The European Union’s refugee and asylum policy has reached an impasse. The reception of persons seeking protection from the crisis regions in Europe’s surrounding areas is distributed unfairly. Some states refuse to take in any refugees at all, while others are struggling to cope with a large number of refugees as a result of regulations such as the Dublin regulation. It is interesting that it is in those places which are shouldering the largest burden of the integration that particular migration and integration policy strategies can be seen, namely in the municipalities throughout Europe.
For this reason, new strategies in EU asylum and refugee policy, which will remove the blockades, should start right there. In this policy paper “A Local Turn for European Refugee Politics” the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung puts forward proposals for a more active role of the municipalities in refugee and asylum policy.