Filip Savatic: „Migration Policies and their impact on Migratory Flows during Crises“

Filip Savatic, a Postdoctoral Researcher at CERI-Sciences Po Paris will present his postdoctoral project „Migration Policies and their Impact on Migratory Flows during Crises“. This research is conducted by a group of researchers in the framework of the MAGYC project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 program.  Presentation: Migration Policies and their Impact on Migratory Flows during Crises Sudden rises in migration at the borders of the Global North have attracted substantial media and policy attention and generated public anxieties. During these crises, public officials and media have used data on previously unauthorized border crossings uncritically, eschewing the politically constructed nature of migration categories. Setting aside these narratives, who actually are the individuals attempting to cross borders without prior authorization during crises and how can they be categorized? In turn, what are the impacts of the externalization of migration controls by European states attempting to stem migration from the Global South? We address these questions in two ways. First, we use data on asylum acceptance rates and on „irregular border crossings“ (IBCs) from Frontex to show that, in times of crisis, a majority of individuals labelled as „irregular migrants“ would in fact receive asylum in Europe. Given this finding, we highlight how uncritical data usage and labelling deployed in public discourses legitimize the externalization of border controls. Second, we conduct a quantitative analysis using a new dataset on migration policies and demonstrate that those policies that aim to block certain migration routes disproportionately impact individuals who would likely receive asylum in Europe; individuals who would likely not receive asylum tend to find alternative migration pathways. Authors Filip Savatic, Postdoctoral Researcher at CERI-Sciences Po, Paris, France Hélène Thiollet, CNRS Researcher at CERI-Sciences Po, Paris, France Alice Mesnard, Reader in Economics at City University of London, United Kingdom Jean-Noël Senne, Associate Professor at the University of Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France Thibaut Jaulin, Project Manager and Researcher at Sciences Po, Bordeaux, France Presenter Bio Filip Savatic is a Postdoctoral researcher of the Migration Governance and Asylum Crises (MAGYC) project at the Centre de recherches internationales (Center for International Studies) of Sciences Po Paris. He specializes in the study of international migration and European integration. His work for the MAGYC project focuses on the externalization of migration control by European states and the impact of public policies on migratory flows. More broadly, his research examines the role of regional integration in the evolution of public policies targeting irregular migrants in Europe and the effects of migration on the political systems of migrant-receiving states. He obtained his PhD in Government from Georgetown University in December 2021. About the MAGYC Project The MAGYC (Migration Governance and asYlum Crises) project seeks to assess how migration governance has been influenced by the recent “refugee crises” and how crises at large shape policy responses on migration. An EU funded, Horizon 2020 project, it consists of a consortium of teams at universities across Europe and the Middle East. The official project page is here: https://www.magyc.uliege.be/cms/c_7809085/en/magyc