"For many migrants, it is the question of security," said Jean-Yves Haine, EU expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "Development aid can go some way. But there are immense problems of security in these countries which the governments themselves will have to tackle with support from the EU and other institutions."
By Judy Dempsey
Berlin - Faced with another big wave of immigrants, the European Union is struggling to forge a common foreign policy that could turn the Continent into a fortress, or a region with a more defined attitude toward immigration.
Spain, which has become the latest port of call for African migrants, has appealed to the EU to help stem the flow of people crossing the Mediterranean and landing in the Canary Islands.
Over 1,500 people a day have been landing on the islands in an unprecedented influx that Spanish government officials say could lead to a populist backlash.
This week's decision by the EU justice commissioner, Franco Frattini, to deploy special patrols brought to the fore Frontex, the little heralded border security agency that will coordinate the measures. Established last year, Frontex is supposed to help member states reinforce their borders against threats of terrorism, drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
This is not the first time that a member state has asked Brussels for assistance. Nor it is the first time that the EU has pledged but failed to establish a common policy for immigration.
"It is not as if the EU did not know there was a problem of migrants wanting to come to Europe, " said Krystyna Iglicka, economics professor and expert in demography at the Polish Center for International Relations in Warsaw. "The EU has no proper joint policy to deal with this issue. The member states are not pulling together to create a common European policy to deal with the twin issues of migration and the need by some countries for workers. It is a total mess."
In 2004, Italy had to deal with thousands of migrants who had crossed North Africa to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.
The German and Italian governments at first decided to act together, bypassing Brussels. They agreed to set up special "reception camps" in Libya and even suggested that Ukraine could establish such camps until the migrants were identified and then repatriated. Human rights groups criticized the plan, saying Libya was unprepared to deal with refugees.
Last year, when thousands of North Africans stormed the Spanish enclave of Melilla in northern Morocco and were then repatriated, they were left stranded in the desert.
Some experts say that if the EU cannot forge a common policy toward immigration, then it could use its annual development aid budget of €7 billion, or about $9 billion, to improve education, encourage market economies and fight corruption in countries from which the migrants flee.
"For many migrants, it is the question of security," said Jean-Yves Haine, EU expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "Development aid can go some way. But there are immense problems of security in these countries which the governments themselves will have to tackle with support from the EU and other institutions."
Different attitudes to immigration among the 25 member states mean that the EU is unable to create a common policy. Many, too, do not want to cede justice and interior affairs to Brussels.
"The real reason why the EU has no common foreign policy towards immigration is because the member states want to hold onto to these powers," said Haine.
"The bottom line is that the EU cannot decree a EU migration policy if the policy is different in the member states."
The conservative governments of Denmark and Austria have introduced tougher immigration measures because both need the support of populist rightist parties to remain in power. France, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, often with weak economies and high levels of unemployment but at the same time a need for highly skilled workers, recently adopted new laws on citizenship and integration.
Finland, Ireland and Spain have had a relatively open attitude towards immigrants because their economies are booming.
Spain's economy, which is growing at 3.3 percent per year and which has a need for labor, prompted the government last year to legalize the status of tens of thousands of illegal workers. This spring, Spain also loosened restrictions on migrant labor from the Union's new member states in Central and Eastern Europe.
Alexandre Muns, EU expert at the CIDOB Foundation in Barcelona, an independent research institute that specializes in international relations and development studies, said that despite the differences in national legislation, the member states do agree on some issues concerning immigration.
"Most of them, at least privately, agree there should be a quota system, often based on skills," said Muns. "They agree too that migrants must be legalized, which is the debate you are having in the U.S. Member states also agree on the principle of enforcement."
Muns said the big problem was implementation. "There is no consensus among governments. Much is done on a bilateral level, for example in repatriating migrants. Countries want to pursue their own policies yet when the situation seems difficult to contain, such as today in Spain, we ask the EU to help."
