Immigration in Europe: realities and policies

Abstract

In Western Europe, the attention of both the public opinion and politicians is being increasingly drawn to questions of immigration and asylum. Since 1973, immigration has been considered a problem to which the state should offer solutions. Since 1985, however, the European Commission has been considering the need to formulate a community immigration policy, but it was not included on the European Union agenda until the beginning of the following decade. Nowadays, there seems to be some agreement among the Member States’ governments in order to jointly deal with questions concerning immigration and asylum: the impossibility of tackling this problem independently and the interdependencies generated by the creation of an unified European market are becoming more and more obvious. At the same time, the peculiarities of each State in relation to this phenomenon and the perceptions and national normative references regarding the content of the immigration process complicate the attainment of clear and binding agreements. In this report some of the more relevant aspects of this phenomenon will be highlighted. In the first place, a brief description of European immigration patterns and some questions related to the political debate on this issue will be discussed: the aging of the population and the social cohesion around values considered to be important in Europe. Secondly, the most outstanding progress made towards jointly dealing with immigration and asylum issues will be underlined. Thirdly, the most outstanding national characteristics of the phenomenon in Germany, Spain, France, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom will be discussed: in particular, the immigration pattern, the relation to the labour market and the most important national regulations, and the political debates concerning immigration will be included. Finally, and to conclude, a synthesis of the progress made in the construction of a common resolution to the migration phenomenon will be discussed. A description on the migratory issues in Switzerland is added as an annexe.