Abstract
In the wake of the 2015/2016 migration crisis, EU policy-makers have urged returning more irregular migrants. In order to achieve this, the EU has adopted a series of non-binding documents for European administrations (such as the EU Return Handbook) and agreed on informal return deals with countries of migrants’ origin including Afghanistan. This article argues that the EU’s shift towards soft law has not altered the EU’s return policy in a profound way. Yet, it has managed to ‘convert’ EU return policy by emphasizing a particular interpretation of existing hard law (towards more restrictive practices and a stronger focus on ‘efficiency’). The soft law approach has also allowed policy-makers to signal action in times of crisis at lower legislative and sovereignty costs.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 93-113 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | West European Politics |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Previous versions of this article were presented at the SGEU Conference at Sciences Po Paris (2018) and at the International Conference of Europeanists in Madrid (2019). We would like to thank the guest editors, Sabine Saurugger and Fabien Terpan, for the preparation of this special issue. Thanks also go to Philipp Stutz and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.