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32MIGRATION CRISIS IN EUROPE AND ITS LESSONS FOR THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
Phung Chi Kien
Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam E-mail: phungchikien92@gmail.com
Le Minh Quang
University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy E-mail: leminhquang.neu@gmail.com
Nguyen Lan Nguyen
Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam E-mail: ussh.nguyen@gmail.com
DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/demis.2022.213
For citation: Phung Chi Kien, Le Minh Quang, Nguyen Lan Nguyen. Migration Crisis in Europe and Its Lessons for the Asia-Pacific Region. DEMIS. Demographic Research. 2022. Vol. 2. No. 1. Pp. 28-40. DOI: https://doi.org/l0.1918l/demis.2022.2.1.3
Abstract. International migration, especially the problem of refugees, is one of the hottest global issues today. The migration crisis 2015 - early 2016 in Europe was the latest testament to the complex nature and the influence of the issue. This crisis caused many complex political, economic, and social problems, leaving Europe facing one of the most difficult problems in recent years. Looking at the situation in many parts of the Asia-Pacific region at the moment, the painful problems that COVID-19 is causing continue to make the migration issue and its accompanying consequences a difficult problem for many countries in this region. This leads to the need to refer to the experiences drawn from the European case in 2015-2016 for the current process of formulating and implementing policies on migration in Asia-Pacific. However, it is a fact that the number of studies focusing on analyzing the political impacts of migration is still limited. Hence, in this article, based on a political perspective, we analyze the causes and clarify the political impacts of the 2015-2016 crisis on Europe, thus proposing some recommendations to solving the conundrum posed to the Asian-Pacific region.
Keywords: migration, migration crisis, political impact, Europe, Asia-Pacific, COVID-19 pandemic.
Introduction
Historically, there have been many different causes of human migration. According to the issue, migrants may move from their place of residence due to reasons such as economy, political instability, environment, religious conflicts, family reunification, study, etc. Until 2021, the migration crisis in Europe in the period 2015 - early 2016 was one of the worst migration crises ever recorded in history, causing many negative impacts in all aspects for both immigrants and the societies to which they landed on the European continent. Among the areas most affected by this situation, politics shows sensitivity and vulnerability in many European countries, even among the leading European countries.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic until now, migration continues to be a hot issue in many regions, including Asia-Pacific. Although there has been no record of a migration crisis like that happened in Europe in 2015, the huge damage caused by COVID-19 combined with many complicated migration waves before and during the pandemic have led many Asia-Pacific countries to facing many risks in terms of politics, economy-society,
culture, religion, etc. This makes it difficult to analyze, forecast, and propose solutions for these problems. The above issue becomes urgent for countries in the region.
While many studies have focused on the socio-economic aspects of migration, the main contribution of this study is the focus on discussion of the political impacts that migration can have in many societies in the Asia-Pacific today. More specifically, we rely on databases and studies related to the political situation in Europe during the 2015-2016 migration crisis to draw valuable conclusions and recommendations for the situation in Asia-Pacific.
Of course, there are many major differences between the two regions, but referring to the European case in dealing with political issues stemming from the migration crisis is certainly still essential in planning and implement relevant policies in Asia-Pacific countries. Therefore, the scientific and practical significance of this study will be clearly demonstrated through the analysis, exchange, and relationship between the two cases, further supporting the study of migration in general and political impacts of migration in particular in the complicated context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world.
Literature review
Since migration is a major social issue and has been studied by many scholars over the years, in this section, we only focus on discussing some typical studies related to the impact of migration. Political dynamics of migration in Europe 2015-2016 and Asia-Pacific in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Regarding the migration crisis in Europe, many works have been published to assess the seriousness of this crisis. Specific data from reputable organizations clearly show the general picture with many dark colors about the living situation of migrants (mainly refugees) and the disorder in the societies that receive them when they are displaced [1, p. 2]. The causes of the crisis have also been analyzed by many scholars, but in general, scholars believe that it is caused by a combination of two main causes, the turmoil in the migrants' homeland and the disagreements over policies to deal with the immigration crisis among European countries [2].
