Economic Crises and EU Migration Law: a Blast from the Past

In EU migration law scholarship, accounts of crisis and its relation to law flourished in relation to the migrant and refugee arrivals which took place in the in the period of 2015-2016. To offer new insight on the relation of crisis, EU law-making and migration, this chapter focuses on the same topic but from an entirely different angle and time frame. Specifically, this chapter does not look at the migration ‘crisis’, but rather at an economic crisis and its effects for law-making in the area of EU labour migration. By offering an alternative historical reconstruction of the development of EU migration law and its relation to the 1970’s oil crisis, the chapter situates the relevant empirical material in a broader theoretical discussion on short-termism, crisis and democratic governance. It also highlights the implications of short-termism not only for the quality of law-making in the area of migration, but also for the durability of EU integration more broadly.