A Comparative Analysis of European Asylum Policy: Welfare Regimes, Refugees and Rights

Migration and asylum issues have emerged as highly contentious areas of public debate across Western Europe, as exemplified by the rapid emergence of far-right and populist politics witnessed across electoral campaigns of several European Union (EU) member states. Amid the backdrop, key features of the of EU's lagging response to the 'Refugee Crisis', such as the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and Dublin Regulations, responsible for determining how and where asylum claimants are processed, has quickly disintegrated, revealing the unequal distribution of refugees across Europe, and the overstretched reception capabilities in counties such as Greece and Italy. Diverging procedures across member states in determining the legal status of asylum seekers is further problematic (Ostrand, 2015), as disparities between full 'refugee status' and 'subsidiary protection', increasingly used in countries such as Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands, have prompted unequal rights and protections for individuals seeking asylum. Such determinations have become increasingly important, with growing examples of regional disparity, effecting individuals' rights to uncapped residence, extended access to welfare programmes and provisions for family reunification. This heterogeneity brings to the forefront concerns ,that EU liberal democracies, ostensibly based on the mutual respect for human rights, have failed to deliver on the fundamental values of cooperation, solidarity and equality, which are enshrined in the constitution of the EU, and have led to the creation of a 'lottery system' (Human Rights Watch, 2015, p. 15) in which protection is reserved for the privilege of the few (Boccardie, 2002), and bestowed by virtue of luck.