Anyone for Refugee Keynesianism? EU Migration Crises in Times of Fiscal Austerity

This paper sets out to explain the EU’s dual and seemingly contradictory objectives of less migration, the mantra of the refugee crisis, and more migration, the mantra of the EU’s demographic crisis. Why, in other words, do Brussels and member states not greet the refugees as a first albeit modest step towards amending the EU’s demographic crisis? The paper suggests that the answer to this question rests with an austere calculus, which effectively thwarts the type of expansive public investment and citizenship regime that would be required to allow the EU’s demographic deficit to be perceived as congruent with the global refugee surplus. Besides the EU level, the paper also focuses on Germany and Sweden, two countries that initially did take some steps in the direction of such congruity, but which have since recoiled. The final part thus suggests some explanations for this sudden change.