A common European asylum system? How variation in Member States’ administrative capacity undermines EU asylum harmonisation

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This chapter gives an overview over the research on EU asylum policy harmonisation and explains why attempts to harmonise EU asylum policies to date have had little success in practice. It argues that only a group of Member States, the so-called strong regulators, has been effective in shaping EU asylum policies. These states include countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden and have a long regulatory tradition in asylum policies as well as effectively working administrations that allow them to build credible expertise and strong positions for the negotiations. Weak regulators such as Italy and Greece, on the other hand, do not have any of these resources and hence remain rather passive in the negotiations. They subsequently face high levels of misfit between EU and domestic policies. Given their low administrative capacity, these states are unable to implement EU asylum policies.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Migration in Europe
EditorsAgnieszka Weinar, Saskia Bonjour, Lyubov Zhyznomirska
Number of pages15
PublisherTaylor and Francis Inc.
Publication date01.01.2018
Pages315-329
ISBN (print)9781315512853
ISBN (electronic)9781315512846
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2018
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Agnieszka Weinar, Saskia Bonjour and Lyubov Zhyznomirska; individual chapters, the contributors.

DOI