The rise of far-right populist parties and the emergence of the refugee crisis were important developments that posed a normative challenge for the EU. Since values lie at the core of the European project, the research aims to identify the norms and values that were mobilised in the institutional narratives regarding migration and to understand whether they have changed over the years and if they are shared across institutions as regards the official discourse. To do so, first it identifies the institutional positions on migration that have been formulated over the past decade. Then, it looks briefly at the key events between 2014 and 2017 that drew the focus and necessitated a response from the institutions and examines what triggers more often institutional narratives as well as policies.

 

WP1 has assisted us in contextualizing the origins of values, while informal semi-structured interviews of policy makers and researchers involved in migration complement the analysis. The core part of this study identifies the main values as they appear in the institutional narrative. The values identified were that of solidarity, of responsibility-sharing, of saving lives at sea, of human rights and the right to free movement. The study discusses how the values are approached by the Institutions, and where possible, the policies that appear to stem from or be in line with the institutional normative discourse.