Responses to the "refugee crisis" : What is the role of self-image among EU countries?

The situation in Europe in 2015 and 2016 has raised many questions about state responses to what has been called “the refugee crisis”, and how these responses correspond with claims of upholding respect for the principle of asylum, and of refugee and migration policies being humanitarian and fair. Refugee policy is influenced by a number of different factors, including a state’s legal obligations, economic situation, political ideology and public opinion. This paper gives an overview of relevant legislation in the field, and of events and developments in migration and asylum policy in 2015 and early 2016. I discuss whether a state’s self-image, and the image it wishes to present, has any impact on policy in extraordinary situations such as the one unfolding in Europe over the last eighteen months. It is argued that the self-image can indeed have some impact, in particular on the way increasingly restrictive measures are presented and explained, however, it is also held that regardless of a state’s self-image or good intentions, a humanitarian asylum policy which upholds respect for human rights, and the principle of asylum in particular, only seems possible when not actually put to the test