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The Influence of Illegal and Forced Migration onto the Unity of the EU: The Prospects of Two Speeds Europe and/or Multiple Europes

Since the beginning of the “Arabian Spring” and especially since 2015, migration to Europe, whether illegal economic or forced (refugees) has become one of the most important political, economic and security issues for Europe and the EU particularly. The issue has divided the EU (the line is geographically positioned in the center of Europe) to its East and West. Together with the legal, intra-EU migration, the issue played one of the key roles in the outcome of the referendum on Brexit, influencing the decision towards the Leave vote. The ruling elites of some Central European states use the threat of (domestically) non- existent “immigrant waves” to attack the independence of the media and the judiciary, which is opposed to the common values embraced by the EU. The issue of non-EU migration to Europe has become a quintessential issue in the public and political discourse, concurrently clothing the issues of democratic deficits in some post- communist EU members. The existence of two opposed geopolitical and geo-economic blocs in the EU, one composed of the states of the EU Core and the other, mostly pro-USA and firmly anti-immigrant, mainly composed of the Three Seas Initiative states, has become increasingly visible. Therefore, Europe of “two-speeds” seems like a viable scenario that could significantly determine the future of the EU. The non-EU immigration has made the social issues of inequality and overexposure to transnational capital of the workers in the EU less important, thereby making the centrist and center-left parties in most of the EU states weaker, concurrently fueling the populists and/or Euro skeptics. Due to all mentioned reasons, migration has to be continuously studied as one of critical issues for the EU’s future. The persisting crisis of the EU calls upon researchers to critically assess the issue of migration and offer solutions to policy- makers.

migration ; the EU ; the Three Seas Initiative ; the Europe of “two-speeds” ; populism

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