The Second European Migrant Crisis Begins – National Review
If you had to identify a nadir for the European Union, it would probably be the late summer of 2015. In those heady days, vast flows of people some refugees, some migrants streamed across Anatolia and the Mediterranean for the continent, intent on reaching the prosperous economies of its north and west, bolstered by Angela Merkels throwing open the doors to all who would come.
For Europes leaders, priding themselves on European values primary among them the prevention of atrocity within their territory it was more than an embarrassing affair: It cut at the heart of the European project itself. For the first time since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Europe found itself forced to grapple with a humanitarian crisis rudely intruding on its territory. In the international media, images circulated of refugees and migrants occupying train stations in the Balkans or, finding their way stymied, marching to Vienna on foot. With the populace alarmed by this vast influx, Europes vaunted system of passport-free internal travel collapsed, as countries began to impose passport checks at their borders to stop the flow. Hungary built a wall on its southern border. Austria, Slovenia, Denmark, and even Germany reestablished border controls. Countries were unable, or unwilling, to cooperate: Each sought to place the burden on its neighbors, with the result that the crisis festered for months. For a time it looked as if the European Union might not survive in its current form, its manifest inadequacy to address the crisis having become all too clear.
The aftermath of the refugee crisis played itself out in the great dramas of 2016 Britains shocking vote to leave the EU in June; the palpable rise of euroskepticism and populism throughout the year; and in November, the election as president of the United States of Donald Trump, a candidate who had in many ways run more against Angela Merkel than against his actual opponent. In 2017, however, the last remnants of Europes collective refugee-related paroxysm finally seemed to fade away, as Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen both turned in disappointing performances in their respective national elections.
Now Europe is back, symbolized by the resolutely regal Emmanuel Macron, whose victory over Le Pen provided the final impetus for European rejuvenation.
Or is it?
The migration crisis was, to a very large extent, the source of Europes recent ills, providing a lightning rod for all on left and right alike who sought to impugn the existing order. Only with its superficial dispelling partly through a deal with Turkey, partly through a natural ebb in the flow of people could Europe recover, though with the root causes of the problem left largely unresolved. Were it to return, the situation would revert to the dire state of two years ago.
And return it has. The focus of migration has shifted from the Aegean and Balkans to the Mediterranean but the situation is much the same. Migrant flows across the Mediterranean, from Libya to southern Italy, have seen a sharp uptick in recent months. Consider that 85,000 people have landed in Italy this year, with 12,000 coming in a 48-hour period in late June.
The Italians are understandably worried, especially in the light of upcoming national elections early next year. In a country that already boasts a potent populist party Beppe Grillos Five Star Movement, which now controls the mayoralties of Turin and Rome the image of migrant-induced chaos could be enough to cause great disturbances in the current system.
So too in Austria, which will hold elections in October. The far Right nearly won that countrys presidency late last year, and the migrant question still carries politically charged connotations. The Austrian defense minister announced earlier this week his intention of sending troops and tanks to the Tyrol, on the Italian border, for the purposes of blocking the entry of migrants into his country. Already maintaining border checks with Hungary and Slovenia, Austria may soon institute them with Italy as well. The announcement seems sure to provoke tensions with Italy, demonstrating a palpable lack of intra-European cooperation at the time when Europe needs it most, and suggesting that the resolution to the 2015 crisis was little more than facial.
The ball is thus in Europes court. We have heard much about the vaunted European recovery, but that talk means little without concrete action. The problem that vexed Europe in 2015 was an abject lack of cooperation between the EUs member states, which would rather pass the buck to Brussels or to other countries than address the issue themselves. That tendency in European affairs has not gone away; it has simply been permitted to dissipate along with the refugee flows from the east. Italy has recently proposed that European ports be opened to some migrant-carrying vessels, thus ameliorating to a degree the burden on Italian ports. Germany vetoed the proposal, while various Eurocrats argued that the responsibility should be shared with the north African countries from which the migrants come. The stage is set for a second round of European inaction. A sense of real leadership is required, but little seems to be on offer.
