La crisi dei rifugiati e il sistema europeo comune di asilo: che cosa non ha funzionato?

During the last two years, Europe has experienced a dramatic increase in arrivals along the central Mediterranean and the Balkans routes. At the same time, Europe has experienced an equally dramatic rise of asylum applications. This increase of asylum seekers flows in the European continent is certainly not new. Another significant highpoint in asylum seekers, equal to about 672,000, had already been reached in 1992 when the European Union was made up of 15 countries and another in 2001 (424,000 asylum applications in the EU this time to 27 countries). But what is amazing of today increase is its size and its strength in a given period of time corresponding approximately to the spring-summer period, like it was a seasonal phenomenon. Such a high number of arrivals and asylum seekers, concentrated in just a few months, represents a problem in the management and in the reception of these flows. Starting from these data, the research question is not about why the European Union has failed to manage these flows.