An unprecedented number of people is currently on the move seeking refuge in Europe. Large
parts of European societies respond with anxiety and mistrust to the influx of people.
Nationalist anti-migrant parties from Slovakia over Germany to the UK have gained increasing
support among the electorate and challenge the political mainstream. Europe is struggling how
to respond. While the search for solutions is ongoing one pattern seems to be emerging:
Fortress Europe is in the making. Unfortunately few of these discussions and measures consider
the structural root causes and dynamics of migration the motives of migrants or societal
challenges more thoroughly. This book seeks to address this deficit. Taking migration and
asylum policies as a starting point it analyses the various dimensions underpinning migration.
In doing so it identifies why receiving countries are in many ways part of the problem. To
eschew an overtly Euro-centric perspective and stimulate a debate between science and politics
it contains contributions by academics and practitioners alike from both shores of the
Mediterranean.
