Asylum Related Organisations in Europe: Networks and Institutional Dynamics in the Context of a Common European Asylum System

Asylum and refugees in Europe - who can fix a broken system? In times of increasing waves of migration, collective bodies and their cooperation networks are of particular importance to the European asylum system. But who are those actors and what is their contribution to effecting a change in the situation of those seeking refuge in Europe? While the Common European Asylum System introduced standardised regulations for all EU-member states, the real situation in each country differs greatly from those official declarations, even leading to a humanitarian crisis at times. Using the theory of neo-institutionalism, current data from expert interviews, and website and document analyses from Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Germany, this study answers those questions. It illustrates how and if this gap between talk and action can be narrowed, how asylum-related organisations and their networks function and how far they contribute to this process.