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Migration Control and Authoritarian Transformation in Europe

Maximilian Pichl in Conversation with Dinah Riese

In the third event of our Digital Lecture Series Human Rights as the Last Utopia? Migration and Jewish History, legal and political scientist Maximilian Pichl provides an overview of the thirty-year history of European asylum policy and explains why we are currently witnessing a new turning point. 

Tue 1 Sep 2026, 7 pm

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For three decades, European asylum and migration policy has been characterised by a simultaneous openness and isolationism: European integration liberalised asylum law in many states, but at the same time created instruments of repressive migration control through Frontex and migration pacts. This historical compromise between liberal human rights and national-conservative strands has now broken down. The new Common European Asylum System (CEAS) represents a significant tightening of the previous asylum system, whilst in the European Parliament, conservative and far-right parties are adopting joint measures on deportations. The tightening of asylum law is part of a general authoritarian restructuring, in which, however, there are still human rights safeguards that prevent the complete isolation of Europe.

Against the backdrop of Jewish migration history, our guests in the Digital Lecture Series, in conversation with Dinah Riese (taz), examine how the foundations for humanitarian refugee law have been developed since the 1930s.

In the process, historical achievements become visible – achievements that are increasingly being questioned today. Which experiences from the past, and which legal or philosophical perspectives, can help overcome current limits in thinking about migration? And where can we find approaches in the here and now that point toward a more open future?

Maximilian Pichl

Maximilian Pichl is a legal and political scientist. He is Professor of Social Work Law at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences; previously, he taught at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and the University of Kassel. From 2015 to 2017, he was legal policy advisor at PRO ASYL e.V. He is the author of, among other works, Law statt Order. Der Kampf um den Rechtsstaat (Law Instead of Order: The Struggle for the Rule of Law), Suhrkamp (2024), and Rechtskämpfe. Eine Analyse der Rechtsverfahren nach dem Sommer der Migration (Legal Battles: An Analysis of Legal Proceedings Following the Summer of Migration), Campus: Frankfurt am Main (2021); since 2020, he has been co-editor of the annual report Recht gegen Rechts (Law Against the Right).

Maximilian Pichl, photo: Adrian Oeser

A man wearing glasses looks friendly at the camera.

Maximilian Pichl, photo: Adrian Oeser

Dinah Riese

Dinah Riese heads the domestic news desk at taz newspaper. Previously, she worked as a taz editor covering migration and integration. She has received multiple awards for her reporting on the so-called advertising ban on abortions, Paragraph 219a of the German Criminal Code. Her interview with survivors of the Halle attack was nominated for the Reporter:innenpreis (Reporters’ Prize). In March 2022, she co-authored the book Selbstbestimmt. Für reproduktive Rechte (Self-Determined: For Reproductive Rights) with Gesine Agena and Patricia Hecht, published by Klaus Wagenbach.

Dinah Riese, photo: Sonja Trabandt

A woman with short hair looks cheerfully into the camera. She is wearing earrings and a necklace.

Dinah Riese, photo: Sonja Trabandt
Purple-blue graphic with the inscription “Digital Lecture Series”

Digital Lecture Series
Human Rights as the Last Utopia? Migration and Jewish History

Digital Lecture Series Human Rights as the Last Utopia? Migration and Jewish History: The event series at a glance

Events

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The W. Michael Blumenthal Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin: A Platform and Laboratory for Diverse Perspectives

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Updated on 14 April 2025

We would like to thank the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung for supporting the Digital Lecture Series. 

In media partnership with taz.

  • Logo with four dots surrounded by an interrupted square frame and the lettering: Berthold Leibinger Stiftung.
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  • Entry fee

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  • Language English

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Source: https://www.jmberlin.de/en/digital-lecture-migration-control
Printed on: 05/13/2026