic reinforcements of borders within the Schengen Area has persisted and expanded. The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily put on hold the Schengen Area insofar as all countries closed their borders.…”