Asylum seekers in a fortified Europe: The case of Albania and the effects of structural violence on asylum seekers

Abstract

The plight of migrants and refugees has been generating a lot of debates and it has continuously attracted attention of scholars and policy makers. A wide range of studies have contributed to our understanding to the root causes of migration however, various approaches and perspectives offer different insights worth to be considered. In terms of human rights; asylum seekers coming from war-torn countries or people fleeing direct and open persecution are assigned the status of refugee, but asylum seekers leaving the country to escape other human rights violations are mostly refused protection, which is provided only through the refugee status. Through the case of Albanian asylum seekers in Europe – which last year were listed second after Syrians heading to Germany and third in EU – and applying the theory of structural violence, I will try to shed light on the overshadowed reasons people migrate, and how the concepts of migrants and refugees apply to current movements of Albanian asylum seekers in Europe. Furthermore, this research aims at exploring how compatible with human rights is the approach of certain individual European states towards Albanian asylum seekers. Finally, through the focus on individual agency, I will show how asylum seekers respond to structural violence.