Greece and migration – a dual crisis
July 16th, 2015An international affairs analyst suggests that a joint European immigration strategy is long overdue, but doubts if the EU can realistically be expected to produce one. It is understandable, she believes, that until that day member states including Hungary will act on their own.
In Napi Gazdaság, Ágnes Angyal believes the European Union is facing the most critical period of its history, as it has to deal with several parallel crises in different fields. The most burning ones are the Greek financial and political problems and the mounting wave of immigration from Asia and Africa. The European free movement arrangements devised for mainly internal use and a moderate flow of external migrants simply cannot cope with the current massive wave of asylum seekers. Nevertheless, there is no sign of a joint plan of action to face this crisis, she underlines, and doubts if the European Union will be capable of devising one any time soon. Under these conditions nation states are seeking individual solutions. France and Austria block trains packed with migrants coming from Italy, while Hungary is building a fence along its southern border. These moves, Angyal warns, are also motivated by the fact that West European countries have not been overly successful in integrating former immigrants and their descendants.