Far right drives Europe's migration policy

Continent faces mounting challenges as public sentiment shifts, political divisions deepen

Whether it was the conflict in Ukraine surpassing 1,000 days or a record number of deaths among migrants trying to cross the English Channel, the mass movement of displaced populations in and around Europe remained a grim headline fixture in 2024.

The United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, projected Europe's forcibly displaced and stateless population to increase by 2 percent to 24.9 million people in 2024, and its effect was felt everywhere.

In June, elections took place for the European Parliament, whose cross-border structure means voters can sometimes find issues that do not necessarily directly affect their own country end up influencing the overall outcome, which, in turn, makes those issues locally relevant. One issue above all affected all 27 European Union states, and the result: migration.