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For ten years, Europe has been trapped in a perpetual state of crisis over migration. While the original meaning of crisis signifies a temporary disruption from the norm, since 2015 it has transformed into an permanent feature of the European political landscape. That fateful year, around one million individuals fled war and persecution to seek safety in Europe. In the ensuing decade, the topic of migration has been so completely politicised that it is now hard to recall a period when it was not described as an overwhelming emergency.

This idea of a constant emergency does not mirror a reality where Europe is truly incapable of handling new arrivals. Instead, it showcases the simple fact that numerous entities profit from manufacturing a pervasive sense of crisis.

These alarmist stories fuel a profitable system of fear and have catalysed far-reaching changes to Europe's border architecture and migration policies. The continent's border security industry is flourishing, with major profiteers including the EU's border agency, whose funding has skyrocketed from a relatively small sum in 2014 to exceeding one billion euros today—despite frequent accusations of complicity with human rights abuses. Across the continent, private defence and security firms have landed high-value deals that have further militarised the region's frontiers.

The Ascendancy of the Far Right and the Politics of Mimicry

Promising that the events of 2015 will not be repeated, conservative and far-right political movements are gaining strength across Europe, seemingly determined to whipping up anti-migrant feelings and making mainstream racist conspiracy theories. The xenophobic fringe has seized its opportunity. However, the fact that Europe has grown more unwelcoming for migrants and racialised minorities is in large part due to the dangerous cynicism of mainstream parties that attempt to outflank the far right at its own game.

Germany serves as a clear example. Exploiting the 2015 "migration wave", the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) first entered the federal parliament in 2017. Since then, as opposition leader and later as chancellor, the CDU's Friedrich Merz has veered hard to the right. Championing an aggressive anti-migration agenda, he has made statements seen by many as discriminatory, such as a recent suggestion that mass removals were needed to resolve a "visible issue in urban areas". This strategy of copycat politics has had the opposite effect, with the AfD's support surging to now rival Merz's own party.

In the UK, the current Labour government confronts a similar fate. Under huge strain from the hard-right Reform UK party, it has announced what it calls "the toughest asylum reforms in modern times". These severe plans would make refugee status provisional, cut support, tear apart families, and leave many in a legal purgatory for years. This tactic does not weaken forces on the political right; it emboldens them. Reform UK praised the announcement, while extremist figures hailed a supposed shattering of the political mainstream.

A Spiral of Cruelty and an Authoritarian Future

For the far right across Europe, the "gift" of migration crises continues to deliver. A critical lesson must be reiterated: when you adopt a politics of cruelty to outdo those whose entire agenda is founded on cruelty, defeat is assured. Even if governments succeed in enacting "tough" policies or lower asylum numbers, the far right will simply find other minority groups to target, demonise, and hold responsible.

This hostility shows no signs of diminishing. Transforming vast regions like the Sahara and the Mediterranean into areas of peril is insufficient for those who view their struggle as a cultural war, rooted in racial mythology and "remigration" fantasies that in the end threaten Europe's own minority citizens.

The ideas of the far right are gathering strength, forging alliances globally and enabling migration to be used as a vehicle for authoritarian transformation. Internationally, influential voices are echoing this rhetoric, with recent policy papers from a former U.S. administration calling to end the "era of mass migration" and to resist Europe's "cultural dilution". Such statements are hailed as victories by far-right parties within Europe.

The Path Ahead: Fortification or Resistance?

What, then, does the future hold for Europe's fortified borders? The EU's chosen path appears clear. With the new pact on migration and asylum coming into full force in 2026, another milestone in securitisation will be reached. Rather than challenging narratives of never-ending emergency, the pact effectively turns crisis into official procedure. It will enable member states to speed up border processes, extend detention, and curtail asylum rights during vaguely defined "emergency circumstances" of mass arrival. Critics argue these provisions are so broad that they risk becoming normalised, permanently weakening rights across the continent.

In a world with many reasons for people to flee—from war and genocide to economic exploitation and environmental collapse—increased border security, mass deportations, and a generalised politics of cruelty will never "solve" migration. What they will achieve is the decay of democratic standards, widening social rifts, and increased racist hostility.

Given that migration has become the central issue of the current authoritarian turn, it is exactly around migration that opposition must form. How we will remember the decade from 2026 to 2035 is, in the end, our collective choice. Carrying out rescue operations in the Mediterranean, disrupting immigration raids and deportation flights, and reclaiming cities as spaces of plurality and mutual support—these are all vitally important actions that protect our fellow people and confront the authoritarian forces expanding around us.