In 2011, the Arabic Spring and the civil war in Libya caused unexpected movements of populations on a large scale, and the European Union (EU) received around 300.000 asylum applications. In 2016, this number was quadrupled: European Member States (EU-MS) recorded more than 1.204.000 asylum seekers: 722.000 applicants were lodged in Germany (60%), 121.000 were registered in Italy (10%) and 76.000 in France (6%) [Data source: EUROSTAT].

As a result, the vast majority of EU-MS claims to be dealing with an unprecedented refugee crisis causing a disproportionate pressure of their migration systems. In response to the increase of asylum applications, significant changes have been introduced through new European legislation, but no criteria have been agreed to define migration pressure at national level.

For this reason, our analysis defines a composite indicator, called Asylometer, examining the effects recorded by the national migration systems to ensure comparability among EU-MS. Using Eurostat data collection for four quarters (2011 Q1, 2013 Q1, 2015 Q1 and 2016 Q4), Asylometer combines the country of origin of asylum seekers with the European member state perspectives.

Asylometer focuses on the first instance of asylum procedure merging the three key asylum indicators: 1. Applications: unexpected massive inflows of migrants claiming for international protection in the EU-MS; 2. Pending asylum applicants waiting for a decision: the backlog generates by the processing of asylum applications; 3. Rejected decisions: refused asylum seekers, who are unable or refuse to leave EU, remain in EU-MS living in a limbo status.

Results achieved for Syria and Nigeria, as two of the main Countries of Origin of asylum seekers in European Union, are presented. To assess the impacts of asylum policies by Country of Origin at national level, we propose Germany and Italy as two case studies to capture similarities and differences across the European Union.