Introduction
The ongoing "refugee crisis" remains one of the troubling issues and increasing problem in the European integration. Over the last few years, the European Union (EU) has experienced crises resulting from Russia and Ukraine conflict and economic instability in Greece. However, these issues cannot be compared to the current unprecedented influx. The communities in the EU are now struggling to cope with the unanticipated increase of the migrants and asylum-seekers, which started few years ago but considered to reach a climax in 2015. In this year, it is estimated that more than one million refugees and migrants entered into Europe through Mediterranean, and consequently ignited conflict and division in EU on how to mitigate the problem. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) report, the massive influx is attributed to the migrants moving from Syria and Iraq through Eastern Mediterranean route. The crisis is now threatening the responsibility and solidarity of the member states in the EU. This paper purport to argue in the ways the ‘refugee crisis' challenging the EU and main reasons challenging the efforts to mitigate the situation.
One way that the ‘refugee crisis' is challenging the EU is by threatening the responsibility and solidarity of the countries within the European Unions. The member states are conflicting on how to develop strategies and policies to curb the situation. Failure to settle on the common ground among the member state is showing the weakness of the European integration, and this is anticipated to affect adversely the EU credibility in the international arena. According to Veebel and Markus, the situation has also threatened the security of some states such as Estonia because their national security is associated with the full integration with transatlantic and European security networks. In addition, these authors argue, "The loss of credibility of governmental structures could pose additional threats to the national security in the EU countries."As a result, the prevailing situation of a refugee will increasingly affect the reputation, instability, solidarity, and cultural assimilation within European integration if the problem is not addressed.
The growing inflow of asylum seekers and migrants contributes a security threat to the EU and show how the European integration has failed to control its external borders. In 1995, the member states were required to establish a common policy that helps to manage external borders. However, the current situation illustrates that some nations such as Croatia and Greece have unintentionally or intentionally failed to comply with the established obligation. Consequently, the member states are experiencing challenges of controlling and recording the refugees moving in. The problem of effective registration within the European integration is encouraging other refugees who seek to have better social and financial conditions.
Another impact of the ‘refugee crisis' is the financial burden of the migrants and refugees. The countries are hosting the refugees are significantly being affected on their public finance because of the short-term expenditure needed to support the asylum seekers. The support includes providing food, humanitarian support, basic income support, and the shelter. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), "the total cost for processing and accommodating asylum seekers can be in the range of €8 000 and €12 0000 per application for the first year" In addition, countries such as Germany have anticipated 0.5 percent of their (Gross Domestic Product) GDP to support the refugees. Sweden, one of the major host countries have has increased its national budget by 0.9 percent of the GDP to accommodate the migrants and asylum seekers in 2016. Overall, the European Commission has injected additional fund worth €9.2 billion to address the refugee problem in 2015-16 financial years. According to Aiyar et al. "By 2017, the largest impact is in Austria, with GDP rising by 0.5 percent, followed by Sweden (0.4 percent) and Germany." Therefore, unless the refugees are fully integrated into the labor market so that they can contribute to the economy, they will continue to be a financial burden among the member states of EU.
The increased inflow of the immigrants and the refugee in the EU has also created pressure on the labor market, and hence affecting the welfare of the natives. Although the performance of the refugees might be less favorable compared to the migrants, it is evident that the refugees prefer the destinations that have maximum employment outcome. For instance, the current asylum seekers have high preferences for the countries that have a low unemployment rate, including Austral, Germany, and Sweden. This illustrates that the migrants are not only seeking the refugee but also employment. Consequently, this is anticipated to increase the unemployment rate or even lower the wages among the natives in the long term. However, according to the OECD report, the impact of the asylum seeker on the labor market depends on the application process and their acceptance of the labor force.
