Review article

New approaches to the challenge of mass migrations

Filip Dragović orcid.org/0000-0002-4572-6468 ; Regional Advisor of the United Nations Development Program
Aziz Hasanović ; president of the Meshihat of the Islamic Community in Croatia
Robert Mikac orcid.org/0000-0003-4568-6299 ; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb
Krešimir Mamić orcid.org/0000-0002-7395-6412 ; Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

Migrations have been inevitable from the earliest history up to the modern times and they have constituted one of the foundations on which today’s world has been built. Mostly developed countries encouraged the arrival of migrants who positively impacted the labour market. In last few decades developed countries have reduced the possibilities of legal immigration, while on the other hand crisis focal points all over the world have caused refugee and migration crises; desire to live in richer and more developed societies has been growing. Occasionally, due to events such as the migration crisis in Europe in 2015 and 2016, migrations became the most current issue for numerous subjects – from individuals, states and international organizations – to deal with. Today there are several political parties in the EU member states with very negative attitudes regarding migrants and further immigration in their program, and in some states, they are the ruling parties. Depending on the time, space and context, migrations are perceived, analysed and understood differently. The large migration crisis in Europe in 2015 and 2016 has shown that the European Union is unprepared for major migrations and that many countries, including Croatia, have no official migration policies. It exposed some of the weaknesses other than the lack of official policies and pointed out the advanced radicalization of the social and political scene in some countries, poor implementation of integration policies, misunderstanding of challenges and lack of understanding for the needs of others and “different”. It “shifted” the migration issues almost completely to security policies. This paper offers an analysis of these challenges related to the phases of handling them during the crisis, decisions of main actors and suggestions for improving the existing policies and better understanding of migrations challenges.

Keywords

migrations; migration policies; the European Union; the Republic of Croatia; humanitarian approach

Hrčak ID:

210734

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/210734

Publication date:

3.12.2018.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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