The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, to provide an overview of the characteristics and trends of inward migration in the European Union (EU), including preliminary evidence on the impact of the unfolding economic crisis on immigration. Second, to explore the universe of diverse policies that regulate migration and the patterns of differential inclusion in EU member states, by introducing the concept of national migrant integration regimes. The variety of migrant integration regimes in the EU is explored empirically by comparing indicators for integration policies, migrants’ employment characteristics and levels of immigration. As such, the chapter also provides a...

Policies relating to migration and immigration are always embedded in a range of different policy fields, subject to contrasting strategic interests and discursive framings, and embroiled in the contentious politics of who can or should enter and ‘belong’ in a state, and under what terms. For the European Union (EU) this complexity is multiplied. It is not a state, and it has uneven, and shared or secondary control over its borders; it has highly variable policy instruments at its disposal and highly variable political legitimacy to intervene in different policy areas (for a recent review, see Wallace et al, 2010)....

The politics of migration in the European Union (EU) is a topic that attracts increasingly scholarly attention, but is also subject to violent diatribes. The reasons are easy to understand; on the one hand, international migration produces a significant impact on the organisational and conceptual structures of European welfare systems, calling for a substantial redefinition of the main welfare functions, normative foundations, distributive priorities and key institutional features of existing national welfare arrangements, while on the other hand, and in a highly globalised environment, international migration also produces a significant impact on the governance structure of European member states, partially...

The quote by Sir John Hicks reflects the conventional wisdom of what is the main cause of migration, within and across borders. Even though there might be some truth in the statement, other factors also play an important role when it comes to understanding the complex patterns related to migration and human mobility. The context and theoretical starting point in Hicks’ analysis is, in fact, based on traditional microeconomic theory, which emphasises the rational, utility-maximising individual (for a discussion, see, for instance, Borjas, 1994, 2000; Bonin et al, 2008; Krieger, 2008). This chapter interprets this approach and discusses other competing...

The aim of this chapter is to provide an analysis of the evolution of migration policies in Italy, with a particular focus on the social protection offered to immigrants. With respect to most continental European countries, which experienced mass migration starting from the end of the Second World War, and to Finland and Eastern Europe, where migration is a completely new phenomenon, Italy (and Southern Europe more generally) can be considered as a ‘quasi-new immigration country’, since significant migration flows had already started in the second half of the 1970s. The first immigration law dates back to 1986, and since...

The German welfare state and its emphasis on status maintenance seem to cement migrants’ worse socio-economic position, and contribute to their exclusion. However, its contribution-based logic has also been the primary mode of initial welfare access for guestworkers (Bommes, 2000). This uneven impact of the welfare system interacts in complicated ways with education chances for the second and now third generation of immigrants, and with the formal integration mode of an ethnicity-centred migration model for ethnic German repatriates.

Scrutinising migrants’ status in the German case, this chapter aims to develop arguments in the literature about the relative exclusion of migrants...

All of the Nordic countries have historically been rather homogeneous in their national culture and population. In Finland, a country of 5.3 million inhabitants, the largest minority are Swedish-speaking Finns, who form about 5.4 percent (290,000) of the population and enjoy extensive rights guaranteed, for example, by the fact that Swedish is the country’s second official language. In addition, there is a small indigenous Sami population (9,000), and a Roma minority (10,000). The immigrant population was very small until the beginning of the 1990s with the arrival of the first larger groups, Ingrian return migrants from Russia and refugees from...

This chapter provides a brief overview of the main migration trends in Hungary since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It has two main objectives. First, it examines the most significant characteristics of the integration of migrant communities and second, it investigates the policy implications following accession to the European Union (EU) in May 2004 and to the Schengen Area in January 2008. Despite the increasing salience of the topic, migration is a recent phenomenon in Hungary. Prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain in November 1989, Hungary was a ‘closed’ country, with limited migration flows caused by the...

In this chapter we explore important issues concerned with the social exclusion and social segregation of migrant workers in the UK. Our main argument is that social and employment protection for this group of workers is often inadequate and that the UK government has a moral obligation to address these deficits. We argue that the UK has one of the least regulated labour markets of all ‘developed’ economies, and that the government’s open invitation to migrant workers to meet the needs of the ‘flexible’ economy has generated a large pool of exploitable, largely unprotected labour. Many migrant workers in the...

The role of social networks in the life of immigrants has been a highly debated topic highlighting the importance of cultural and social capital, both for migration as well as for the social orientation and integration of immigrants in the countries of destination (Castles and Miller, 2009, pp 27-30). More recently, the concept of transnationalism has come to the attention of the international academic community, highlighting the global character of migration movements and of their social networks. In this context, transnationalism requires the development of new ways of studying the integration of immigrants (Faist,2000; Kivisto,2003; Castles and Miller, 2009). Not...

Immigration in France and Italy, whether referring to foreign workers, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants or reunification of family members, has stood out as a key object of political contention and policy intervention throughout the 2000s. In both countries, this has been a decade characterised by the political predominance of the right over the left.¹ Immigration has gained high salience, with major developments in terms of policy interventions and debates about enforcement of border controls, threats to national identity, human rights, international security and religious extremism among others. In this chapter, we aim to provide a detailed analysis of relevant policy...

Welfare states have faced difficulties in integrating immigrants and in dealing successfully with issues of poverty and deprivation among members of this social group. In fact, this is the case even in those European welfare states that have the most generous welfare regimes. An alternative to the immigrant policies adopted in most welfare states is the categorical immigration policy that characterises the Israeli welfare state. This case is particularly interesting in that immigrants to Israel fare almost as well or better than veteran populations on a number of economic parameters. The goal of this chapter is to explore the contours...

This book is concerned with the interaction of social and migration policies in specific political, economic and social contexts, which affect migrants’ welfare, well-being and inclusion. In Chapter One its empirical and analytical terrain were outlined as centering on three elements: the analysis of combined and interacting policy fields, especially migration, integration and welfare and labour markets; the interaction ofpolityandpoliticsin these policy fields across different levels of policymaking; and finally, the consequent implications of these dynamics for migrants’ differential integration in European Union (EU) member state societies. In this final chapter, we review this terrain in...