Episode 7: The new EU Migration Pact - the definitive briefing with Timo from MPI Europe

The Migration & Diaspora Podcast

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show in which we talk about anything and everything to do with migration; with me your host Loksan Harley.

For today’s episode, I was joined by a rising star in the migration world, Timo Schmidt, to talk about the European Union’s brand-new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was released on the 23 September by the European Commission.

Timo works at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) Europe, a Brussels-based think tank focused on migration and asylum policy. His areas of expertise are EU asylum and migration management, the linkages between development finance and migration, and migration forecasting. He has leveraged his experience to communicate evidence-based and practical research to policymakers and other key stakeholders, including the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Prior to joining MPI Europe, Timo worked in Jerusalem with the United Nations Development Programme’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People. Alongside the great work he’s doing at MPI, Timo is also Director and Co-producer of a documentary project on migration in Europe, Refugee Roads (refugeeroads.com), which I highly recommend checking out, as well as sitting on the Editorial Board of the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration. And he’s an Oxford man himself, having obtained his Master’s there in migration studies.

Consider this your very own one-hour briefing on the EU Migration Pact, which is a package of proposals of some 500 pages that aim to reform the continent’s migration and asylum system in light of the divergent views and interests among EU Member States on how to address the changing nature of migration and asylum flows. We try to cover everything from how the Pact differentiates the roles and responsibilities of Member States, allowing some to receive more migrants while ensuring others take more active roles in returning migrants. We talk about what “mandatory yet flexible” means in this regard, as well as the Pact’s new border procedure and how it aims to speed up asylum claims.

Useful links

• The Migration Pact: https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/promoting-our-european-way-life/new-pact-migration-and-asylum_en
• MPI’s analysis: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/eu-pact-migration-asylum-bold-move-avoid-abyss
• MPI Europe: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/mpi-europe
• Refugee Roads website: https://www.refugeeroads.com/
• Refugee Roads trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCYP-pKIEz0&feature=emb_title
• Connect with Timo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timo-schmidt?originalSubdomain=be
• Follow Timo (@TimoASchmidt) and MPI (@MPI_Europe)
• Cheeky plug to my (unrelated) work with MPI: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/african-countries-relax-short-term-visa-policies-chinese