Regarding the political issues related to the immigration crisis of 2015-2016 in Europe, scholars have offered various analyzes both at the European level and from a typical country-by-country level. Accordingly, this migration crisis is really a test for cohesion within the EU as it causes a lot of divisions among countries on how to deal with the situation [3; 4; 5]. In a number of notable countries, namely Italy, which we selected as our case study, many major political problems have arisen from this immigration crisis, with long-lasting consequences for the national economy and politics. Of course, with the efforts of many European countries, the migration crisis has been resolved quite well, and now the migration situation in this continent is being better managed, thereby bringing many lessons to the world in solving similar problems in other countries and regions.
Regarding the current migration situation in the Asia-Pacific, the context and specific developments of this process have been clarified in a number of recent studies. In general, researchers share the view that migration has been a notable issue in Asia-Pacific since the beginning of the 21st century [6] and has become much more intense in this area during the COVID-19 pandemic [7; 8]. Even the risk of a refugee crisis is forecasted, especially with the case of "Afghan refugees residing in neighboring Iran and Pakistan and the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh" [9, p. 44]. The studies also focus on clarifying the many impacts and risks that migration during the COVID-19 era can cause on many
countries in Asia-Pacific, focusing on the issues of people's lives, disturbances in the labor market, integration of migrants into new socio-religious communities, increasing inequality, etc. [10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15]. The research results generally share the fact that "whether refugees living in overcrowded camps or jobless migrant workers forced to return home, the lives of millions of people in Asia-Pacific are threatened by the dangerous combination of displacement and the COVID-19 pandemic" [16, p. 1].
However, according to our observation, the number of direct studies on the political consequences of the complicated migration situation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia-Pacific is still limited. As mentioned, many published works are still focusing mainly on aspects such as socio-economic, cultural, and religious aspects. Of course, uncertainties in these aspects can indirectly cause political problems, but studies based on political approaches are still of particular importance in sensitive issues such as migration. In this respect, Asia-Pacific can draw valuable lessons from the case of Europe a few years ago. This is the main reason that motivates this research.
Methodology
The research is accomplished by a mixture of two methods: case study - comparison and quantitative.
The immigrant crisis in Europe during the 2015-2017 period is used as a benchmark for a notable case study of how the immigrant crisis can develop into political, social matters involving how media outlets had responded and shaped the arguments. The comparison method is used to clarify the correlation between the case of the EU and Asian-Pacific regions. As discussed in the next sections, some valuable lessons and experiences can be drawn from the migrant crisis 2015-2016 in European countries, which should be good references to the situations on the Asian-Pacific societies in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The quantitative method is applied to disclose the rise of populist parties in some European countries, especially the case of Italy. At the same time, this method is also workable when it comes to the status-quo of migration in the Asian-Pacific region. Due to limited data and statistics, in which few studies on the matter have been carried out thus far, the article resorts to the qualitative method to interlink the theoretical framework to provide some drastic lessons for the Asian-Pacific nations from the case of 2015-2016 migrant crisis in Europe.
Results
Some common concepts
Before studying the migration crisis in Europe, we need to interpret some of the basic concepts.
First, the concept of international migrants. We can understand an international migrant as an individual who has resided in a foreign country for more than one year irrespective of the causes, voluntary or involuntary, and the means, regular or irregular, used to migrate"1. Based on this definition, refugees, asylum-seekers, and economic migrants are included in its connotation. International migration occurs due to many different causes, which typically include the lack of job opportunities in the residence, the demand for the country's immigration and immigration policies to attract intellectuals,
1 Key Migration Terms // International Organization for Migration [site]. URL: https://www.iom. int/key-migration-terms (accessed on 25.09.2021).
the disparity in living standards among countries and regions in the world, the working conditions, the ability to express themselves and the contribution of people are limited, war or civil war, etc.
