The creation of a dataset on coercive EU mobility rules (FWOAL1025)

The EU is interested in regulating as to where and how long migrants may remain in its territory. If deemed necessary, the EU rules regulating the mobility of migrants can be enforced by coercive means e.g. through a forcibly return procedure or a Dublin transfer of asylum seekers back to their point of entry in Europe. The ERC runner-up-project will be ground-breaking by analysing and critically reflecting upon the application of these rules. It will create a unique dataset featuring country-to-country cooperation patterns on coercive mobility within Europe (on Dublin transfers) and from Europe to the rest of the world (on return cooperation) over a period of twenty-one years (1999-2020). Different statistical methods, first and foremost regression analyses, will allow to explain the patterns of cooperation (and non-cooperation) over
time and across all regions in the world. This will determine the impact of factors such as a third country’s democratic standards or administrative capabilities. The dataset on coercive EU mobility rules will also assess the extent to which incomplete or unreliable data distorts our knowledge and understanding on migration governance in Europe. No-one has yet systematically compared and complemented European and
national data on migration regardless of the fact that complaints about the quality of the data are frequent. Making the dataset open access, the ERC runner-up-project will have a high public impact by strengthening the capabilities of policy-makers and academics.

Keywords:EU migration policy, implementation of EU law, international migration cooperation

Disciplines:European union politics, Immigration, Institutions and regimes, Comparative politics, International law