Irregular Migration as a Challenge for Democracy: (5 European Integration and Democracy Series)

"Immigration has emerged as the defining issue of our times. [] The challenge that the immigration issue poses to the future of European democracy is real. Immigration itself is a genuine challenge, but the fundamental challenge that immigration brings to the fore is a domestic one, it is about fundamentally different political visions that cut through the citizenry of Europe's nation states. With that, it becomes critically important how these nation-states, through their democratic institutions, tackle immigration.[] we need both the scholarly analysis and reflection presented in this volume, and we need informed political innovation within and between Europe's nation-states."- from the Foreword by Prof. Dr. Kristian Berg Harpviken,Peace Research Institute Oslo"[] In result, Europe, to its series of recent big questions [] had to add another one: migrants stand ante portas and what to do with them?[] We have chosen to look at the extent to which the past, the present and the future of irregular migration to Europe relates to the foundational values and principles on which Europe has been built, namely democracy, the rule of law (Rechtsstaat) and the respect for fundamental rights. We focus on those people who seek in Europe various forms of help, motivated by war or other injustices in the places where they come from.[] the main aim of our book was to join the voluminous professional and academic literature on migration and to offer a few modest suggestion in which direction Europe should go whenever irregular migrants stand ante portas."- from the Preface by the Editors"This is a timely and elaborate volume interested in the question to what extent the challenge of irregular migration poses a challenge to democracy. The authors approach this issue from different ethical, legal and political angles. They do not shy away from developing concrete recommendations as to what the European Union could do when faced with migratory pressures. Overall, therefore, a highly recommendable contribution."- Prof. Dr. Florian Trauner, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

About the Author :
Elzbieta Kuzelewska is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok, Poland, where since October 2019 she holds a position of Vice-Dean for Science. She is a Chair of the Centre for Direct Democracy Studies (CDDS) at the Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok, she holds a master's degree in law and a PhD degree and a habilitation in political science. Her research fields include constitutional law, direct democracy, European integration and contemporary political systems. She has been teaching in several European universities within the Erasmus+ programme as well as other bilateral agreements, and she has held visiting positions at Michigan State University School of Law (September 2018), among others. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of European Integration and Democracy Series, published by Intersentia Cambridge. Amy Weatherburn is Scientific Collaborator FRS-FNRS at the Universit Libre de Bruxelles and Doctor of Law (VUB & Tilburg, 2019). Her research focuses on the normalization of tolerated exploitation in the labour market and the need to develop a prevention policy of exploitation that goes beyond criminal law. Her main research areas are human trafficking, migration and fundamental rights. She has published her work in collective works and international journals. Between 2015 and 2020, she was a doctoral student, then postdoctoral researcher at the VUB where she worked on several European funded research projects, and where she led the Belgian national research for the multidisciplinary research network of the European Union Agency of Fundamental Rights (FRANET). From September 2019 August 2020, Amy was seconded to INTERVICT of Tilburg University where she will be co-coordinator of the Master Programme Victimology and Criminal Justice (MSc). Previously, she was a researcher at the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham (2012-2014). Dr Dariusz (Darek) Kloza is a senior researcher at the Human Rights Centre (HRC) at Ghent University. His expertise concentrates on international fundamental rights law, especially the fundamental rights to privacy and personal data protection.He earned a PhD in Law from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB; 2019) with a thesis on the concept of impact assessment in European privacy and personal data protection law. He holds an LL.M. in Law and Technology (2010) from the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) at Tilburg University (with distinction) and a master's degree in law from the University of Bialystok (2008), including a student exchange at the University of Copenhagen (2007-08).Previously, he was a researcher at the Research Group on Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS; 2011-21) at the VUB, where he co-founded the Brussels Laboratory for Data Protection & Privacy Impact Assessments (d.pia.lab). He held in parallel a part-time research position at Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO; 2015-17) and visiting fellowships, among others, at Bond University (Australia; 2016).He also freelances at the Centre for Direct Democracy Studies (CDDS) at the University of Bialystok (Poland), where he is co-editor of the 'European Integration and Democracy' Series (Intersentia).