Abstract:
The European Union (EU) has long been one of the most desired destinations for immigrants coming from North Africa and the Mediterranean countries. However, the recent trend of increased emigration from Southern Mediterranean countries to Europe is creating challenges for EU policymakers. Since the start of the Arab uprisings in 2010, the EU and its member states have been concerned with launching new programs to accommodate the massive number of refugees and migrants resulting from the political, social and economic upheaval. However, while the EU has repeatedly called for democratic transitions in North Africa and the Middle East, no significant policies or resettlement programs have been created to deal with this crisis of increased migration, leading thousands and thousands of migrants to seek to enter Europe illegally. Debate over how to better manage the increased flows of migrants is heated, but to date, only a minority of voices have called for EU policies to try to tackle the root causes of migration to the EU instead of focusing on denying migrants entry to the European Union. This thesis seeks to describe and analyze this debate and use Libya and Tunisia as case studies illustrating the challenges of addressing what many are calling the largest wave of migration in Europe since World War Two.
