Carmel, Emma, and Regine Paul. "The Struggle for Coherence in EU Migration Governance". Italian Journal of Social Policy, Vol.1 (2010): 209-230.

Carmel, Emma, and Regine Paul. "The Struggle for Coherence in EU Migration Governance". Italian Journal of Social Policy, Vol.1 (2010): 209-230.

• Migration is a particularly complex subject matter, and implementation of migration policy requires coordination between a number of public and private agencies and between countries. The EU is complex in itself, making EU migration policy even more complex (214).
• Member states actually have much more weight in the creation and enforcement of migration policy than those the EU, since, even in areas where EU law supercedes domestic law, the actual policy is implemented by member states and non-complience cannot be effectively punished (214).
• The European Council and the European Commission both have major roles in the creation of migration policy. While the Commission has been generally more liberal in migration policy compared to the security-oriented Council, both bodies contain security-centric and liberal elements. The Council recently created a liberal guarantee against discrimination after fears regarding the election of the anti-immigration Austrian Freedom Party (215).
• Migration policy first came under centralized EU control in 1999 due to the ratification of the Amsterdam Treaty. This control was centralized in the European Commission by 2005, prior to which the Council had exerted significant influence (216-217).
• While the Schengen Agreement of 1985 legally guaranteed the right of free movement for EU nationals, its actual enforcement has always been uneven and dependent on national perceptions of the immigrants (216).
• The EU has overseen a limited expansion of rights for migrants, enforcing legislation which cements the right of family reunion and protection from discrimination for legal residents of EU states. This has secured fair treatment of legal migrants, but not demanded any substantial improvement of the position of immigrants in Europe (217-218).
• More substantial protections have been provided to victims of human trafficking, considered separate from other categories of migrants. These trafficked persons are given rights not accessible to other migrants, although these rights are sometimes terminated after criminal investigation is complete (218).
• Through international agreements protecting the rights of refugees, the EU has institutionalized a two-tier system of protections for foreigners between privileged refugees and regular migrants, who are much less able to access social services or secure residency rights (219-220).
• The EU has engineered a significant expansion of programs allowing for the simplified refusal and deportation of immigrants or failed asylum-seekers, including agreements with safe third-countries and basic protections during deportation. This has resulted in the increasing emphasis on security in EU border states, often without accompanying human rights standards (219).
• EU migration policy has increasingly become dominated by security interests, with many issues being transferred from political bodies to police, border guards, and national security bodies. The techniques employed in migration control are increasingly decided by security forces based on minimizing risks (220).
• An exception to thise general trend has been the position of employers and companies in the EU migration regime, as employers are made responsible for preventing illegal migration at their businesses. They are considered part of the regulatory system, not targets of law enforcement (221).
• Some elements of EU migration policy, particularly around the period of the Lisbon Treaty, were created for economic reasons. Some supply of foreign workers is considered necessary to promote growth and provide cheap labour. These initiatives have been generally championed by the Commission, and resisted by the Council (223).
• Reflecting considerably disagreement within the EU about the numbers and skills of foreign workers needed for economic growth, the EU controls labour migration through specific requests by countries for workers divided according to skill type (223).
• EU documents recognize that immigrants are more likely to be socially alienated and less likely to secure employment than other groups, but do not conceptualize this as an issue like it does for other marginalized groups. Instead, migrants are encouraged to engage in 'circular migration' through arrangements which secure employment and limit social ties to European countries. This logic allows the continued use of punitive measures against illegal immigrants and their exclusion from schemes for other marginalized persons (224).
• This attitudes has changed since the Lisbon Treaty, with new emphasis placed on the social integration of migrants, and particularly their children. This integration is motivated by employment incentives, and often conceptualized in economic terms. Following riots in France in 2005, social integration has also taken on security incentives (225).