Perhaps that leadership could come from Emmanuel Macron, for whom this ongoing crisis represents a first testing of the waters. Much has been made of the newly minted French presidents professed desire to reign over his country as Jupiter did over the Roman pantheon, to fill the patriarchal void with which the French have grappled ever since the execution of Louis XVI in 1793. Macron stands as a benevolent authoritarian, but a youthful, charismatic one, enamored with the idea of Europe and intent on defending the Continent and his country against the populist menace. Now is the time to see whether he is worth all the talk, or whether his audacious imperial stylings are just posturing. If France and Germany really are to stand astride the new Europe, fitfully dragging it into the future, this is the first test. Can Merkel and Macron, the experienced old hand and the ambitious neophyte, forge intra-European cooperation out of what little of it has existed? Will their partnership be able to work with the smaller, less powerful European countries to fashion an equitable solution, or will they simply reach yet another impasse?
This initial hurdle comes at a less than ideal time for Macron. He has expressed his hope that the first months of his presidency will be spent overhauling Frances sclerotic labor laws, over the vociferous opposition of the powerful trade unions. For the sake of political expediency, he intended to do this as soon as possible: preferably this summer by executive decree, during the vacation months, when the unions will find organizing large-scale protests a logistical challenge. When the protests begin after the rentre in September, the reforms will be a fait accompli. But this is no simple task: It would require enormous time and energy. That time will now have to be devoted to devising a European solution to the renewed migrant crisis as well. With domestic imperative balanced against continental crisis, Macron will soon have to determine where his true priorities lie and whether he commands the political capacity to address two crucial issues simultaneously.
If Europe is back, its spirit renewed, its political will reinvigorated, now is the time to prove it. The ongoing migrant crisis in the Mediterranean provides the venue. Without a satisfactory resolution, Europe may well find itself sliding back into September 2015, with all the malignant political consequences that followed. The honeymoon is over.
READ MORE: Listen to Eastern Europe: Muslim Migration Waves Are a Pressing Problem Viktor Orban on Hungary and the Crisis of Europe Terrorism Is Not Random: We Must Look at Muslim Immigration with Clear Eyes
Noah Daponte-Smith is an intern at National Review and a student of modern history and politics at Yale University.
See more here:
The Second European Migrant Crisis Begins - National Review
- Migrant crisis: Michelle Dewberry erupts over Britain's 'direction of travel' with taxpayers set to shell out for rent - GB News - May 5th, 2025 [May 5th, 2025]
- 'Labour want to reimpose free movement by stealth and make the migrant crisis worse' - GB News - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Number of small boat migrants hits TEN THOUSAND in 2025 with PM's 'smash the gangs' plan in tatters - GB News - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Keir Starmer's answer to the migrant crisis is to pay their rent, council tax and energy bills - Kelvin MacKenzie - GB News - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Trump official calls for Americans to be paid reparations over trauma caused by Biden's migrant crisis - Daily Mail - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Top Donald Trump ally calls for US citizens to receive reparations for Biden's migrant crisis trauma - GB News - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Keir Starmer issued firm warning over very foolish act as PM sweats over migrant crisis - Totally irrational - GB News - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: HUNDREDS more migrants arrive in Britain on Good Friday as record week for crossings grows again - GB News - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Somali criminal asylum seeker allowed to stay in Britain as deportation would 'stress him out' - GB News - April 14th, 2025 [April 14th, 2025]
- Britain will be 'unrecognisable in 10 years' if migrant crisis continues, Brooks claims - GB News - April 14th, 2025 [April 14th, 2025]
- The bombshell move that could end the Channel migrant hotel crisis - Daily Express - April 8th, 2025 [April 8th, 2025]
- France FINALLY admits it can do more to stop Channel crossing crisis after pocketing 500m for migrant 'taxi service' - GB News - April 8th, 2025 [April 8th, 2025]