So far, there is a challenge of developing a concrete measure to estimate the impact of the refugee inflow to the labor market. However, the OECD report argues that under the low scenario, the impact of the asylum seekers entering the EU from January 2014 to June 2016 would correspond to approximately 380,000 people entering in the EU labor market. By December 2016, the number of the refugees in the European Economic Area (EEA) labor force is anticipated to reach 680,000, which is 0.3 percent of the EEA labor force. In Germany, the asylum seekers have created pressure on the country's labor force. For instance, the German labor force is anticipated to receive around 290,000 people, which represent 0.7 percent of its labor force. In overall, the impact of the refugees in EU is anticipated to accommodate less than one million individual entering the labor market, which represents 0.4 percent of the labor force in EEA.
In the long-term, the massive influx of the refugee in Europe and the establishment of the refugee policy is anticipated to affect the economic and social condition of the refugee's countries. The assimilation and integration of the refugees into the labor market will encourage the movement of the productive refugees from their countries' labor market to the countries they are hosted. For instance, since 2012, Germany, Sweden, and France have encouraged asylum seekers from Albania. Consequently, this has encouraged most of the people in Albania are influenced by the economic gains to leave their country and not primarily due to the military conflict in the country. Among the 42,000 Albanians moved to the EU during the initial eight months of 2015, "More than 60% of the asylum seekers were males, 2/3 of them were 18 to 64 years old." This portion of the population illustrates the most productive population are willing to leave their country with an aim to seek opportunities in the politically stable countries. Consequently, when the most productive leave their native labor force, they create a gap and diminish hopes for recovery and enhancing the lives of the individuals left in their country of origin.
One of the main factors that have frustrated the effort to mitigate the refugee crisis in EU is the ability to come into common ground. The EU is challenged by the ability to overcome the existing differences of viewpoints and interests, which presents EU as a weak institution. According to Guild et al. two main problems that have contributed to conflict conclusions among the member states. The authors argue, "First, that some member states fail to apply its binding standards properly; and, second, when they do properly apply them, they do not come to consistent conclusion." Countries such as Germany is the most influential country in the EU because it has the biggest economy. In its efforts to mitigate the situation in the EU, Germany is calling for solidarity from other member states. However, according to Lehne, some member states are refusing to join Germany arguing that Germany has contributed to the rise of the crisis through their homely welcome of the refugees.
The political sensitivity on how to deal with the refugee crisis in EU has exacerbated the crisis and the effort to deal with the crisis. Many countries are trying to solve the situation as individual member states rather than tackling the issue collectively because they do not want to damage their relationship with the countries that have opposing views. According to the Berry, Garcia-Blanco, and Moore, media coverage has shown that there exist a national division in the EU, and hence difference approaches in mitigating the situation. For instance, Italy is among the countries that were unwilling to enter into collective operations of rescue and search. Consequently, the media has portrayed as a bureaucratic, slow and divided institution. It is evident that issue of the refugees in Europe is fragmented along the political lines, and this reveals the challenges and limitation that EU is experiencing. The countries within the EU lack the political unity, and burden-sharing approach has therefore resulted in various unsuccessful and desperate solution led by the member states.
Lack of the relocation schemes and hotspot approach also contributes to the irregular movement of asylum seekers to other states. According to UNHCR report, the EU need to provide effective registration for all refugees in three processes: the national asylum system, national return process, and the relocation problem to avoid irregularities among the refugees. The hotspot and relocation schema must be implemented fully to manage the new immigrants in orderly and formal manner. In Europe, the prevailing deficiencies in registration are contributing to the irregular arrival of refugees hence challenging the host countries on planning and budgeting for refugee support and accommodation.
In conclusion, the ‘refugee crisis' will continue to a threatening problem in coming years if the better policies are not implemented. The massive inflow of refugees has resulted to adverse political, economic and social impacts that are diminishing the effort to enhance union in European integration. The EU needs to establish common ground on the issue relating to the refugee influx to enable the member states to share the burden. The problem needs to be tackled collectively but not as individual states.
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