Abstract
The European migration crisis was a crisis for small states in Europe in the sense that it disrupted the order upon which the European small states had increasingly based their policies and influence for more than 60 years. Among the most serious challenges were the renationalization of European politics, the return of geopolitics and disagreements among European great powers and the shifting policies of the most powerful actor, Germany. In order to meet these challenges, small states employed a number of external and domestic coping strategies. Externally, small states pursued strategies of shelter, hiding, hedging and norm entrepreneurship. Domestically, small states tended to securitize migration and to pursue scapegoating by blaming the EU and other states for the nature and magnitude of the crisis, while at the same time seeking administrative adaptation in order to meet the concrete day-to-day challenges of the crisis. The chapter identifies the consequences of these strategies for the influence and position of small states in Europe and discusses what the crisis and the ensuing responses from small states tell us about the nature and consequences of “smallness” in contemporary Europe.
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Wivel, A. (2021). Conclusion: Small States and the European Migrant Crisis—New Challenges and Coping Strategies. 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_12
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