Managing asylum in the middle of the Schengen Area

RESPOND Policy Brief [2020/7]

Authors: Dr. Ursula Reeger, Ivan Josipovic - Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences,

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Austria has been among the main destination countries for asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016 in the European Union. Located in the centre of the Schengen zone, it responded to increased levels of immigration with a national strategy that came at the cost of a joint European solution. Austria reintroduced permanent border controls, passed a unilateral quota for asylum applications and turned towards multilateralism with third states in the Balkans. Based on an in-depth analysis of policy change and implementation, as well as semi-structured interviews with experts active in the field of asylum and border management, we provide the following policy recommendations:

-       Active engagement in reforms of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and disentanglement of intra-Schengen border controls from asylum management

-       Move towards EU-wide admission quotas instead of national quota

-       Increase internal investment in human resources within the Immigration Office and the Federal Administrative Court

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