EU-Turkey cooperation on migration: public policy preferences in Turkey, Greece, and Germany

Following the large increases in the numbers of refugees and other migrants arriving in the EU in 2015-16, the European Union struck a ‘migration deal’ with Turkey and at the same time intensified its efforts to reach similar cooperation agreements with African states that are either source and/or transit  countries for irregular migrants in the EU. Despite the high salience of migration in many European countries, there has been no systematic research on public policy preferences vis-à-vis EU cooperation with non-EU countries on issues related to irregular migration and refugee protection.

As a consequence, we know very little about the types of international policy cooperation on irregular migration and refugee protection the public supports, and how this varies across countries on different sides of the agreement. Understanding public views and policy preferences, and how they vary across countries, is critical to effective and sustainable international cooperation on migration.  

The study aims to contribute to both academic research and policy debates about the future of the EU-Turkey Agreement, and EU-Turkey cooperation on asylum and migration issues more generally.