In the years 2015 and 2016, the European Union (EU) and (some of) its member states were facing a very high number of asylum-seekers. This inflow revealed the shortcomings and dysfunctionalities of the European asylum system and plunged the EU into one of its biggest crises: Member states could hardly agree on common measures, and different national preferences for dealing with asylum-seekers led to profound and ongoing political divisions. Germany, which particularly was affected by the inflow, sought to ‘europeanize’ the phenomenon and to distribute the loads more evenly across the EU – but met major resistance.
Contrarily to the widely held view – both in the academic literature and the European public – that Germany, in recent years, has shaped and even dominated European politics, it largely failed with its main policy proposals in the refugee and migrant crisis. To uncover the reasons, the present thesis applies an analytical model of ‘political leadership’. Based on current academic research, relevant newspaper articles and self-conducted expert interviews, it is argued that there might have been supply but not sufficient demand for successful German political leadership. In doing so, this thesis so far is the only larger academic paper that explicitly links the latest research on political leadership with Germany's role in the EU's refugee and migrant crisis.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Abstract
- Keywords
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Political leadership
- 2.1. What is political leadership?
- 2.2. When, why and how do political leaders emerge?
- 2.3. Political leadership in the EU
- 3. Post-functionalism: a concept to understand domestic political constraints
- 4. The EU's refugee and migrant crisis
- 4.1. What is a political crisis?
- 4.2. Main features of the EU's asylum and migration policy
- 4.3. Course of the EU's refugee and migrant crisis
- 4.4. Germany's role in the EU's refugee and migrant crisis
- 5. Qualitative content analysis
- 5.1. Methodology
- 5.2. Analysis of newspaper articles and interviews
- 5.3. Putting things together: Why did German leadership largely fail?
- 6. Conclusion and outlook
- Bibliography
- ANNEXES
- ANNEX I: List of conducted interviews
- ANNEX II: Selected newspaper articles from 'Die Welt'
- ANNEX III: Selected newspaper articles from ‘The Guardian’
- ANNEX IV: Selected newspaper articles from 'Le Monde'
- The effectiveness of German political leadership in the EU
- The concept of political leadership in the EU
- The EU's asylum and migration policy
- The role of domestic political constraints in shaping European policy
- The application of qualitative content analysis in studying political leadership
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This thesis examines Germany's role in the European Union's (EU) refugee and migrant crisis of 2015-2016, focusing on why German political leadership largely failed to enact its policy proposals for distributing asylum-seekers across the EU. Through a qualitative content analysis of relevant newspaper articles and expert interviews, the thesis argues that while there might have been a supply of German leadership, there wasn't enough demand for it to be successful. This research contributes to the existing literature by linking the concept of political leadership with the specific context of the EU's refugee and migrant crisis.Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the thesis's topic, highlighting the challenges faced by the EU during the refugee and migrant crisis and focusing on Germany's role in the crisis. Chapter 2 delves into the concept of political leadership, exploring its definition, emergence, and application in the EU context. Chapter 3 introduces the concept of post-functionalism, a theoretical framework for understanding how domestic political constraints can influence European policy-making. Chapter 4 provides an overview of the EU's refugee and migrant crisis, examining its characteristics, policy framework, and Germany's specific role in the crisis. Chapter 5 presents the methodology and findings of the qualitative content analysis, exploring the reasons behind the failure of German political leadership in the crisis.Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
This thesis focuses on the interplay of political leadership, Germany's role in the EU's refugee and migrant crisis, the relocation scheme, and the concept of solidarity within the EU. The research emphasizes the importance of understanding the factors that contribute to successful political leadership, particularly in the context of complex crises like the refugee and migrant crisis.- Quote paper
- Lucas Schramm (Author), 2018, Solidarity. From the Heart or by Force ?, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/434939
