The Crisis on the Migration Crisis

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The economic principle I’m exploring is “Institutions are the ‘rules of the game’ that influence choices.”
My research question to help me study the economic principle is “Is the EU necessary?” and within that “Should countries in the EU have to take in immigrants?”

          The article published in Politico titled “How to solve Europe’s migration crisis” demonstrate this economic principle because it displays and organizes the arguments of key politicians and economists within the EU in regards to the migration crisis and whether or not membership to the EU should require supporting refugees, monetarily or through accepting an influx of refugees.

          First, president of Migration Policy Institute Europe and president emeritus of the Migration Policy Institute Demetrios G. Papadmetriou argues that Europe must stay united when facing crises like the migration crisis. His main argument is that “Europe should say less and do more.” He is in support of the idea that it falls on a combined European entity, the European Union to start doing more to help immigrants, stating that all countries should be involved in a combined effort.

          Second, the thoughts and opinions of Jeroen Lenaers, EPP shadow rapporteur on the migration crisis, who states that “We need common action at our borders — now.” He also argues for the joint work of the European Union against the dangers of the migration crisis, showing the importance of this joint action, and agreeing that the European Union should do something as a unit in regards to the migration crisis.

          Finally, in contrast, György Schöpflin, a Hungarian MEP, argues that migration policy should be left up to individual countries, rather than the joint entity of the European Union. “The EU should accept that citizens of member countries need to give their consent to receiving large numbers of migrants, and that most, if not all, aspects of migration policy should therefore be handled at the state level.” He argues that the rifts between the countries in regards to the migration crisis are too large to be closed, and that therefore, the European Union should not require individual countries to accept immigrants.

         Overall, I am of the belief that although a cohesive structure could be more beneficial to Europe as a whole, it would only cause more rifts between the countries that exist. The migration crisis, and forced acceptance of immigrants, which is currently the status quo, is part of the reason the UK cited for leaving the EU- they had no desire to take up immigrants. So, in the case of the European Union and the refugee crisis, the European Union is an unnecessary power in this case- a unified European Union solution might only cause more divisions.

In my next blog post I will research…
My research question to help me study the economic principle is “Is the EU necessary?” and within that “What are the benefits/detriments of a united Europe (the EU)? And why has the EU started to deteriorate?