Second, the concept of refugees. Unlike the concept of international migration, this one is clearly defined in international law. Specifically, in Article 1 A (2) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the United Nations defines a refugee as an individual who "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country" [16]. No nation has the right to send refugees back to places where their lives may be threatened whether that country signed the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or not. Stemming from this concept, "refugees, regardless of causes, should be mentioned as the issue that exists between countries. More broadly: to solve the issue of refugees is to solve essentially the relationship between countries" [17, p. 657].
Regarding the concept of asylum seekers, an asylum-seeker is "a person who seeks safety from persecution or serious harm in a country other than his or her own and awaits a decision on the application for refugee status under relevant international and national instruments. In case of a negative decision, the person must leave the country and may be expelled, as may any non-national in an irregular or unlawful situation, unless permission to stay is provided on humanitarian or other related grounds"2.
Based on these mentioned concepts, we can define migration crisis as "a term that describes the complex and often large-scale migration flows and mobility patterns caused by a crisis which typically involves significant vulnerabilities for individuals and affected communities and generate acute and longer-term migration management challenges. A migration crisis may be sudden or slow in onset, can have natural or man-made causes, and can take place internally or across borders" [18].
Migration crises often lead to serious consequences that harm the sovereignty and threaten the security of the countries concerned. A large number of immigrants with a variety of components and objectives in a short time (like what happened in Europe) is a puzzle for governments. This is a sensitive phenomenon with numerous potential unpredictable threats. In general, such crises often generate the following influences:
Directly, they affect substantially the socio-political structure, traditional and cultural life of local countries. On the other hand, they are possibly presumed upon by the parties that join the conflict for political struggle or violent escalation, challenging the stability of governments.
Besides, the migration crisis also caused many other derivative influences including economic burdens for the international community and the region as the number of immigrants (especially refugees) is beyond local recipient countries' ability, the protection of human rights for refugees also faces many difficulties because of limited resources and management mechanisms, part of badly treated immigrants can prompt their hostilities that lead to extreme actions, even terrorism, and seeds of unpredictable instability in the future, etc.
Based on these arguments, we continue to analyze the causes and political impacts of the migration crisis in Europe.
2 Key Migration Terms // International Organization for Migration [site]. URL: https://www.iom. int/key-migration-terms (accessed on 25.09.2021).
Causes and political impacts of the migration crisis in Europe till early 2016
The outline of the crisis until early 2016
The wave of migration to European countries has taken place for many years, but it really turned into a crisis in the summer of 2015. A massive number of people fleeing wars, terrorism came to Europe and caused serious chaos, instability. Most of them are from countries in the Middle East and Africa where conflicts are occurring such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. Syria is a country of origin with the largest number of refugees (more than 4 million people). Many of them have come to Europe by unequipped ships so thousands of people have died. They moved massively in summer to avoid winter and passed through the Balkan Mountains. First, they went to Greece because it is close to several countries, where there are numerous immigrants, such as Turkey, Libya, Italy, and the Lampedusa. From these places, many migrants tried to go through the Balkan route, which is cross-national. Many want to move to the north, to countries such as Germany and Sweden, where asylum applications are more likely to be affirmed.
Facing the increasing flow of migrants, European countries have expressed disagreement in policies. Germany, Italy, and France called for a more equal allocation of refugees across the EU. Meanwhile, four Eastern European countries as Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia (the Visegrad group) strongly reject the policy on the allocation of refugees proposed by the European Commission President, Jean Claude Juncker, based on the initiative of Germany and France.
While disagreement is among European countries, the conflict in the Middle East and Africa remained. "Between 1-27 January 2016, at least 55,652 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe by land and sea routes. Since January 2015, a total of 1,103,496 migrants and refugees have reached Europe by land and sea. The vast majority of this number arrived in Greece (910,663) and Italy (157,083)" [1, p. 2].
