ABSTRACT
In 2015–2016 at the height of the Syrian civil war, approximately 2 million Syrian refugees (and others) crossed the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece and walked north in search of durable protection. This chapter examines the state of knowledge about migration and asylum in the EU from the perspective of the statistical information provided by the institutions. Developments at the international level reveal the degree of distrust and sovereignty anxiety within and among EU Member States regarding borders and migration. The question of migration and refugee protection in the EU is mired in misinformation, half-truths and images of little boats packed with young black men. The policy documents of the EU institutions insist on the need to ‘curb’ migration, focus on the ills of irregular migration without ever specify what they actually are and certainly never identifying how easily they can be resolved by simply issue residence permits to those classified as irregularly present.
