| Description |
This paper gives an overview of the current integration standards established
within the Common European Asylum System and highlights the possible effects of the changing EU and national legal environment on the integration
of beneficiaries of international protection. These integration standards are
the starting point of the development of the integration indicators within the
project “National Integration Evaluation Mechanism” (NIEM), which aims to
support key integration and social actors in 14 EU Member States and Turkey
to evaluate and improve the integration outcomes of beneficiaries of international protection.
The EU’s greatest impact on the integration of beneficiaries of international protection has been through the stable legal framework of the Common
European Asylum System (CEAS). The recast Asylum Procedures, Reception
Conditions, Qualification and Family Reunification Directives all build on the
standards set by the 1951 Geneva Convention and aim for its full and effective implementation. They set a series of standards that shape the integration
process, starting from the reception phase until the full legal, socio-economic
and socio-cultural integration allowing refugees to realise their full potential
to contribute to society. These binding legislative acts are complemented by
the Common Basic Principles for Immigrant Integration Policy in the EU1
and
its re-affirmation, 10 Years On2
, which guide Member States on how to respond
to the needs and opportunities that beneficiaries of international protection
bring to their new homes.
However, in the past year, the emergence and strengthening of exclusionary,
anti-migrant narratives has threatened to undermine national – and now the
EU’s – stable legal framework and level of ambition to promote refugee integration. The negative political discourse induced a surprisingly coordinated
race-to-the-bottom reply at national level, whose approach is reflected in the
most recent European Commission Communication “Towards a Reform of the European Common Asylum System and Enhancing Legal Avenues to Europe”.
This document shows a fundamental change in the approach towards beneficiaries of international protection. These proposals reframe the logic of
asylum to a more temporary legal status in its nature and have more often
recourse to the cessation clause4
, without assessing the long-term consequences: how will it affect the integration of beneficiaries of international
protection?
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