Until early 2016, there was a new development in the issue of migration crisis in Europe, which was Turkey's participation to resolve the crisis. However, Turkey launched several other conditions in exchange for their assistance, notably, the EU would have to provide financial support for Ankara, agree to exempt Turkish from visa to the EU, and promote the process of negotiation, which would help Turkey join the EU. Obviously, it is not easy to accept these claims, especially the two latter ones. On the other hand, the EU has been divisive in terms of allocating immigrants, and Germany has been one of the countries that receives the largest number of immigrants.
Reasons for the migration crisis in Europe
There are several reasons for the crisis. The main cause of the crisis is the economic political and social crises in North Africa and the Middle East. "Today many countries in this region, such as Lebanon and Jordan, are home to a large number of refugees from previous Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. The capacities of these countries are already stretched thin and the new wave of refugees fleeing Iraq and Syria seriously threatens their social capacities, internal peace, and security. The paradigm shift triggered by the so-called Arab Spring in 2011 and the staggering disposal of long-standing dictators in a number of Arab countries gave a fresh impetus to the migration movement" [19, pp. 2-3]. Rampant unemployment, income gap which leads to social inequality in the regions has been mounting uninterruptedly. Especially, the stagnation and severe management policies implemented by local governments (over many years) have been generating the people's discontent.
Another reason is that European countries did not have a consensus on the issue of refugees. Although the increase of migrants into Europe took place three years before the
crisis and many EU countries acceded to the international convention on refugees, and even some of them also participated in the Dublin regulation system3 on the responsibility of the member states in the procedures of refugee registration and reception, under strong pressure of migration wave in 2015, they seemed to be passive and divisive. Germany appeared to be ready to receive refugees whereas other countries such as Italy, Greece, and the Balkans (Serbia, Hungary, Croatia) were unready due to their concerns about domestic security and economic limitation. However, if the migrants want to reach the countries that agree to receive, they need go through the opposite ones. Instead of implementing the provisions of the Dublin system, the "front-line" countries closed their borders resolutely. Thus, chaos and instability, even violence, were growing. It can be said that, due to the lack of a consistent policy on solving the migration issue, the European countries made the crisis even more intricate. Besides, the thought of"Islamizing Europe" (according to some researchers) and human trafficking also contributed indirectly to the crisis.
Negative political impacts of the crisis
First, the crisis has been causing disagreement and political division within the EU domestically and regionally. There has been a major disagreement in dealing with the migration issue in many EU countries. The disagreement has been brought about among conflicting political parties, between the leadership and the people. The right-wing parties argue that the protection of national values is necessary for the state to set up stricter policies on immigration control; in the meantime, the left-wing parties suppose that the exchange of values is to promote mutual advancement, especially, humanitarian assistance will improve the national image and originate certain benefits. However, the most striking division is among EU countries. Germany, France, and Austria, Hungary have been criticizing each other concerning treatment for migrants. While the German government agreed to open "unconditionally" to the influx of refugees from Syria, the Hungarian and Austrian governments objected to the German decision that would increase turmoil in train stations, roads, and frontiers around them. France criticized Austria and Hungary for not respecting the common European values that they set up a barbed wire fence to prevent migrants. Besides, European countries remain deeply separate on the issue of immigrant quotas and humanitarian assistance. One side accepted the quotas (as in Germany) and another opposes them. One side wanted to help immigrants with a humanitarian spirit, another wanted to tighten immigration rules (as England did before the Brexit).
Second, the mounting influx of people gives a serious threat to the order and security of local countries. European security will be challenged by human trafficking, the turbulent illegal flow of migrants, social evils, conflicts, and so on. More dangerous is that the security and defense of Europe will be at stake by potential terrorist forces under the guise of migrants and refugees. In addition, some researchers have been concerned about a "Hijrah" based on the Islamic doctrine of migration in order to increase the influence of Islamic world in Europe.
