The working group’s overall goal is to provide a space for the research debate on European asylum and border control policies within the network, as these policy areas are central components of forced migration research. For those seeking protection, how the European Union manages access to its territory plays a crucial role. This can be observed in the lack of safe and legal avenues into the EU and the resulting refugee movements across the Mediterranean or the Balkan route, which are under pressure from the continuing trend towards externalization of European migration policies. Furthermore, within the EU, the crisis-laden nature of its asylum policy shows potential to erode European integration.
In the working group, we aim at synergizing research activities touching on the deliberately broadly defined field of “Europe” in a transdisciplinary way, while also trying to strengthen cooperation between the working groups of the network. Public policy perspectives that dominate European asylum and border control policy research will be given the opportunity to engage with other research approaches through regularly scheduled exchanges (online and in person), ideally planning joint panels at conferences, writing joint publications, or designing transdisciplinary research projects along the way. Perspectives of protection seekers, civil society, or European neighbouring countries are highly welcome.