The refugee crisis in Europe: A display of double standards on migration policy

Introduction

Armed conflict in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia has led to many refugee crises around the world in the past ten years. But in the last few months, there has been a new migrant crisis, and Europe is once again the center of attention around the world. At the start of this year, the Russian military began to move into Ukraine. Since then, millions of Ukrainians have left their homes to find safety. Most of them went to Poland, Romania, and Russia, which are nearby countries. More than 10 million people have been forced to leave their homes, making this the worst refugee crisis in the European Union (EU) since World War II (Aalto et al., 2022). In a show of solidarity with refugees that has never been seen before, a recent report by Chaaya et al. (2022) found that European governments and people have opened their borders and homes to people seeking asylum in the area. Even though everyone is focused on Ukraine, the Greek coastguard continues to turn away asylum seekers trying to enter the country from Turkey (Rahimi and Abadi, 2022). In Melilla, the Spanish police are using force to stop people from climbing the wall, a majority of them being asylum seekers. The big difference shows that the EU treats migrants differently based on different criteria (Cai et al., 2022), one that can only be termed as preferential and double standards. Because of its troubled past, Europe has always had strict rules for refugees. It is unlikely that other people seeking asylum in Europe would be treated the same way as Ukrainians (Choudhary et al., 2022). The EU’s help for Ukrainians who had to leave their homes is an example of how the process of giving asylum to refugees is highly political and often biased.

Research background on the refugee crisis in Europe

Research problem regarding policy double standards

Rationale for conducting the research: The why on refugee crisis

Research aims: To establish that Europe has a double stance when it comes to refugee management policies

Research objectives and questions

Literature Review

Definition of refugees

Background on Refugees in Europe

When did it become a crisis?

Critical problematic incidences in refugee management in Europe

Sample migration policy and standards

Examples of migration double standards

Methodology

Research Design: Qualitative Approach

Explanation on why the method was chosen

Critical Justification of qualitative approaches

Potential Limitations

Findings and Discussion

Presentation of findings

Relevance of the findings

Implication of the findings

Comparative analysis with literature

Questions for future research

Conclusion

Summary and overview of the entire research process undertaken.

Brief mention of main findings

Discussion of the research questions

Reference List

Aalto, S., Kiiras, K., Mayer, H. and Miettinen, H., 2022. Armed conflict in Ukraine. Perspectives on the geographies of inequalities and Sustainable Development Goals—five case studies, p.38.

Cai, H., Bai, W., Zheng, Y., Zhang, L., Cheung, T., Su, Z., Jackson, T. and Xiang, Y.T., 2022. International collaboration for addressing mental health crisis among child and adolescent refugees during the Russia-Ukraine war. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 72, p.103109.

Chaaya, C., Thambi, V.D., Sabuncu, Ö., Abedi, R., Osman, A.O.A., Uwishema, O. and Onyeaka, H., 2022. Ukraine–Russia crisis and its impacts on the mental health of Ukrainian young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, p.104033.

Choudhary, O.P., Saied, A.A., Ali, R.K. and Maulud, S.Q., 2022. Russo-Ukrainian war: an unexpected event during the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 48, p.102346.

Rahimi, F. and Abadi, A.T.B., 2022. The Ukrainian refugee crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. International Journal of Surgery (London, England), 102, p.106671.