Poland within the scope of the European Union's irregular migration management Policies

Migration, the most prominent feature of human history, has been causing different consequences for both countries of origin and countries of destination in recent years. While the need for high-quality and blue-collar migration has increased for the European Union (EU), limiting irregular migration has emerged as another agenda item. Especially after the so-called Arab Spring riots, increasing irregular migration at the EU borders has led to the search for new policies as the Union's policies have become dysfunctional. In parallel with the increasing concerns about irregular migration at the Union level, it is observed that the domestic politics of the member states of the EU are shaped by anti-irregular migration discourses and far-right parties have become more effective in politics. Far-right parties, which rapidly rose in the EU founding states as well as in the countries that joined the EU in 2004-2007, have become the main indicators of anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe. In other words, apart from the measures taken by the EU to combat irregular migration both through common EU policies and the externalization policy based on cooperation with third countries, the issue of irregular migration has become the main determinant in the domestic politics of EU member states. As of 2019, it is observed that the rise of the far-right has strengthened across Europe in the European Parliament elections held in early June 2024. In this framework, the efforts to create a common policy on irregular migration at the Union level have also been shaped by the member states' domestic politics and the Union's measures have become more stringent after 2015. While the Union could not find an effective solution for irregular migration from Syria in 2015, the war that started with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led to a new wave of migration to the EU originating from Ukraine. This migration wave is a new opportunity to evaluate the determinism of the domestic politics of the member states in EU policies. In this thesis, the attitudes of the EU in general, and more specifically Poland, towards irregular migration originating from the Syrian civil war and Ukraine are examined. In this context, the domestic policy elements that shape the approach towards irregular migration, both from Syria after 2015 and from Ukraine as of 2022, are discussed.