From fortress Europe to border-filter: Vulnerability, biopolitics, and the management of migration in Greece and the European Union after 2015

Following increased migration flows in 2015, the European Commission (EC) and the Greek government implemented new strategies and legislation to regulate mobility in the EU area. The impact of one of these strategies is especially important. The EC “European Agenda on Migration” was implemented by Greek Asylum Law 4375/2016 and followed up with subsequent legislation. The legislation introduced “vulnerability assessment” as a tool for granting or withholding refugee status based on biopolitical criteria. The border can be seen as a filter that admits, on biopolitical grounds, those supposedly deserving of entry while it excludes those deemed undeserving. The border-filter differs from the perception of Fortress Europe that is popular in activist and other political discourses in much of Europe. The idea of Fortress Europe implies a total absence of migrant mobility and does not correspond to our empirical research findings.