2017 Volume 2017 Issue 37 Pages 115-133
This paper demonstrates structural factors of recent influx of asylum seekers into the European Union, and exhibits that there is a trade-off between the policy measures to reduce influx of refugees and the EU’s normative foreign policy so far.
In contrast to migration of labors, the most important push factor of refugee is intra-state conflict and the biggest pull factor is a norm/practice that has lead to the records and expectations of refugee protections. Push-pull factors tell us that conflict management of source countries is essential to decrease the number of refugees. This paper also demonstrates the development of concepts, norms and practices that relate to migration control and refugee protection, and emphasizes that most of them have been developed mainly in Europe but have not been shared by all of the major powers: it implies that a failure of cease-fire agreement between the major powers as well as the source country precisely means that there is an increase in the number of refugees and they leave for Europe that has developed concepts, norms and practices of refugee protection.
In case of Syria, strong national interests motivate Russia to take a different position from that of Europe and the United States. Russia’s national interests and European norms are not compatible and the EU failed to exercise diplomatic influence to Russia. In terms of diplomatic influence, the EU had taken sanctions against Syria after the Arab Spring, although Syria was once seen as ‘partners’ in the EU’s neighborhood policy. As for Russia, the EU had also taken sanctions after a crisis had happened in Ukraine. Despite of its normative foreign policy, the EU could not change behaviors of counerparts, and could not conclude a cease-fire in Syria. Europe has to tackle with conflict management in the source countries in order to decrease high pressures of influx, but the EU’s foreign policy so far has failed to stabilize such countries: here builds a trade off relationship between measures to reduce influx of refugees and the EU’s normative foreign policy so far.
