‘Cost of Syrian Refugee Crisis: Social, Economic and Political Benefits and Burden’
The Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) is pleased to invite you to a Westminster Debate on the current Syrian refugee crisis and policy responses in Europe. Our keynote speakers are Prof Dr Ibrahim Sirkeci, Professor of Transnational Studies and Director of Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies (RCTS), Regent’s University London and Prof Dr Petra Bendel, Professor of Political Science and Academic Director at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.
Please see speaker biographies below.
The event will take place between 7-9PM on Wednesday 27th January 2016 in Committee Room 11, House of Commons. Please note security checks are required to enter the House of Commons, at the Cromwell Green Entrance. We kindly ask you to arrive at 6:30PM to allow the event to start and end on time. Booking is required for this event to ensure adequate seating availability.
Migration and refugee crisis are the key themes in current policy debate in the UK, Europe and beyond. Although relatively small numbers of people around the world are migrants and even smaller numbers are refugees, sudden population movements in response to shock events and crises cause more anxiety for governments and societies than at other times. Recent negotiations and agreement between the European Union and Turkey showed the importance of direct costs of dealing with such sudden influxes. Given the fact that many countries are under some austerity measures and operating on tight budgets along with ever greater public anxiety about migration, the costs of refugees and burden sharing are important issues to unpack. There are more questions than answers in this crisis. Do benefits of human movements weigh more than the costs? Are there tested policy responses to address both the refugee crisis and the anxiety abou it? Is migration the last bullet for the European integration project? Is Syrian crisis the end of it? Is it the first time, we are facing such population movements? How much did Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan spend? Is €3 billion good enough? What awaits Germany, UK and others in Europe?
Half a year ago the European Commission presented its new “European Agenda for Migration“. With refugee arrivals at EU Member States rapidly increasing during this summer and autumn, this agenda was followed by a myriad of Council meetings on refugee and migration issues. New instruments and measures have been implemented. Assessing these instruments on the basis of the EU’s own norms – human rights and refugee rights – and on its own strategic objective – policy coherence and solidarity – as well as looking at power relations within the EU and among its Member States, the system shows important deficits:
It lacks solidarity with the first host countries, transit countries and international organisations. The EU needs to take refugee rights under stronger consideration when it concludes agreements with third countries. It has to take care of its extraterritorial obligations when it comes to search and rescue operations, the military operation EUNAVFOR MED and Regional Development and Protection Programmes (RDPPs). The refugee policies also fall short of solidarity with the refugees themselves: Measures for a controlled, secure and legal access to the territory of the Member States are still missing. At the same time, the system demonstrates a serious solidarity deficit among the Member States. A solution for a fairer distribution of refugees among the Member States is urgently needed. The Dublin system’s lack of functionality causes a chain reaction, while the Schengen system comes under considerable pressure. If the EU wishes to survive as an integrated system, it will have to reinvent itself in many small steps and focus its attention on human rights.
Please join us for an informed debate on the current and future challenges of refugee crisis in Europe and beyond.
Hosted by Yvette Cooper Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, the session will critically look at the costs of human mobility with particular reference to the current Syrian refugee crisis and explore policy responses in Europe. The financial, social and political costs of the crisis and recommendations will be discussed.
We are looking forward to welcoming you!
Speaker Biographies
Prof Dr Ibrahim Sirkeci is Professor of Transnational Studies and Director of Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies (RCTS), Regent’s University London. Sirkeci holds a PhD from University of Sheffield and BA from Bilkent University. His research covers migration, ethnicity, remittances, transnational marketing and consumers, labour markets and integration. Sirkeci is also the editor of several journals including Migration Letters, Transnational Marketing Journal, Kurdish Studies and Remittances Review. He authored several books on migration including Cultures of Migration, the Global Nature of Contemporary Mobility (U. of Texas Press, 2011), Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond (The World Bank, 2012), Turkish Migration, Identity and Integration (TPLondon, 2015). Contact at http://www.regents.ac.uk/RCTS& http://sirkeci.co.uk & @isirkeci
Prof Dr Petra Bendel is Professor of Political Science and Academic Director at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Bendel studied in Heidelberg, Germany and Bilbao, Spain. She served as a researcher at the GIGA Institute in Hamburg, Germany and Heidelberg University as well as the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. She is the author numerous publications on borders, refugees’ rights, asylum and integration policies in the European Union and abroad. She is also a political advisor on immigration issues. Contact at: http://www.regionenforschung.uni-erlangen.de/wir-ueber-uns/unser-team/petra-bendel/