2015 : the year we mistook refugees for invaders

Abstract

On 15 December 2015 the European Commission proposed a European Border and Coast Guard to protect Europe's external borders and the Schengen area without internal borders (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-6327_en.htm). As 2015 comes to a close, the annual numbers of migrants smuggled to Greece and Italy and asylum claims lodged in Germany have passed a million, as well as the number of additional displacements produced this year by the conflict in Syria. Moreover, Europe's Mediterranean shore has now the unchallenged title of the world's most lethal border. Not only this. The migrant crisis is also putting to the test some of Europe's most fundamental values, from the freedom of circulation within its territories, to international protection beyond.