Do values matter? An assessment of Ireland’s response to the “migration crisis”

Abstract

The Republic of Ireland is not a signatory to the Schengen Agreements and therefore has no obligation to participate in the EU relocation schemes proposed in 2015. Accounting for less than one percent of the population of the European Union, Ireland could be expected to make use of the opt-out mechanism when dealing with the EU’s struggle over migration. Nonetheless, in September 2015 the country voluntarily committed itself to take in 4,000 asylum seekers from other EU countries and has reinforced the Irish Navy’s participation in search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea. In this article, the relevant parliamentary debates of 2015 and 2016 are used to trace national identity frames in the “migration crisis” as the components that explain the country’s non-securitising behaviour.