Analysis of policies and policy recommendations

Assuming perceptions of Europe which hold contested images of Europe contribute to a certain extent to decisions to migrate, and in some cases to security threats – what do countries do to address these threats? This report provides an overview of underlying rationales of policies and policy measures addressing security threats that are linked with perceptions of Europe or a particular country. While this report does not assess the impact of the measures analysed, it provides a categorisation of types of measures contributing to a better understanding of the ways in which such policy measures are intended to work. Explicating the mechanisms employed and their assumptions, such analysis contributes to a better understating of how various policy measures intend to reach their goals.
A systematic literature review on perceptions of Europe and how they are linked with potential security threats, undertaken in the framework of PERCEPTIONS, found that in the relevant migration and security literature, “perceptions” as such is rarely employed. Accordingly, the literature review found that “some countries are perceived to be stepping-stones” towards others, migrants have positive/negative perceptions of Europe or migrants have what could be categorised as a “misperception of the EU”.
For the present report, policy measures operating at the intersection of managing migration and security were collected in 12 countries which, together, cover all three categories along the migration journey – countries of origin, of transit and of destination – Algeria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Spain, Tunisia and the United Kingdom. In sum, policy measures which address a security threat linked with perceptions were collected in the following policy areas: asylum, irregular migration, migrant integration, return, border management, policies addressing radicalisation, policies addressing disinformation online.