This episode is a conversation with Joaquín Almunia, a Spanish politician, about the impact of the migration crisis on European economic, political, and social policy. Almunia discusses the challenges at Europe’s peripheries and the rise of xenophobia and populism as a reactionary response against the handling of the migrant crisis by EU leadership. He describes the confusion, frustration, and lack of confidence many EU citizens feel regarding democratic processes, at both the EU institutional level and within the national governments of the individual Member States. (Date of interview: April 11, 2016 - please forgive the background noise in beginning of track - the interview's great)