Europeanization and the Right to Seek Refugee Status: Reflections on Frontex

Since the end of the Cold War, relations between immigration politics and national security have undermined the continuing validity of the 1951 Refugee Convention in different parts of the world.1 In the European Union (EU), the effects of the abolishment of internal borders since the Schengen Agreement in 1985 have fostered a linkage between migration and security politics, amplified also by unanticipated external pressures. Efforts to harmonize policy in the domain of migration and asylum within an enlarged EU have produced a hybrid system with blurred competences, opt-outs, and a different status for new member states. Furthermore, the creation of Frontex in 2005 has raised concerns about the legitimacy of extra- territorial border control, amongst many other issues.