Browsing by Author "Paikkala, Terhi"

Immigration and asylum policies have become more central in the European Union and in its external relations over the last few years. This is a consequence of both increased politicisation of the issue, especially migration coming from developing countries, and of the changes in decision-making procedures brought along by core EU treaties furthering European integration. While most attention is usually paid to the consequences of migration in the countries of destination, the promoted migration patterns have also effects on the development of the countries of origin. This thesis examines by means of qualitative document analysis two recent, influential and debated immigration and asylum policy documents of the European Union, namely the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum (adopted in 2008) and the Stockholm Programme (adopted in 2009 for years 2010-2014). The purpose is to understand what kind of immigration and tools the policies are promoting and how coherent the policies are from development perspective. As the policies have raised critical commentaries from civil society, media, policy research institutes and other actors, these commentaries are also presented to illustrate the controversial topics. The policies are also put in their historical, procedural and immigration pattern contexts. The analytical framework for the thesis consists of policy, development and migration theories and concepts. Central in this regard are the functional imperatives theory, which explains the legitimacy sources of the policy themes and logics; the concept of policy coherence for development and findings in migration-development research, which help to review the coherence of the examined documents. This study has found four main lines of consideration in the examined documents: the policies are based on utilitarian, security, human rights and development considerations. The logics, issues, tools and commentaries on each of them are examined in detail. Not all of these lines bear the same weight in policies: for example security considerations, such as controlling irregular immigration, are presented as more important and contain more detailed policies in the examined policy documents than human rights or development considerations. These emphases derive both from the main legitimacy sources, or functional imperatives, as well as from current political and immigration trends, portrayed through the decision-making procedures and institutions. For example the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum was notably a contribution of the French EU Presidency, which is reflected also in its content. The European Union has committed itself to design and implement policies that are coherent with development objectives, such as the Millennium Development Goals. Also the examined documents restate this commitment, and suggest policies and tools that aim to build synergies between migration and development. While the suggested development tools are as such mostly a coherent contribution, the lack of emphasis on them and the migration patterns promoted, especially the desire for highly-skilled immigrants, can in some regards compromise the development objectives.