IMMIGRATION POLICIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AFTER THE ARAB SPRING

Abstract

The civil war and immigration problem, which were seen in many Arabian countries after the Arab
Spring that created a domino effect in the Middle East, have a serious role in today's international
arena. The borders of the European Union were heavily affected by the results of these mass
migration movements. In this process, due to the influx of Syrians to the European borders, the
European Union has begun to follow more cautious policies against immigration; also the idea of
“Fortress Europe”, which means isolating Europe from the strangers coming from outside of
Europe, has started to be implemented more frequent since 2015 that the migration movements
started to increase. In this process, the European Union has aimed to take control of the refugee
crisis and to keep itself out of this crisis by focusing on quota criteria, barbed wire, readmission
agreements and struggle with irregular migrants. The study is supposed to point out the migration policies of the EU after the Arab Spring and to be
contributed to the literature in terms of understanding the humanitarian dimension of the EU’s
approach to the refugee crisis.