A critical perspective on the ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe

Zeynep Sahin-Mencutek and Anna Triandafyllidou

Chapter 25 in Handbook on Migration and Development, 2024, pp 385-399 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The 2015-2016 period in Europe and the Mediterranean has become known as a ‘migration crisis’. This chapter argues that while the size of migration and asylum-seeking flows towards Europe in this period certainly qualifies it as an ‘emergency period’, we need to disentangle the different levels of ‘crisis’ that it involved. Thus, we look at the loss of human life - which certainly was a humanitarian crisis - as well as the massive number of people seeking protection during that time in Europe. We then analyse the related media discourses to show how the events were constructed as a ‘migration’ or ‘refugee crisis’. And last, we show how the objective emergency, and its discursive representation paved the way for a ‘crisis mode of governance’ of these flows. We identify the specific features of a crisis governance and discuss critically its repercussions for future ‘crises’.

Keywords: Development Studies; Economics and Finance; Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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