The current migration and refugee crises are one of the most important geopolitical challenges the EU must face today. These crises seem to depend on two critical uncertainties: (i) the evolution of political and social instability in the North Africa and the Middle East, and (ii) the future of the EU. In a time of globalisation, we would expect the blurring of border ideas, perhaps even threatening the Westphalian state system. However, its contribution to increasing irregular migration flows has resulted in the reinforcement of border control, has awaken growing nationalism, and strengthened the separation between the national and the other. In the light of increasing migration pressures, I address migration-security nexus by assessing the presence of migration issues in both the EU Global Strategy and in Member States’ security and defence strategies (White Papers, Defence Agreements, Defence Concepts or another similar strategic document). Hence, I argue that there is a heterogeneous presence of migration issues among national security and defence strategies of Member States and the EUGS due to different security strategic cultures and approaches to migration, which block the development of a common and effective migratory strategy to deal with the present crises.
Keywords: migration; refugee crisis; security; Member States’ security and defence strategies; EUGS
João Estevens (jestevens@fcsh.unl.pt)