The External Dimension of the EU Asylum Policy: The EU-Turkey Deal of March 2016

Abstract

The objective of the thesis is to analyse the complex bargaining situation and negotiation process of the 2016 Turkey-EU Deal (The Aegean Deal). Coming into life with the burst of Syrian Refugee Crisis especially after its peak in 2015, this deal inquires some questions and contradictions within the international refugee system. By examining the EU-Turkey deal which took place in 2016, the studies of regional enlargement and the externalization of migration governance will be linked and it will contribute not only to the related literature on enlargement but also to the study of border regimes. This deal between Turkey and the EU is interesting in terms of questioning how regional enlargement and external dimension of the ‘migration management’ overlap and how these results in ‘multi-level games’, even though the European ‘community of values’ could offer the revival of accession talks and visa waivers to a country infringing its core principles in exchange for outsourcing parts of its ‘migration management’. In this deal, to manage ‘irregular’ migration to the European territories, even at the expense of adverse conditions, EU offered concessions to the Turkish government. As Yıldız observes, “Turkey constitutes a unique case to test the implications of the external dimensions of the EU’s immigration and asylum policy in transit countries”. Arguably, the objective of outsourcing border control ‘at any cost’ demonstrates the fear of migratory pressures prevailed over concerns about democratic conditions and human rights values. From an international relations perspective, the bargaining situation surrounding this deal arguably serves as a telling example for sensitive real-political balancing acts between rationalist calculus and normative prerequisites, in which lip service is paid. To analyse the deal, in the first chapter of the thesis, the externalisation strategy of EU and the historical background of Readmission Agreements in the International Refugee System will be explained through analysing the existing literature and official documents. In the second chapter, the deal from the view of Europeanization theories will be analyzed based on the literature and the work of several scholars. In the last chapter, the background of the deal between the EU and Turkey in 2016 as well as the negotiation process between these two actors will be explained. The deal under the light of the International Refugee Law and the incompatibilies of the Turkish Refugee System will be demonstrated through official documents and lastly, the conceptual framework will be applied.