3071-The political economy of new slavery

40 Migration and Security
Table 2.2
1993
Immigration from East and Central Europe in selected EU countries,
Germany* Netherlands France Belgium
Former USSR 99,637 1,253 920 570
Poland 75,195 1,263 1,042 735
Romania 81,769 241 931 not available
Total CEE 329,266 3,376 3,339 1,613
* excluding approximately 220,000 Aussiedler.
Source: EUROSTAT, 1995
Many, if not nearly all, of the migrants brought together in tables 2.1
and 2.2 arrived unsolicited and a high proportion of them will have
filed an asylum request. These tables are merely an illustration, for many
other immigrants arrived from Africa and Asia (for Germany: 15,258
and 29,235 respectively; it is important to note that these are aliens
who have received a residence permit, thus excluding recent asylum
requests: 37,570 and 50,209 respectively).
In Germany, Chancellor Kohl spoke of an emerging state crisis. The
opposition parties deemed this to be a gross exaggeration but nevertheless
soon thereafter agreed to a radical change in the German
constitution, aiming to keep at bay as many asylum seekers as possible.
Similar reactions have been in evidence in most other Western European
states, especially those which have comprehensive asylum systems,
although their constitutions did not require change to achieve this.
The main vehicle by which to address the asylum crises of the early
and mid-1990s was thus of a legal nature: that is, definitions of who is
eligible for protection, the duration thereof and the modalities attached
to it. In a similar vein a number of countries of origin were defined as
being safe (that is, under normal circumstances their citizens are not
subjected to persecution) and others as safe third countries (countries
where an asylum seeker could and should have applied for asylum
before arriving at his/her final destination). Whenever either of these
criteria applies, an asylum request is deemed manifestly unfounded or
inadmissible. Supplementing such measures, travellers from most countries
known to ‘produce’ asylum seekers and irregular migrants are
obliged to acquire a visa before their departure. Carriers not checking
the validity of this visa and the migrants’ passports are liable to fines.
Furthermore, agreements were made between a number of EU states to
prevent asylum shopping (that is requesting for asylum in more than