1. European migration management: human rights challenges.
Dimitris Christopoulos, Associate Professor – Panteion University of Social and Political Science & Vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights

2. Where are these people from?

3. The problem and the phenomenon
What is a problem: A perceived gap between the existing state and a desired state, a deviation from a norm, standard or status quo.
What is phenomenon:a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.

4. Is migration a problem or a phenomenon
“An insolvable problem is a problem wrongly put” (G. Bachelard)
Migration is not a problem because it has no solution.

5. Is migration a synonym of poverty
From the study of the European migration experience of 19th and 20th century it derives that no State has accomplished its transition to developed capitalism without having exported and imported a considerable number of migrants.

6. How do migrants move?
The picture of «miserable migrants» that «penetrate» irregularly the developed countries is impressive but partially correct
Migrants created networks that feed the migrations flows and reproduce them. This is the migration circle.

7. Are migrants really “uninvited”?
Paradoxically, all developed countries welcome ‘uninvited’ migration flows
Illegal migrants are invisible for the legal order but fully visible for the labor market.

8. Migrants “come to stay”?
Most people that migrate believe that sooner or later they will return because obviously they wish to.
In practice, they hardly manage to return in big numbers:
- a big number stays in the country of destination.
- others move again to new destinations
- a smaller number returns

9. The integration – exclusion of migrants
Social integration is not only related to migrants.
Is the so-called “second migrant generation” really a migrant population?
Integration and exclusion techniques: from forced assimilation to population engineering

10. Are migrants the “poorest”
Emigration costs
The poorest part of the population is in principle excluded even from migrating

11. Do we really have more migrants than other countries?;
Over the last 50 years, migration flows to and from Europe represent only 12-15% of international migration
However, in all European countries, public opinion tends to believe that «we have more migrants than others».

12. Migration as norm and as exception
As norm : people always migrated. Autochthony is an ideological construction
As exception: less than 3% of the international population lives outside their countries of origin

13. Europe is the cradle of nation
What is (in) a nation
Origin
Common will
Nation: a political community of solidarity amongst its members based on perceptions and myths.

14. The paradox: Migration between economies and nations
Migrants are welcome to capitalist economies
- cheap labor
- occasion for social security funds
- demography
Migrants are not welcome to the nations
- they do not belong to the nation
- they are conceived as a threat to the community since they violate its constitutive myths

15. Migrants, asylum seekers and emigrants
Terminology as established by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Migrants: A wide-ranging term that covers most people who move to a foreign country for a variety of reasons and for a certain length of time. Different from “immigrant”, which means someone who takes up permanent residence in a country other than his or her original homeland.
Asylum-seeker: Someone who has made a claim that he or she is a refugee and is waiting for that claim to be accepted or rejected. The term contains no presumption either way; it simply describes the fact that someone has lodged a claim. Some asylum-seekers will be judged to be refugees and others not.

16. Mixed flows in June 2015

17. Human rights obligations of states
no “pushbacks” orcollective expulsions; States are required to ensure that the principle of “non-refoulement” is effectively respected. The State shall not act in such a way that the person concerned is exposed to a real risk of the death penalty, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, persecution, or serious violation of other fundamental rights. This includes returning a person to a transit country (which may be categorised as a “safe third country”) that does not itself offer sufficient guarantees against refoulement;
no discrimination in immigration controls and in the decision of granting entry on the basis ofsex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status;
when in reception centres or otherwise, migrants should be guaranteed adequate conditions and access to health care as well as adequate food.

18. Particularly, deprivation of liberty
Detention is only lawful if used as an exceptional measure and is justified, decided and carried out in accordance with procedures prescribed by a precise and accessible legislation
The detention shall last for the shortest possible period – otherwise it can be found unlawful
Migrants held in detention shall not be treated like prisoners
The particular needs of vulnerable groups, such as children, victims of torture, sexual violence or human trafficking, persons with mental and/or physical disabilities, and other individuals at particular risk, shall be duly taken into account at all stages.
 In particular, special safeguards for asylum seekers who are unaccompanied minors should be ensured. These include the need to appoint a guardian and/or legal representative Seee;g.

19. What is the relation of the two pictures?

20. Alternatives to prohibition