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.
Table of Contents
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
Objectives and Research Focus
This thesis examines the apparent failure of German leadership during the European Union's refugee and migrant crisis of 2015-2016. By applying an analytical model of "political leadership" that distinguishes between the supply of and demand for leadership, the work investigates why Germany—a central political actor—was only able to exercise successful leadership to a very limited extent, ultimately leading to a shift toward a more restrictive policy approach.
- Theoretical application of political leadership frameworks to the EU context.
- Analysis of domestic political constraints using post-functionalist theory.
- Chronological investigation of the EU refugee and migrant crisis evolution.
- Qualitative content analysis of leading European newspapers and expert interviews.
- Evaluation of the disconnect between German leadership initiatives and member state demand.
Auszug aus dem Buch
A growing divide between West and East
As increasingly reported, the German government sought to put political pressure on the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) to show more solidarity. Those latter countries, however, as they have very homogenous populations, mostly refused to receive any refugees – particularly when they were Muslims. In an interview, a civil servant from the Slovakian Permanent Representation stated that for them, not religion as such mattered but “religion [Islam] as an element of collective identity is considered a threat to the national community”. The CEEC’ governments, backed by their respective populations, thought they were neither responsible for nor in charge of the EU’s refugee and migrant crisis – they regarded it as a “Western problem”. A political divide between Western and Eastern member states became more and more visible: Over time, the dispute on quotas was “turning into the biggest split between east and west Europe since the post-communist countries joined the union in 2004”.
Political observers lamented a lack of ‘empathy’ amongst EU member states. Instead, most of them were trying to avoid a fair share of burdens by referring to their individual traditions and cultures, and by seeking advantages towards its respective neighbors. EU member states, it was argued, needed “to recognize the problems of another member state as their own”. However, as argued by a Hungarian civil servant, a quota system, first, would not take into account the “different realities” within the member states and, second, would be seen by many other people as an “invitation” to come to Europe.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Presents the research problem regarding German leadership during the EU refugee crisis and introduces the hypothesis of insufficient demand for leadership.
2. Political leadership: Defines political leadership, discusses its emergence, and analyzes leadership dynamics specifically within the EU polity.
3. Post-functionalism: a concept to understand domestic political constraints: Introduces post-functionalism to explain how domestic politicization affects national government room for maneuver in EU policy-making.
4. The EU’s refugee and migrant crisis: Outlines the definition of political crisis, the EU asylum framework, the timeline of the 2015-2016 crisis, and Germany's position within it.
5. Qualitative content analysis: Details the methodology behind the analysis of newspapers and interviews, and synthesizes the findings to explain the failure of German leadership.
6. Conclusion and outlook: Summarizes the key findings and addresses future implications for the EU asylum system and the persistence of the 'solidarity crisis'.
Keywords
Political leadership, Germany, Refugees and migrant crisis, Relocation scheme, Solidarity, EU asylum policy, Burden-sharing, Post-functionalism, Politicization, Dublin Regulation, Crisis management, European integration, Member states, Migration, Asylum-seekers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this thesis?
The thesis investigates why Germany, despite its central political and economic role, largely failed to exert successful political leadership during the EU's 2015-2016 refugee and migrant crisis.
What are the central thematic fields?
The work covers political leadership theory, European integration, the institutional and political dynamics of the EU asylum system, and the influence of domestic politics on member states.
What is the primary research question?
It seeks to understand the discrepancy between the supply of German leadership services and the insufficient demand for these services among other EU member states, leading to the failure of proposed policy solutions.
Which methodology is employed?
The author uses a qualitative content analysis based on 79 articles from three major European newspapers (Die Welt, The Guardian, Le Monde) and 14 semi-structured expert interviews.
What does the main part of the thesis cover?
It includes a conceptual framework for leadership, an analysis of the EU refugee crisis timeline, and a detailed frame analysis of how different actors perceived and responded to the crisis.
Which keywords best describe this study?
Key terms include political leadership, Germany, refugee and migrant crisis, solidarity, relocation scheme, and European integration.
Why did the relocation mechanism face such strong resistance?
The relocation mechanism was resisted because it touched upon sensitive issues of national sovereignty, differing domestic political priorities regarding immigration, and a perceived lack of consultation by the German government.
What role did the "Turkey deal" play in the crisis?
The deal represented a shift in policy from internal EU burden-sharing to an externalized focus on stopping migratory flows at the EU's external borders, which was seen as a pragmatic, albeit controversial, correction of initial policy efforts.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Lucas Schramm (Autor:in), 2018, Solidarity. From the Heart or by Force ?, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/434939