Third, the crisis strongly affects the socio-economic development parties concerned. The migration crisis may threaten to put an economic burden on Europe. Refugees are not the same as voluntary migrants, it is very difficult for them to get a job in a new country. This means that if the European countries received those migrants into their country, they would have to spend an enormous amount of pension and social welfare. This would drain the public finance in the short term. German policy-makers said that the European econ-
3 Now being adopted in the EU, which stipulates that the countries that asylum-seekers enter first must be responsible for receiving them.
omy would suffer negative effects from the migration crisis when the state budget has to spend large amounts to provide necessities and accommodation for new arrivals. Besides, millions of migrants who move to Europe may undermine the social security system for health, unemployment assistance, pensions, and education, which have been raised by the indigenous people.
Fourth, the rise of extremist ideologies and racial discrimination. As in the US, where there is a strong prejudice against immigration, in Europe the extreme racist thought, anti-immigration attitude will have the opportunity to grow in the context of serious migration crisis. These protest movements include the fear that the entry of migrants will capture a great deal of living space, living conditions, depriving them of their rights. In fact, there is much evidence for this such as attacks on senior leaders who have an open mind to migrants, discrimination against and abuse of migrants.
Fifth, the crisis affects formidably regional countries' culture and religion. Because the majority of refugees are Muslims from Syria and Africa, while the people and governments of European countries have not been ready to accept this large Muslim community right in the heart of their societies. Many have feared that the influx of migration from the Middle East, North Africa would bring disruption to European culture, challenging policy responses of the region. However, some optimists have also believed that the arrival of immigrants can help enrich the cultural and spiritual life of the European countries.
Sixth, the crisis may affect the electoral results of European political parties. There are two main streams of opinion on this matter. The first argues that left-wing parties will be "crowned" because they have progressive ideas towards the exchange of national and regional values. They are likely to be open to migrants that meet the majority of migrants' aspirations. On the contrary, the second contends that the future of right-wing and conservative parties will be promising because they tend to reserve regional and national ideological values, protecting European citizens' stability and safety. This view has been more welcomed theoretically and practically in Europe.
For a better illustration of the political impacts of the migrant crisis on EU politics, it is worth considering the case of Italy. Amid Italian economic stagnation since the 2008 global financial crisis and political instability (three governmental changes in 6 years from 2011-2016), in late 2016, then-current Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi failed in a referendum on constitutional reform, essentially aimed at increasing the government's government, led to his resignation and the cabinet's dissolution. Since then, Italy's most recent general elections have seen the rise and victory of the new populist parties over traditional political parties. Why have traditional Italian politics been declining and were replaced by the quickly-emerged populist parties, aiming to run opposing policies scheme?
In a recent study, some underlying reasons have been exposed that populist movements benefit from the crisis over the representation of traditional political parties, and the national media and the process of political propaganda through social networks play a large role in the development of populism [20, p. 71]. Among other things, the migrant crisis was one of the most notorious motives for all of these occurrences.
The fact is that, from 2013 on, the immigration debate has continued to be one of the most sensitive issues on the agenda of the EU in general and in Italy in particular. Figure 1 shows the frequency of Italian media coverage of stories related to immigrants4. The fig-
4 Park J. Europe's Migration Crisis // Council on Foreign Relations. United States nonprofit organization [site]. 23.09.2015. URL: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/europes-migration-crisis (accessed on 30.09.2021).
ure below shows the frequency of coverage by the Italian media on stories related to immigrants.
According to data for 2016 (the last year of government led by the PD, with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi), 2017 (when the "technical" government was replaced), and the foregoing, the Renzi Government's constitutional referendum was the strongest deal-changer in the recent history of the Italian Government. Although former Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni came to power in 2017, his cabinet was only considered a transitional government before holding new elections later on March 4, 2018. Therefore, 2017 was also the year for opposition forces, mainly the Northern League and M5S, to set up their campaign programs. Specifically, the Northern League took a tougher approach to illegal immigration5, as evidenced by the implementation of Decree 113/2018, (known as Decreto Sicurezza, i. e. Decree on security) on the proposal of Interior Minister and Northern League leader Matteo Salvini. Subsequently, the immigration-unfriendly agenda caused friction between the newly formed Italian coalition government and the European Commission as well as several other member states. This can be clearly seen through the incident related to the incident of two ships carrying immigrants, the Aquarius6 the Diciotti7.
