Planned destitution as a policy tool to control migration in the EU: Socio-economic deprivation and international human rights law

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Abstract

The increased use of social and economic exclusion as a policy tool with a view to managing certain groups of ‘undesirable’ migrants is one of the major trends in European asylum and migration policy. While this already occurs under the current legislative framework, the most recent reform proposals tabled by the European Commission appear to tighten such policies.

Planned destitution refers to situations where social and economic exclusion is used as a policy tool to control migration, especially as a deterrent against unwanted migration, including asylum seekers. Such measures may respond to various intersecting policy aims, ranging from pushing those present on territory to leave, deterring future arrivals, and creating classes of exploitable people serving certain needs of the economies. As a result, the use of destitution as a migration management tool generates acute tensions within host states between immigration law and human rights protection.

In the EU, two areas stand out in which such policies are used: on the one hand, policies to prevent onward movement of asylum seekers within the EU, on the other hand, measures to enforce returns to third countries. In both constellations, the migrant does not leave when the EU (and/or the Member State) expect them to, a situation which can be ascribed to the ‘obstinacy of migratory movements’.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationBrussels
PublisherOdysseus Academic Network
EditionEU Migration Law Blog
Publication statusPublished - 17 Mar 2023

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