ASYLUM SEEKERS: VICTIMS OR A NOVEL WEAPON FOR THE 21ST CENTURY?

Abstract

Since 2015, the question of asylum seekers and challenges arising from forced migration have become one of the most pressing issues in the public and political discourse. The influx of refugees into European countries has raised grave concerns. What is more, two countries – Russia and Turkey – have forced migrations and aim to use the consequences to achieve their own political goals. The authors use the typology developed by Kelly M. Greenhill to analyse the weaponisation of forced migration. For example, the manner in which Russia has weaponised migration might be analysed in the framework of coercive engineered migration, the 5th column and the propagandist/political sub-types, whereas Turkey’s approach can be characterized as more coercive and dispossessive.