The Management of the 2015 EU Refugee Crisis from the perspective of The Harris-Todaro Model

• Main Author: Iuliana MIHAI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Univeristatii "Stefan cel Mare" din Suceava 2016-12-01
• Series: USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration
• Subjects: refugee crisis; Harris-Todaro Model; wage dualism; unemployment
• Online Access: http://annals.seap.usv.ro/index.php/annals/article/view/942/847

The actual refugee crisis in Europe was triggered by the violent events following the so-called Arab Spring that started in 2011. Faced with large masses of immigrants and refugees, EU member states implemented a refugee quota system in order to distribute refugees across EU. This paper is questioning the general belief that all immigrants and refugees within EU live in better conditions than in their origin areas. Furthermore, this paper tries to answer at the following question: Why some migrants prefer to come to Europe if there is a high probability that they will live in worse conditions in refugees camps than in their home countries? Studying this question has at least two main important implications: firstly, the reader will understand better the reasons which determine migrants to leave their origin areas despite the fact that they can be caught in a death trap; secondly, the answer provided for this question may give future solutions in the field of policy-making for EU’s member states.