- NYC Hotel That Symbolized Migrant Crisis to Fire Most Workers - Bloomberg - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Albanian criminal allowed to stay in Britain as his son could have a learning disability - GB News - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Migrant Hotel Crisis to Drag On for Years, Treasury Confirms - The Global Treasurer - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Trump takes 'nuclear option' at southern border to solve America's migrant crisis once and for all - Daily Mail - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Migrant Crossings Surge Over 5000 This Year Amid Crisis - Evrim Aac - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- 'Labour has finally acknowledged that a space elsewhere is required to solve the migrant crisis' - GB News - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Tourists from Trinidad and Tobago BANNED from Britain without visa amid soaring asylum applications - GB News - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- POLL OF THE DAY: Should Labour concentrate on the Channel migrant crisis rather than Ukraine? - GB News - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- The Roosevelt Hotel Closure: A Wake-Up Call for Blue Cities to Rein In the Migrant Crisis - Independent Women's Forum - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- AOC asks host to clarify when he refers to the migrant crisis as a 'problem' for Democrats - Fox News - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: French government to do more to stop Channel crossings as Macron set to lift ban on stopping boats at sea - GB News - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Trumps DOJ to toss NYC Mayor Eric Adams historic bribery case, agrees with Dem charges were politically motivated by Biden admin over migrant crisis -... - February 14th, 2025 [February 14th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Asylum seeker on the run for 18 years finally caught after police pulled car over - GB News - February 12th, 2025 [February 12th, 2025]
- One in four people in UK set to be a migrant by 2035 with taxpayers to fund 234billion crisis, study reveals - GB News - February 9th, 2025 [February 9th, 2025]
- Canadas Migrant Crisis Spills Over to US, Raising Concerns: The BorderLine - Daily Signal - February 7th, 2025 [February 7th, 2025]
- NYC Mayor Eric Adams begs Albany for $1.1B more to combat migrant crisis and says Big Apple needs it in 12 weeks - New York Post - February 5th, 2025 [February 5th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Britons fume at growing numbers five years on from Brexit - 'Invasion of rubber dinghies!' - GB News - February 5th, 2025 [February 5th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Failed asylum seeker wins right to stay in UK because of wife's kids fathered by another man - GB News - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Promise kept: How Trumps border orders are reversing the migrant crisis - New York Post - January 24th, 2025 [January 24th, 2025]
- Chicago resident who sued city over migrant crisis says 'change is on the horizon' after Trump's inauguration - Fox News - January 24th, 2025 [January 24th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: More than 1,000 migrants have crossed Channel since New Year - GB News - January 24th, 2025 [January 24th, 2025]
- Active-duty troops begin arriving at US-Mexico border in Texas and California to combat migrant crisis - Fox8tv - January 24th, 2025 [January 24th, 2025]
- Massachusetts Migrant Crisis: Governor Healy Ignores the Elephant in the Room - Federation for American Immigration Reform - January 19th, 2025 [January 19th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Albanian criminal allowed to remain in Britain despite being convicted of smuggling migrants into UK - GB News - January 19th, 2025 [January 19th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Germany's AfD pledge 'total closure of borders for 100 days' and mass deportations of immigrants as election draws closer - GB News - January 19th, 2025 [January 19th, 2025]
- How we searched for solutions to our migrant crisis hundreds of miles to the north in Toronto - Chicago Sun-Times - December 30th, 2024 [December 30th, 2024]
- NYC migrant crisis: For a migrant father and his sons, a year of struggle, fear and hope in New York - Newsday - December 30th, 2024 [December 30th, 2024]
- Operation Sluice and the migrant crisis as preparation for full-scale aggression - StopFake.org - December 30th, 2024 [December 30th, 2024]
- Adams says Dems missed the memo on migrant crisis and it hurt the party - PIX11 New York News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- 'I welcome the border czar in Chicgao': Activist sounds off on illegal migrant crisis in the Windy City - Fox News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- The real cause of the migrant crisis is neither migrants nor smuggling gangs - William Clouston - GB News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Fox News finds a way to tie UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting to migrant crisis in New York City - The Independent - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- GOP lawmaker on migrant crisis: The left is being mugged by reality - MSN - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- GOP lawmaker on migrant crisis: The left is being mugged by reality - Fox Business - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Eric Adams may be New Yorks best hope for tackling the migrant crisis - UnHerd - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- NYC Mayor Eric Adams will meet Trump's border czar and discuss migrant crisis next week - MSN - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Fox anchor baselessly ties the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO to the migrant crisis - Media Matters for America - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Battenfeld: Michelle Wu the new national face of the migrant crisis, but could she pay a price? - Boston Herald - November 24th, 2024 [November 24th, 2024]
