2015 European migrant crisis

In 2015, there was significant movement of refugees and migrants into Europe, mostly from the Middle East. An estimated 1.3 million people came to the continent to request asylum, the most in a single year since World War II. They were mostly Syrians, but also included a significant number of people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Eritrea, and the Balkans. The increase in asylum seekers has been attributed to factors such as the escalation of various wars in the Middle East and ISIL's territorial and military dominance in the region due to the Arab Winter, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt ceasing to accept Syrian asylum seekers.

The EU attempted to enact some measures to address the problem, including distributing refugees among member countries, tackling root causes of emigration in the home countries of migrants, and simplifying deportation processes. However, attempts to coordinate an EU-wide response largely failed, as most countries refused to accept large numbers of migrants, and several refused to take in any at all. Many European Union (EU) governments closed their borders. Germany ultimately accepted most of the refugees after the government decided to temporarily suspend its enforcement of the Dublin Regulation. Germany would receive over 440,000 asylum applications (0.5% of the population). Other countries that took in a significant number of refugees include Sweden (156,000; 1.6%) and Austria (88,000; 1.0%). Hungary also initially registered 174,000 applications, but most of these were withdrawn or canceled.

The crisis had significant political consequences in Europe. The influx of migrants caused significant demographic and cultural changes within these countries. As a consequence, some politicians raised concerns about the challenges of integrating migrants, and the public raised discussions about potential effects to European values. Paired also with rising cost of living and other complex social problems, political polarization increased, confidence in the European Union fell, and many countries implemented stricter asylum policies. Right-wing populist parties gained support as immigration became a key political issue and became significantly more popular in many countries. There was an increase in protests regarding immigration and the circulation of the white nationalist conspiracy theory of the Great Replacement.