Karpov G.A. The EU migration crisis and the prospects of British immigration policy

Abstract: The paper analyzes the roots of the 2015 immigration crisis in the EU and briefly describes the dynamics of the events. The author generalizes the results of the study of the Conservative Party’s immigration policy of 2010 – 2015, the main measures, and the prospects of this policy. The author studies immigration situation in Great Britain in 2010 – 2014: its dynamics, the regions and countries of migratory flows, the main ways of entering the country. Special attention is paid to the role of the migration issue and the problem of Britain’s membership of the EU in the internal political competition before and after the parliamentary election of May 2015. The research methodology is based on the problem-historical and structural-functional approaches, the methods of comparative analysis, observation, synthesis, and deduction. British authorities are not willing to stick to the all-European practice of refugees acceptance, and are planning to pursue their own immigration policy oriented towards the protection of national interests. It should be taken into account that the British economy needs for the continuous labour migrants inflow, and migration is admitted unavoidable. The Conservative Party hadn’t revised their immigration policy in 2010 – 2014, and in the late 2014 they admitted the failure of the policy aimed at the significant decrease of immigration. Probably, in 2016 – 2017 the ruling party will also confine itself to half measures and populist promises. At present it is hard to evaluate all possible consequences of the ongoing immigration crisis in the EU. But even if Britain retains its membership of the EU after the referendum of 23 June 2016, we may state that Western Europe is facing the age of large-scale internal and external changes with unpredictable results. 

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