Notably, the media coverage of migration has been steadily increasing (see Fig. 1), supporting the populist campaign's continued support through dramatization and changed tone of relevant news [21]. Even though the actual immigration problem was no longer so complicated due to the sharp decline in the number of migrants entering Italy (see Fig. 2), national media and political communication via social networks continued to push the boundaries of the country. This issue became a leading topic on the campaign agenda. Specifically, the number of articles about immigrants in Italian newspapers skyrocketed from 4,055 (in 2016) to 6,059 (in 2017); the same thing happened for news stories8 (up from 189 to 667 within a year), and the number of shares of those stories also increased from 953 to 2,998. Meanwhile, the amount of news devoted to the more open and friendly views on immigration by mainstream parties (such as the PD and other center-left parties in general) was significantly reduced across the media. As an example, news about safe and/or legal migration channels in Italy was limited; the practicality of the humanitarian corridor9 was cited in only 94 articles in 2017; stories about the resettlement of migrants were the focus of only 86 articles. All in all, these figures truly show a large part of a broader story about the severe political impacts of the migrant crisis on Italian politics in recent years.
5 Salvini Premier - Elezioni 2018: Programma Di Governo // Lega Nord. Italian political party [site]. URL: https://www.leganord.org/component/phocadownload/category/5-elezioni?download=1514:programma-lega-salvini-premier-2018 (accessed on 30.09.2021).
6 On August 13, 2018, the ship Aquarius (flagged Gibraltar) carrying 141 immigrants was refused to receive by Italy, France, Spain, and Malta. See, ex.: Pizzi S. Nessuno vuole la Aquarius // Il Giornale. Italian national newspaper. 13.08.2018. URL: https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/nessuno-vuole-aquarius-1564657.html (accessed on 30.09.2021).
7 On August 20, 2018, the Diciotti, an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat (carrying 177 migrants rescued on August 16 off the coast of Lampedusa) arrived at the port of Catania (in Sicily region), Southern Italy). However, no one was allowed to disembark, Malta refused to accept them and Italy let them off the ship in the absence of a European Union agreement on the distribution of refugees. See, ex.: Nave Diciotti, le tappe della vicenda // Il Sole 24 Ore. Italian national business newspaper. 26.08.2018. URL: https://www. ilsole24ore.com/art/nave-diciotti-tappe-vicenda-AEWUDXfF (accessed on 30.09.2021).
8 A news story is an article or interview written or recorded to inform the public about issues, ideas, or events of great interest at the time it is published.
9 A humanitarian corridor is a type of temporary demilitarized zone intended to allow the safe passage of humanitarian aid into a crisis area and/or refugees out of the area.
6059
4055
2998
" I m
■. 'jl m m — ■
2016 2017
■ Articles about immignints in (he press "News stories about immigrants Social media shares about immigrants
Fig. 1. Frequency of Italian media coverage of immigrants
Source: ANSA10
200000 180000 160000 140000 120000 100000 80000 60000 4IWOO 20000 0
Fig. 2. Number of people immigrating to Italy in the period 2016-2018
Source: UNHCR Operational Data Portal11
Discussion and conclusion
As revealed in many recent statistics, the status-quo of migration in the Asian-Pacific region has been alarming. In 2020, in East Asia and Pacific, 186,000 people were internally displaced due to conflict and violence, wile disasters triggered another 12,063,000 new
10 ANSA. More coverage of migration in Italian media // InfoMigrants. News and information site. 17.10.2017. URL: https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/5642/more-coverage-of-migration-in-italian-media (accessed on 01.09.2021).
11 Mediterranean Situation: Italy // UNHCR Operational Data Portal: Refugee Situations. URL: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean/location/5205 (accessed on 30.09.2021).
