European citizens want information on migration - not higher walls

Despite being bombarded with headlines about the “migrant crisis” facing Europe, little is really known about how European citizens perceive and experience migration in their daily lives. As part of our ongoing research we’ve found that rather than linking “irregular” migration with fears of terrorism, EU citizens have a more nuanced position on border security. The people we’ve interviewed rejected both border walls and open borders as political solutions to the issue of migration into Europe.

Tougher border security has been a key pillar of the way the EU has responded to the increase in migration since 2015. But our findings contradict the European Commission’s argument that there is a “powerful consensus” among EU institutions and public opinion on the need to enhance border security in response to irregular migration.

The results also question the findings of a 2015 Eurobarometer survey, polling around 27,000 people, which found that in 25 member states, the majority of attitudes towards migration were negative. It also reported that 90% of all EU citizens interviewed said additional border security measures were needed to fight irregular immigration.

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Migrant crisis: 100,000 have crossed Mediterranean for Europe since Jan: UN

More than 100,000 migrants and refugees have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe since the beginning of the year, and 2,247 have died trying, the UN said today.

Between January 1 and July 3, more than 85,000 migrants landed in Italy, nearly 9,300 arrived in Greece, nearly 6,500 arrived in Spain and over 270 landed in Cyprus, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

While the numbers are staggering, they remain far below last year's figures.

During the same period in 2016, 231,503 people made the crossing to Europe, with the 100,000-mark passed already in February that year.

But at that time most of the migrants were crossing from Turkey to Greece, and an EU deal with Ankara in March last year effectively hit the breaks on that movement.

So far this year, Italy has meanwhile taken in nearly 85 percent of the people crossing the Mediterranean.

Rome will on Thursday host an informal meeting of EU justice and interior ministers to discuss the migrant crisis.

Italy has been pushing for other European countries to open up their ports to rescue ships in order to share the burden.

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