Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The migration and refugee crisis of 2015–2016 had a major impact on different dimensions 
of European politics and called into question the process of European integration. Such a 
disruptive crisis triggered a variety of policy responses, some of which appear to imply 
fundamental changes in underlying policy paradigms. To make sense of these non-incremental 
changes, the present research provides an insight into EU crisis decision-making, analysing its 
underlying mechanisms and dynamics through the lenses of the contingent learning approach. 
Indeed, the emergence of such changes is interpreted as going through a surprise-triggered 
understanding of cue–outcome associations in the context of the crisis and consequent 
behavioural adaptation, which took place without substantial alteration of beliefs systems. To 
test this hypothesis the present research employed process tracing methods, drawing on semi-
structured interviews and qualitative analysis of official documents to reconstruct a possible 
causal sequence of crisis decision-making. The present analysis provided substantial evidence 
for the validity of such an interpretation, which can effectively complement the insights 
provided by integration theories and contribute to the understanding of the impact of crises on 
the Union.

European Union --- policy learning --- migration crisis --- policy change --- Droit, criminologie & sciences politiques > Sciences politiques, administration publique & relations internationales