Abstract:

The European Union’s (EU) migration policy on the Syrian refugee crisis, which has been embraced by the Union with regard to the management of the crisis, has been subjected to criticisms in international politics and scientific literature. A significant portion of these criticisms focuses on whether the EU policies on the Syrian refugee crisis are incompatible with its normative power identity. The EU is described as a normative political power with reference to the theoretical framework provided by Ian Manners. The EU’s migration policy on the Syrian refugee crisis is therefore expected to have the following features: EU values, especially human rights, based; at the supranational level, inclusive, proactive and long-reaching. This policy, in other words, should not be a policy that focuses on the security dimension of the crisis, is realistic power politics and externalization oriented, reactive and short-looked. In this sense, this study aims to examine whether the EU policy on the Syrian refugee crisis is compatible with its normative power identity. Methodologically, the EU’s migration policy is examined by adapting, not a detailed technical and doctrinal legal, but a theoretical and analytical method with reference to the EU’s normative identity.

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