Realism versus liberalism? En idéanalys av EU-kommissionens tankar kring det gemensamma europeiska asylsystemet

Sammanfattning: The outcome of a common European asylum system (CEAS) is an open question in which the answer will situate itself somewhere between two conflicting frames: the realist with focus on internal security and border controls, and the liberal with focus on human-rights and refugee protection. This thesis analyses how these frames are expressed in the European Commission’s publications in the asylum area. The purpose is to explore how the tension between the frames appears. This is interesting since the asylum policy is influenced by what principle is emphasized. How this is implemented is by an idea analysis based on two polar ideal types, realism and liberalism, where their basic assumptions are distinguished in a number of key points. The theoretical framework is presented and followed by a review of the content in the Commission’s publications. The norms and ideas that appear in these publications are then compared with the theoretical assumptions; this to answer the question of which ideal type the Commission’s concept of the CEAS is most similar with. The answer is that the Commission’s ideas, unlike the most common notion, correspond the most with the liberal ideal type.