- Lefty Mass. gov to phase out hotel rooms for illegal immigrants to address over $1B migrant crisis costs - New York Post - November 24th, 2024 [November 24th, 2024]
- Exclusive | NYPD classes canned over migrant crisis budget cuts to be reinstated adding 1.6K cops by next fall - New York Post - November 24th, 2024 [November 24th, 2024]
- Laken Riley's alleged killer Jose Ibarra flew from 'ground zero' of migrant crisis to Georgia - Fox News - November 19th, 2024 [November 19th, 2024]
- Migrant crisis in the Canary Islands: A record-breaking year - Murcia Today - November 19th, 2024 [November 19th, 2024]
- Not a chance in HELL it works! Keir Starmer told to forget new plan to tackle migrant crisis - GB News - November 19th, 2024 [November 19th, 2024]
- Battenfeld: Massachusetts will get no relief from migrant crisis thanks to Maura Healey - Boston Herald - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Is Italy's plan to outsource migrant crisis to Albania falling through? - Firstpost - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Channel migrant crisis on course for 40,000 by year's end - as almost 33,000 cross so far in 2024 - GB News - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Smash the gangs is just Keir Starmers version of stop the boats. It wont solve the migrant crisis - The Guardian - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Migrant crisis as 600 risk everything to cross Channel so far this month - Express - November 5th, 2024 [November 5th, 2024]
- Fox Business anchor pushes Trump's lie that "the illegal migrant crisis ... has taken over" Aurora, Colorado - Media Matters for America - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- Nantucket's migrant crisis handling called out after quiet island rocked by wave of violent attacks - AOL - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- FITZPATRICK: Migrant Crisis Forcing Small-Town Americans To Take Matters Into Their Own Hands - Daily Caller - October 11th, 2024 [October 11th, 2024]
- Spanish centre-right at odds with government over migrant crisis in the Canaries - EURACTIV - October 11th, 2024 [October 11th, 2024]
- New York Closes Randalls Island Migrant Shelter, a Symbol of the Crisis - La Voce di New York - October 11th, 2024 [October 11th, 2024]
- Its time to break the stranglehold on the migrant crisis debate - The Spectator - October 4th, 2024 [October 4th, 2024]
- Gilbert Bigio: Israels Man in Haiti and the Architect Behind the US Migrant Crisis - Mintpress News - October 4th, 2024 [October 4th, 2024]
- Putting up barriers will not solve the migrant crisis - EURACTIV - October 4th, 2024 [October 4th, 2024]
- Kamala Harris Shoves the Migrant Border Crisis in Trumps Face - The Daily Beast - October 3rd, 2024 [October 3rd, 2024]
- Opinion | How the Migrant Crisis Strains Whitewater, Wis. - The Wall Street Journal - October 3rd, 2024 [October 3rd, 2024]
- What will happen to Europe if it cant control the migrant crisis? - The Spectator - October 3rd, 2024 [October 3rd, 2024]
- Israel's invasion of Lebanon could spark another toxic European migrant crisis - Evening Standard - October 3rd, 2024 [October 3rd, 2024]
- Top Adams aide overseeing migrant crisis response hit with federal subpoena: reports - amNY - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Vivek Ramaswamy to host town hall in Springfield, Ohio on migrant crisis - Fox News - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Follow The Money: Funding The Biden-Harris Migrant Crisis - The Daily Wire - September 16th, 2024 [September 16th, 2024]
- Investigation will expose Biden-Harris admin over migrant crisis: AFLs Gene Hamilton - Fox Business - September 16th, 2024 [September 16th, 2024]
- JUST IN - Netherlands To Declare State Of Emergency Amid Illegal Migrant Crisis And Will Ask For Opt-out From EU Migration Policy - GreekCityTimes.com - September 16th, 2024 [September 16th, 2024]
- Ohio residents plead for help amid migrant crisis: 'I want out of this town' - KEYE TV CBS Austin - September 12th, 2024 [September 12th, 2024]
- Residents of Springfield, Ohio attend city council meeting to share frustration about migrant crisis hitting their community - Fox News - September 12th, 2024 [September 12th, 2024]
- Exclusive | The US migrant crisis, explained: Special NY Post video report breaks down how we got here from the border to the Big Apple - New York... - August 25th, 2024 [August 25th, 2024]