EU foreign policy and migration: a political and normative assessment

This chapter summarizes the results of the analysis carried out in the book’s case studies, further elaborating on their consequences for the EU’s foreign policy and its international role. The first part identifies “externalization in emergency mode” and the resurfacing of the EU’s “derivative power” as the main policy developments that characterize the external dimension of the EU’s governance of migration after 2015. The following section analyses the justice claims embedded in these policy developments, highlighting a normative balance of the EU’s migration system of governance leaning towards the conception of justice as non-domination at the expense of impartiality and mutual recognition. The final part explores the impact of the growing migration agenda on the EU’s foreign policy and international role, arguing that the former is contributing to the “normalization” of the EU’s structural foreign policy, the transformation of its external image, and to a weakened role as supporter of the liberal world order.