Solidarity for Whom? Tracing the Commodification of Asylum within the EU’s International Protection Framework

Abstract

Solidarity remains a contentious issue within the EU’s international protection framework. This became particularly evident during 2015–2016, when over one million irregular crossings at the Union’s external borders exposed significant weaknesses within the CEAS and triggered debates among Member States over where refugee responsibility should lie. In 2024, the EU adopted the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, under which a mandatory yet flexible solidarity mechanism has been introduced to embed fairness into the CEAS. To critically assess to what extent this new mechanism, allowing financial contributions in lieu of refugee relocation during periods of migratory pressure, may undermine the human right to asylum, this thesis applied the qualitative policy-analytical tool “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” to the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation. Drawing on the concepts of governmentality and neoliberal rationality, the analysis argues that the solidarity mechanism reflects a commodification of the traditionally non-economic sphere of refugee responsibility. This shift risks influencing the recognition of refugees as rights-bearers and carries legal and political implications for the inalienable right to asylum by treating it as a transactional issue contingent on the capacity and willingness of Member States. By situating the solidarity mechanism within a broader landscape of economically driven migration governance, this study contributes to the growing body of critical scholarship that questions the Pact’s ostensibly humane approach to migration.