Migrant Crisis Threatens European Union Itself

Europe’s migrant crisis has returned with a vengeance, and disputes between EU member states over how to confront the challenge are plunging the bloc into an existential crisis. In a single week in September, more than 10,000 young males from Africa and the Middle East arrived on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, which has a population of 6,000 and a migrant-reception capacity of only 400. Hundreds of thousands more migrants are poised to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa in hopes of reaching European shores before winter arrives.

The migrant flows to Europe in 2023 have intensified in ways not seen since 2015, when German chancellor Angela Merkel invited in more than a million migrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) is expecting 350,000 illegal migrant arrivals in 2023, on top of the 330,000 migrants who illegally entered the European Union in 2022. The actual numbers are far higher because untold thousands of migrants reach Europe every year undetected. (These figures do not include the 6 million Ukrainian refugees who legally entered the EU since the Ukraine War began in February 2022.)

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Soeren Kern

Soeren Kern is a Spain-based political analyst and a research fellow for the Middle East Forum.

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Europe’s migrant crisis has returned with a vengeance, and disputes between EU member states over how to confront the challenge are plunging the bloc into an existential crisis. In a single week in September, more than 10,000 young males from Africa and the Middle East arrived on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, which has a population of 6,000 and a migrant-reception capacity of only 400. Hundreds of thousands more migrants are poised to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa in hopes of reaching European shores before winter arrives.

The migrant flows to Europe in 2023 have intensified in ways not seen since 2015, when German chancellor Angela Merkel invited in more than a million migrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) is expecting 350,000 illegal migrant arrivals in 2023, on top of the 330,000 migrants who illegally entered the European Union in 2022. The actual numbers are far higher because untold thousands of migrants reach Europe every year undetected. (These figures do not include the 6 million Ukrainian refugees who legally entered the EU since the Ukraine War began in February 2022.)