THE MUTATION OF ASYLUM LAW IN THE EU: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PARADIGM OF PROTECTION THROUGH MIGRANT REGULARISATION PROCESSES

Herrera M.P. · Revista Catalana de Dret Public (2026) · DOI: 10.58992/rcdp.i72.2026.4613

Resumen

This article takes a critical look at the new EU migration policy following the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, as well as its interaction with national and non-EU responses to irregular migration. The European Union has consolidated a model based on accelerating procedures, expanding the grounds for inadmissibility, and standardising the concepts of safe country of origin and safe third country. These tools, designed to strengthen administrative efficiency, raise questions regarding international protection principles and the core system of safeguards of EU law. The study analyses the impact of these reforms on the multi-level protection of fundamental rights, contrasts the new European framework with asylum externalisation policies developed in the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States and, finally, addresses the case of Spain’s extraordinary regularisation project for foreigners as an internal response to the structural dysfunctions of the European system. The central hypothesis argues that the European reform is not merely a regulatory update, but a mutation of the asylum paradigm, in which the logic of control prevails over protection, thus calling into question the role of the Union as a guarantor of human rights.

Instituciones: Universidad Científica del Sur