7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0
181436
2016 2017 2018
< N mnbcr of people immigrating to Italy by sea — Number ofimmigrants dead or missing
displacements in the region12. East Asian and Pacific countries hosted 616,505 refugees, with generally increasing trend over the past decade13. The number of international migrants living in the region has exceeded 25 million people and continues to rise14.
However, many current studies are mainly concerned with the socio-economic perspective of the matter. This makes the political lessons drawn from the case of the EU migrant crisis 2015-2016 considerably important to the relevant policy-making process. Although further studies on the correlation between EU and Asian-Pacific regions should be carried out, we still need to take into account some helpful upshots based on this analysis.
First and foremost, based on the case of the EU [22, pp. 4-5], to deal with the problems posed by migration, the Asian-Pacific nations should keep in mind some of the challenges and difficulties facing the parties concerned.
First, the practical challenge presented by the sheer scale of the crisis should not be underestimated.
Second, identifying those in need of international protection and those who are not is complex.
Third, there is a substantial financial cost to countries receiving large-scale influxes of refugees and others granted international protection in terms of integration support (e. g. housing, education, health, and other welfare services).
Fourth, the movement of refugees and other migrants is a key concern for many governments.
Fifth, public opinion on international migration is highly divided, affecting both government policies and integration prospects for refugees and other migrants.
Sixth, obtaining a coherent approach from all parties concerned is proved extraordinarily difficult. Encountering these challenges, lessons from the EU provide us with some of the following solutions.
Anti-immigration sentiments have been gaining more popularity and importance in some of not limited to main parties' agenda but also governments' discussions. This research suggests a change in such negative attitudes from those stakeholders to immigration issues and seeks possibilities of recognizing the opportunities and benefits that immigration brings. "The human capital of refugees and other migrants has barely featured in political and public discourse. In practice, however, they invariably bring skills, entrepreneurial expertise and capacities that may help address the labor market and income gaps that many EU states face as their population's age and birth rates decline" [22, pp. 5-6]. Such changes can be achieved by more insightful communications and analyses from think-tanks. Besides, achieving more positive views towards immigrants also make the participants become more discernible in policy-making, limiting pejorative attitudes and violation of human rights, thereby reducing indirectly potential hostility.
Otherwise, there should be synchronous solutions with three main levels. At the national level, each state should have a more cooperative attitude to jointly resolve the crisis rather than just care about their interests. Besides, the home countries immigrants also need external assistance to quickly stabilize their economy, politics, and society. Through this kind of joint contribution in a comprehensive way at every level could the migration
12 Global Internal Displacement Database // Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre [site]. URL: https://www.internal-displacement.org/database/displacement-data (accessed on 30.09.2021).
13 Refugee population by country or territory of asylum - East Asia & Pacific // World Bank Data [site]. URL: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SM.POP.REFG?locations=Z4 (accessed on 30.09.2021).
14 International migrant stock, total - East Asia & Pacific // World Bank Data [site]. URL: https:// data.worldbank.org/indicator/SM.POP.TOTL?locations=Z4 (accessed on 30.09.2021).
problems in the Asian-Pacific countries be restrained and solved rapidly and effectively. At the regional level, there should be a greater consensus within the Asian-Pacific region. The countries, not limited to directly involved, but also others, are expected to share responsibilities for receiving immigrants based on their domestic economic conditions. It is aligned with the main idea of positive globalization. In the case of the EU, its members' capacity, economic potentials, and needs of immigrants are different from each other with a flexible regulatory mechanism inside and outside the union (instead of the Dublin system which has become obsolete). In addition, at the international level, the mobilization of international efforts, especially the UN, to resolve the current migration crisis plays a very important role. Other organizations such as the International Organization for Migration and non-governmental organizations are also protagonists in this regard. Besides, such powers the US, Russia, China, and European Union are expected to have more responsible coordination and responsive programs.
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Bio note:
Phung Chi Kien, PhD (Politics), Lecturer, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Contact information: e-mail: phungchikien92@gmail.com; ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9030-8305.
