The new Routledge Handbook of European Public Policy, edited by Nikolaos Zahariadis and Dr. Laurie Buonanno, features a chapter by Associate Professor Alexander Caviedes of the Department of Politics and International Affairs.
The handbook provides an in-depth and systematic understanding of European Union (EU) policies, introducing major concepts, trends and methodologies in a variety of comparative settings. It is said to constitute the first systematic effort to include theoretical and substantive analyses of European public policies in a single volume.
Dr. Caviedes’ chapter, “European Migration and Asylum Policy,” charts the growth in EU competence over the policy area in the past 25 years. An introductory examination of the development of national policies in the post-War period provides the context for presenting the leading theoretical frameworks for explaining European public policy within immigration. A survey of the development of EU policy in migration and asylum with a discussion of the roles of the central institutional actors – Commission, Council, and European Parliament – sets the stage for a consideration of policy across five realms. First, there is a discussion of the most advanced area of migration policy, namely the free movement of EU citizens from country to country and the erosion of physical borders. Thereafter, the focus shifts to the four areas of policy devoted to non-EU citizens, where Caviedes demonstrates that policies on unauthorized migration and asylum have outpaced developments in legal migration and integration, where national policies are still central. It suggests that the EU prioritizes areas that are viewed as having security implications, while also challenging claims that states have lost control over the migration process or that national European policies are converging upon a single model.
