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How Historical Memory Shapes European Policies Towards Syrian Refugees

Funded by IKEA Foundation Research Fellowship

Active 2017–2023

© UNHCR/Olivier Laban-Mattei
Syrian refugees stay at night, in September 2015, on the Serbian side of the Serbia-Hungary border crossing on the Röszke highway, as the Hungarian authorities closed the border to refugees

Project led by Dr Kathrin Bachleitner, IKEA Foundation Research Fellow in International Relations, 2017-2023

As thousands of refugees and migrants came into Europe in 2015, one of the most common ways for them to arrive in the EU was through the Balkan route from Turkey. This research project is concerned with the reactions of countries at the end of the Balkan route (Hungary, Austria and Germany) to the mass arrival of Syrian refugees during the summer of 2015. In particular, it is investigating how state identity mattered for the political decision-making process.

Publications