Le Minh Quang, PhD Candidate, Research Fellow, Faculty of Political Science, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
Contact information: e-mail: leminhquang.neu@gmail.com; ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5330-5655.
Nguyen Lan Nguyen, PhD Candidate, Lecturer, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Contact information: e-mail: ussh.nguyen@gmail.com; ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5081-8378. Acknowledgements and financing:
This research is funded by Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) under the Project No. QG.20.30.
Received on 15.11.2021; accepted for publication on 18.01.2022. The authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
МИГРАЦИОННЫЙ КРИЗИС В ЕВРОПЕ И ВЫВОДЫ ДЛЯ АЗИАТСКО-ТИХООКЕАНСКОГО РЕГИОНА
Фунг Чи Киен
Вьетнамский национальный университет, Ханой, Вьетнам E-mail: phungchikien92@gmail.com
Ле Мин Куанг
Палермский университет, Палермо, Италия E-mail: leminhquang.neu@gmail.com
Нгуен Лан Нгуен
Вьетнамский национальный университет, Ханой, Вьетнам E-mail: ussh.nguyen@gmail.com
Для цитирования: Фунг Чи Киен, Ле Мин Куанг, Нгуен Лан Нгуен. Миграционный кризис в Европе и выводы для Азиатско-Тихоокеанского региона // ДЕМИС. Демографические исследования. 2022. Т. 2. № 1. С. 28-40. DOI: https://doi. org/10.19181/demis.2022.2.1.3
Аннотация. Международная миграция, особенно проблема беженцев, сегодня является одним из самых острых глобальных вопросов. Миграционный кризис в Европе 2015 - начала 2016 гг. стал новым свидетельством сложнейшего характера данной проблемы и ее комплексного воздействия на жизнь общества. Европейский миграционный кризис породил множество политических, экономических и социальных сложностей, в результате чего Европа столкнулась с одним из самых больших вызовов за последнее время. Говоря о ситуации в Азиатско-Тихоокеанском регионе на данный момент, следует отметить, что негативные последствия пандемии COVID-19 обостряют проблемы миграции и связанные с ними вопросы для многих стран региона. В свете этого целесообразно обратиться к опыту европейских стран в период кризиса 2015-2016 гг. и использовать его для разработки и реализации миграционной политики в Азиатско-Тихоокеанском регионе на текущем этапе. Однако число научных исследований, посвященных анализу политических последствий миграции, на сегодняшний день невелико. Поэтому в данной статье причины и последствия европейского миграционного кризиса 2015-2016 гг. рассматриваются с политической точки зрения с целью обосновать некоторые рекомендации по управлению миграционными процессами и предложить пути выхода из сложной ситуации, в которой Азиатско-Тихоокеанский регион находится в данном плане сегодня.
Ключевые слова: миграция, миграционный кризис, политические последствия, Европа, Азиатско-Тихоокеанский регион, пандемия COVID-19.
Сведения об авторах:
Фунг Чи Киен, доктор политических наук, преподаватель Университета социальных и гуманитарных наук Вьетнамского национального университета, Ханой, Вьетнам.
Контактная информация: e-mail: phungchikien92@gmail.com; ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9030-8305.
Ле Мин Куанг, соискатель степени доктора наук, научный сотрудник факультета политических наук Университета Палермо, Палермо, Италия.
Контактная информация: e-mail: leminhquang.neu@gmail.com; ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5330-5655.
Нгуен Лан Нгуен, соискатель степени доктора наук, преподаватель Университета социальных и гуманитарных наук Вьетнамского национального университета, Ханой, Вьетнам.
Контактная информация: e-mail: ussh.nguyen@gmail.com; ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5081-8378.
Благодарности и финансирование:
Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке Вьетнамского национального университета в Ханое (ВНУ) в рамках научного проекта № QG.20.30.
Статья поступила в редакцию 15.11.2021; принята в печать 18.01.2022.
Авторы прочитали и одобрили окончательный вариант рукописи.
