Elspeth Guild outlined the objective of WP4 to be a clear and concise informative study on the use of law in immigration and asylum in the light of the concerns of security. The study will be based on published sources and interviews in each Member State with officials responsible for immigration and asylum issues, lawyers, NGO representatives and parliamentarian with special interest in this issue.

The degree of success or failure of prior legislation in this area is to be studied as well as the engagements between the two policy areas in the Member States chosen as case studies for the purpose of this comparative analysis. This is accompanied by an analysis of the transformation in the way anti-terrorist measures relate to immigration and asylum law after the events of 11 September and the direct consequences of such for law and policy in the areas of immigration and asylum policy and for the issue of discrimination on the grounds of race.

The case studies will be the EU Member States of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and at EU level with specific reference to the developments after two significant international crises ; namely, the Gulf War in 1991 and the terrorist attacks on the USA on 11 September 2001.The focal issue is the ensuing changes to the legal status of immigrant and asylum seekers by anti-terrorist measures.

WP 4 will consult with WP1 and WP2 for the results of the parliamentary debate and the ethnographical analysis.