Sadly, the pictures of the dead bodies of refugees along the Mediterranean shores have not been uncommon. Nevertheless, the latest picture of the tragic death of a Syrian refugee toddler on the Turkish shore demonstrated the catastrophic humanitarian aspect of the ongoing crisis in Syria perhaps in the most blatant way. The increased numbers of people fleeing from persecution has presented the EU with a major challenge of management and governance of the massive influx of refugees. In this respect, it has been argued that both the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951) and the Dublin system (2008) has failed to provide fair, efficient and effective protection of refugees.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the limitations and problems of the exisiting regime of refugees and explore the challenges the EU are facing in relation to its credibility and normative actorness, as well as delve into the politics of a new legal regime with regards to the status of refugees. Arguing that there exists a need to formulate, develop and codify a new normative framework for EU governance of migration, the analysis of this study will be at two interrelated levels. First, the paper will examine the security construction of migration within the Mediterranean dimension of the EU by focusing on overlapping and diverging security discourses on one hand, and the conflicting governance practices on the other. Second, the paper will scrutinize the impact of such securitizing/insecuritizing discourses and practices on the possible developments regarding a new normative framework for migration. In this context, the paper will also discuss potential contribution of Turkey to framing such a new normative framework given its major involvement in the (mis)management of the Syrian refugee crisis with its open door policy towards refugees from Syria since 2011. (297 words)
