Il dilemma Europeo. L'Europa della paura e l'Europa della speranza

The current refugees crises has made Europe an emblem of the ambivalences and failures in the management of forced migrations in the contemporary era. Cradle of human rights, but at the same time dominated by the securitarian logic nowadays hegemonic at world level, in face of the biblical exodus of the last months Europe has exhibited the arbitrariness of its borders, both internal and external. Indeed, if the integrated borders management, subjugated by aims of migration containment, was been accomplished exactly in the years in which Europe enlarged itself, thus making concrete the promise of the abolishment of the internal frontiers, today, the call for the guard of the external borders put into question the same idea of a European common space. But securitization, as evoked by the idea of an “European Fortress”, represents only one of the two poles of a pendulum perpetually swinging between an Europe of Fear and an Europe of Hope. The origin of this European Dilemma can be traced back in the post WWII era, when the European migration regime was initially shaped. After describing its key features, the article will identify three main ambivalences which mark the European experience and its complex relationship with immigration.