The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) was set up for the period 2014-20, with a total of EUR 3.137 billion for the seven years. It will promote the efficient management of migration flows and the implementation, strengthening and development of a common Union approach to asylum and immigration. This Fund will contribute to the achievement of four specific objectives:
- Asylum: strengthening and developing the Common European Asylum System by ensuring that EU legislation in this field is efficiently and uniformly applied;
- Legal migration and integration: supporting legal migration to EU States in line with the labour market needs and promoting the effective integration of non-EU nationals;
- Return: enhancing fair and effective return strategies, which contribute to combating irregular migration, with an emphasis on sustainability and effectiveness of the return process;
- Solidarity: making sure that EU States which are most affected by migration and asylum flows can count on solidarity from other EU States.
This Fund will also provide financial resources for the activities and future development of the European Migration Network (EMN). EMN aims to respond to EU institutions' and to EU State authorities' and institutions' needs for information on migration and asylum by providing up-to-date, objective, reliable and comparable data, with a view to supporting policy-making.
Special financial incentives for EU States have been built into the AMIF to support the Union Resettlement Programme, including with focus on common Union priorities. A similar financial mechanism is foreseen for the transfer of beneficiaries of international protection from an EU State with high migratory pressure to another.
Achieving the key objectives
The largest share of the total amount of the AMIF (approximately 88%) will be channeled through shared management. EU States will implement their multiannual National Programmes, covering the whole period 2014-20. These programmes are prepared, implemented, monitored and evaluated by the responsible authorities in EU States, in partnership with the relevant stakeholders in the field, including the civil society.
Around 11% of the funding under shared management will be allocated for Specific Actions (implemented under the national programmes of EU States, but responding to specific Union priorities) and to support the Union Resettlement Programme.
The remaining 12% of the total amount will be divided between Union actions and Emergency assistance, to be implemented through direct management, in the framework of annual work programmes.
Concrete actions to be funded through this instrument can include a wide range of initiatives, such as the improvement of accommodation and reception services for asylum seekers, information measures and campaigns in non-EU countries on legal migration channels, education and language training for non-EU nationals, assistance to vulnerable persons belonging to the target groups of AMIF, information exchange and cooperation between EU States and training for staff on relevant topics of AMIF.
The fund's beneficiaries
All EU States except Denmark participate in the implementation of this Fund. Examples of beneficiaries of the programmes implemented under this Fund can be state and federal authorities, local public bodies, non-governmental organisations, humanitarian organisations, private and public law companies and education and research organisations.