Socio-economic aspects of the refugee crisis in the European Union and Europe's role in its management

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the main socio-economic aspects of the refugee crisis that is taking place nowadays in the European Union. It is not only a descriptive analysis of the main events that have been occurring in the past years but also a critical evaluation of Europe’s management of this crisis. Along this paper, data about the dimension of this crisis will be shown, as well as a demonstration of the fact that the main cause of this wave of people coming to Europe are not economic reasons but fleeing from armed conflicts and wars. Thus, those people are not economic migrants but refugees. Moreover, the main actions taken by the European Union and the Member States will be explained, showing the main weaknesses of this Union and also suggesting some possible durable solutions as well as the positive effects that this crisis can have for the European Union. *I would like to point out that this is an on-going conflict and that it is impossible to include updated information till the last day. Last information included corresponds to January 2016.