Browsing by study line "Humanities Study Track"

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how people displaced by climate change can be accommodated within the European Union's existing migration governance system while taking into consideration the recent failures and injustices of this system during the so-called refugee crisis. The intention for framing the discussion about climate-induced migration in the context of the refugee crisis is not to compare or equate the two phenomena but to highlight the many injustices and protection gaps that exist under the current migration regimes, and to analyze how climate change will impact these regimes and the legal protections provided for migrants, asylum seekers, and displaced peoples. To begin this analysis, this thesis first looks at the relationship between climate change and migration, where it is determined that climate-induced migration is a complex and multi-causal phenomenon that can impact human mobility in multiple ways. People displaced by climate change face multiple protection gaps in both international and EU law, and there is currently no distinct instrument or coherent policy approach from the EU that is directly applicable to ‘climate migrants’ or climate-induced migration. The second part of this analysis looks at the fractured structure of EU migration governance and how the systems and mechanisms in place failed to adequately protect asylum seekers during the refugee crisis, with a focus on the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). This analysis showed that the EU failed to implement its supranational migration policies efficiently during the refugee crisis, which had a detrimental impact on securing and ensuring the legal protections of migrants and asylum seekers. Part of this failure was due to the lack of unity and trust between Member States, and also because the EU adopted an increasingly securitized approach to migration, abandoning its human rights obligations in order to create a false sense of security. The conclusion of this study found that the increasing securitization of both climate change and the EU’s migration and asylum policies will likely have negative consequences for people displaced by climate change and seeking protection in the EU. The continual and persistent portrayal of climate-induced migration as a potential security threat has hindered the development of any effective policies to address the issue, and the EU has shown little political will to radically rethink its current migration laws, mechanisms, or governance systems. The impacts of climate change will only further contribute to the protection gaps and marginalization that migrants and asylum seekers already face, and the way forward is to continue funding scientific research that captures the complex and multi-causal nature of climate-induced migration, which will help move migration and asylum policies beyond their current securitized outlook and provide evidence-based policies that will better protect those displaced by climate change.

This thesis aims to examine and contextualize the histories, meanings, and the messages behind a number of the most significant classical structures in Helsinki, looking in particular at who erected these buildings and why they did so, along with what the planners and architects were trying to emphasize through their architectural design choices. The legacies of these builders and their buildings are also to be analysed. Specifically, this thesis does not aim to answer why Finland has classical architecture, but rather what it means for this young nation to have it, especially so in such significant abundance and considering that a great many of the nation’s most important buildings have been designed in this particular style.