As the world marks Human Rights Day on 10th December, Europe stands at a critical crossroads. Rising polarisation, shifting political landscapes, and intensifying debates on migration reveal deep tensions around the future of human rights protection on the continent.
The moment calls for clear voices who can help decode these developments and explain what is truly at stake.
Dr. Lena Riemer, Assistant Professor of Law at Central European University in Vienna, is an expert on human rights and migration policies. In her research, she examines the global nexus between escalating anti-migration narratives, the political scapegoating of migrants, and the tightening of legal restrictions affecting refugees and migrants across Europe.
She argues that these trends are not isolated policy shifts but part of an interconnected dynamic that threatens both the rights of migrants and the foundations of democratic governance:
“We are witnessing a dangerous feedback loop across Europe where anti-migration narratives fuel the political scapegoating of migrants, blaming them for economic insecurity, cultural tensions, and security threats, which in turn justifies ever-tightening legal restrictions.
From Austria to the UK and Poland, right-wing movements exploit this scapegoating to push restrictive policies, a pattern reflected in the reform of the EU’s Common European Asylum System (CEAS) that prioritises deterrence over protection.”
Concrete developments across Europe highlight this accelerating trajectory:
- Austria has announced further steps to limit family reunification, separating more families and heightening the barriers to legal protection.
- Germany is expanding deportation powers and reinstating border controls, normalising emergency-style measures and shrinking pathways to protection.
- The United Kingdom continues to advance increasingly restrictive asylum laws, including offshore processing schemes and legislative attempts to limit judicial oversight.
Taken together, these actions demonstrate a structural shift: the de facto erosion of asylum, replaced by punitive deterrence mechanisms. Beyond that, these developments threaten the rule of law itself:
“The dismantling of legal protections for migrants serves as a testing ground for broader authoritarian governance. When executives can defy court orders, bypass legislative oversight, and suspend constitutional protections for one group, they establish precedents that weaken democratic institutions for everyone.
History shows that rights are indivisible: the legal and rhetorical frameworks used today to strip due process from those labelled ‘undesirable’ create templates that can be expanded tomorrow to other groups deemed outside the law’s protection.
What begins at democracy’s margins, with migrants stripped of procedural safeguards and treated as exceptions to the rule of law, reveals the fragility of democratic governance itself, making the defence of migrants’ rights inseparable from the defence of democracy for all.”
