Abstract
Contemporary policy challenges are horizontal, tenacious and span across organisational, sectoral and national borders. These complex policy problems have substantial implications for the government machinery, require new competencies, ability to adapt swiftly and new ways of collaboration. The inherent characteristics of small states and small administrations are expected to present them with several challenges in managing the complex problems. However, there is currently little research to prove this. The chapter looks at the 2015 European refugee crisis specifically from the perspective of small state governance. The authors inquire how Estonia as a small EU border-state handled the domestic repercussions of the refugee crisis. The chapter presents a comprehensive and context-sensitive insight into the Estonian case where the external pressures of the crisis shook the society, politics as well as administrative organisations. The analysis shows that the 2015 refugee crisis unfolded largely as a mental crisis in Estonia having a profound effect on public discussions and socially embedded ideas. Although the small size of the country allowed quick adaptation to the changing circumstances, its administrative system remains vulnerable in terms of constrained resources and lacking economies of scale.
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Notes
- 1.
There was very limited migration out from the USSR and to the USSR. The very few refugees accepted to the Soviet Union (USSR) were communist revolutionaries and the provision of asylum was mostly used as a foreign policy instrument (Cienski 1994). In addition, the Soviet Union was very critical towards UNHCR and latter’s activities did not reach the areas under the Soviet Union’s control (Afshar 2005). All former Soviet bloc countries (including the Russian Federation) ratified the Refugee Convention and Protocol only after the fall of the communist regime (Barnickel and Beichelt 2013).
- 2.
RTL 1998, 273, 1143. The reception centre was officially opened in 2000.
- 3.
RT I 2006, 2, 3
- 4.
Data from the Estonian Police and Border Guard as of January 2020. This figure does not include relocated and resettled refugees arriving through the European Commission’s migration scheme adopted in 2016.
- 5.
The Eurobarometer survey measured the salience of immigration policy as an issue by asking the respondent what were the two most important issues facing the country (Hatton 2017).
- 6.
One of the core conditions for resettlement and relocation was that the people were volunteering to be resettled to Estonia.
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Acknowledgements
Writing of this chapter has been supported by the Estonian Research Council grant PUT1461. The authors wish to thank all the interviewees for sharing their experience and insights. The assertions made in the chapter are solely the responsibility of the authors.
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Trei, M., Sarapuu, K. (2021). A Small Administration Facing a Complex Policy Challenge: Estonia and the 2015 Refugee Crisis. In: Joensen, T., Taylor, I. (eds) Small States and the European Migrant Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66203-5_11
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