This course examines the management of migration to Europe, with a focus on the so-called unwanted migration (i.e. asylum seekers and irregular migrants whose arrival states seek to prevent or discourage). As the willingness of sovereign states to advance global governance in this area remains very low and unilateral national policy-responses are increasingly seen as limited in their effectiveness, interest in regional governance has grown. While we see migration governance efforts included in regional cooperation initiatives around the world, the front-runner of these initiatives can without any doubt be found in the context of the European Union and its management of the ‘Justice and Home Affairs’ arena. The EU’s political system is seen by some as having developed mechanisms that have the potential to overcome migration governance gaps at the global and national level. The focus of the course is the analysis of the evolution of the EU policy-making process and the impact of the EU on the management of migration to Europe. The course provides an advanced treatment of the origins, evolution and major policy issues within this policy field which has been the fastest growing EU policy area since the 1990s. The course will mainly focus on the following three policy areas: (1) the emerging EU asylum and refugee determination system; (2) EU asylum & border agencies, detention and return; and (3) responsibility allocation (the Dublin system), burden-sharing and solidarity.