TY - JOUR
T1 - Democracy Matters (To Some Extent): Autocracies, Democracies and the Forced Return of Migrants from the EU
AU - Stutz, Philipp
AU - Trauner, Florian
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on earlier drafts. Previous other versions of this article have been presented at different conferences including the IMISCOE General Conference, ECPR Standing Group EU Conference, the EU in International Affairs Conference and the workshop \u2018The frontiers of EU external migration governance\u2019 at the London School of Economics. We would like to thank the respective panel participants for their constructive feedback. The financial support of Research Foundation \u2013 Flanders (FWO) for the ERC Follow-up project \u2018The creation of a dataset on coercive EU mobility rules\u2019 (FWOEUMOB; G0G2821N) is gratefully acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2024/7/23
Y1 - 2024/7/23
N2 - This article analyses whether the European Union returns more irregular migrants to democratic or autocratic states. It establishes the EU’s return rates with the whole world over a period of twelve years (2008–2019) and connects it to non-EU countries’ democratic credentials. Democracy mattered to some extent in the sense that the EU had generally fewer return orders and higher return rates with democratic states. Yet, a macro perspective indicates that the EU was driven by an interest to maximise returns to non-EU countries, irrespective of the regime type. Some autocratic regimes–and those that became more autocratic–had high return rates and were actively targeted for achieving more returns. A non-EU country’s change towards more or less democratic standards had a comparatively minor likelihood of impacting the EU return rate.
AB - This article analyses whether the European Union returns more irregular migrants to democratic or autocratic states. It establishes the EU’s return rates with the whole world over a period of twelve years (2008–2019) and connects it to non-EU countries’ democratic credentials. Democracy mattered to some extent in the sense that the EU had generally fewer return orders and higher return rates with democratic states. Yet, a macro perspective indicates that the EU was driven by an interest to maximise returns to non-EU countries, irrespective of the regime type. Some autocratic regimes–and those that became more autocratic–had high return rates and were actively targeted for achieving more returns. A non-EU country’s change towards more or less democratic standards had a comparatively minor likelihood of impacting the EU return rate.
KW - return rate, migration, EU, democratisation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85199256398&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14650045.2024.2382460
DO - 10.1080/14650045.2024.2382460
M3 - Article
SP - 1
EP - 26
JO - Journal of Geopolitics
JF - Journal of Geopolitics
SN - 1465-0045
ER -