Externalising externalisation and bad governance of migration in the EU: Turkey learning from Europe

Abstract

While the European Union (EU) might not do likewise, Fortress Europe is definitely enlarging. Reports (see, for example, Akkerman 2018) underline the momentous growth in Europe's border externalisation policies using various new instruments such as the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), the Migration Partnership Framework, and the Refugee Facility for Turkey, where the EU and individual member states are offering millions of euros for different projects to prevent migration of people (including those who are in need of international protection) to Europe. There is an increasing body of literature on the EU's externalisation policies in relation to Turkey, focusing on the effects of the March 2016 Turkey-EU statement, resulting FRIT, etc. Here, Turkey will be positioned from a different perspective. While serving as a platform for such projects, Turkey is also a firm apprentice of its own externalisation. Thus, this paper will concentrate on Turkey's efforts to externalise, its learning process from Europe, and will argue that externalisation is an example of the promotion of bad governance by the EU at the expense of democratic values.