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February 18, 2004

On Wednesday, February 18th, the Migration Policy Institute hosted Rainer Münz, Senior Fellow at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics and former Director of the Institute of Demography at the Austrian Academy of Science. The meeting was moderated by Demetrios Papademetriou, President and Co-founder of MPI. This briefing was part of MPI’s “Migration Policies and Processes in Europe” visitor series funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC.
Introduction:
In recent years, European countries have had to reexamine the way they look at immigration. Migration trends in much of Europe have reversed and countries that were traditionally immigrant-sending countries are now receiving significant amounts of immigration. This trend is coupled with decreasing birth rates in many European countries. The result is growing demand for immigrants to fill voids in the labor markets left by aging populations. These factors in addition to a host of others have forced the European Union to pay closer attention to immigration policy issues.
Presentation:

Dr. Münz began with an overview of the process of European integration. Over the course of the past 40 years, much has been achieved in the way of making Europe a more cohesive entity. The European Economic Community has become European Union. The former Cold War boundaries have handed over sovereignty to a supranational structure and we have seen the emergence of migratory space with no internal boundaries. Everything from free trade to freedom of settlement exists for all EU-15 (soon to be 25) citizens. EU citizens have free access to national labor markets, although there are transitional restrictions for citizens of eight of the ten new member states. Furthermore, the European Union has strengthened its relationship with its neighbors by developing several bilateral agreements.

It is also important to frame the immigration debate in Europe with the forthcoming eastern enlargement of the European Union. In May, the EU will go from being a group of states with roughly 400 million inhabitants to one with more than 500 million. If Turkey becomes a member, the population of the EU will rise again to around 600.

The implications of free movement within such a large multinational space create a need for a common European policy on immigration, asserted Dr. Münz. Several steps have been taken to form a basis for this common policy. First was the Schengen Acquis, which eliminated internal border controls within the Schengen area and created common policies on entry and control. Then came a series of conventions and treaties such as the Treaty of Maastricht which laid out the framework for a more closely integrated European Union, the Treaty of Amsterdam, which gave the EU competence for immigration, and the Dublin Convention, which established a Europe-wide database for asylum-seekers (EuroDAC). These were followed by the Tampere (1999), Seville (2002), and Thessaloniki (2003) European Council Summits, all of which were relevant to the development of a common policy on immigration and asylum.

Such a common policy will also draw from other sources, said Dr. Münz, the most important of which are the Geneva Convention and the European Charter of Human Rights. National laws dealing with asylum, regulating family unification and defining access to labor will also play a role. Member States will retain control over certain aspects of immigration policy. Countries will still decide which third country nationals they will admit and how many. Asylum regulations beyond the common minimum standards will be in the hands of individual member states as will be the repatriation of migrants. Recruitment of foreign labor through treaties with sending countries and the admission of those third country nationals to national labor markets will be dealt with on the Member State level. Citizenship policies and political rights for third country nationals will vary from country to country. Furthermore, transitional restrictions for citizens of the accession countries have been adopted by nearly all current Member States.

The goal is to use a comprehensive approach to ensure a balance between economic and humanitarian interests. This will include joint action to combat illegal immigration and police external borders. Equal treatment of legal foreign residents will be a priority as well as breaking down internal barriers such as language and culture to increase mobility within Europe. The promotion of the idea that Europe will need economically motivated immigration will be key.

According to Dr. Münz, European Union policy tools include:
1. Freedom of movement within the European Union and Schengen area (originally Schengen had no migration implications, but now it has become the framework for migration management because it brings into question external borders)
2. Freedom of settlement for EU citizens
3. Free access to national labor markets for EU citizens
4. Political rights for EU citizens living in another EU country
5. Common border and visa regime
6. European border management agency
7. Common asylum standards and mutual recognition of decisions
8. Burden sharing in the area of asylum
9. Cooperation with sending countries
10. Common principles for family reunion
11. Rights for third country nationals

Dr. Münz identified four levels of inclusion of immigrants in the EU. The first level is access to the territory, which does not necessarily mean access to residency. Once granted access to residency, or the second level of inclusion, one does not automatically have access to the labor market. This is to say that one can be a legal immigrant, yet not have access to work. The third level is access to the labor markets. And the fourth, most comprehensive level is that of access to citizenship. However, no common citizenship law exists. After the accession in May, there will be 25 different citizenship laws in the European Union, some based on jus sanguinis and some based on jus soli. In light of this, Dr. Münz believes policy priorities should include setting up a framework for access to labor markets using a quota system, recruiting third country nationals, EU-based cooperation with major sending countries, and EU citizenship.

Dr. Münz concluded his presentation by asserting that the European Union has two options: it can come up with a constructive common European approach to migration, or EU member states can compete with each other and with the US and Canada for qualified and highly skilled migrants. It is clear that Europe would benefit much more from a common policy towards immigration. The key to making the first option work is promoting internal mobility among both immigrants and citizens of the EU. The challenge in the coming years will be the ‘drain’ of skilled labor from the new EU countries to Western Europe, leaving countries like Hungary and the Czech Republic in need.

Discussion:

Several participants agreed that the European Union has had a problem with over-promising on immigration policy. The challenge has become to try to figure out which initiatives have a more realistic chance of moving forward. Two communications became directives during the Greek Presidency and some say it was very symbolically important and that it demonstrated forward movement. However, it will be a challenge to maintain this momentum in the next year given the activity taking place (the formation of a constitution, the change in the commission, etc). Brussels has developed extraordinary expertise and is poised to make gains, but larger forces such as renewed nationalism, unresolved issues with regard to unemployment in Member States, and broken politics make an optimistic scenario about progress difficult.

On the topic of the recent Dutch initiative that will expel 26,000 failed asylum seekers, Dr. Muenz pointed out that the measure appears less drastic when put in context. He mentioned the fact that Germany expels 30,000 by force every year and secures the voluntary departure of about 50,000 others. Another participant noted that in the Dutch case, those being deported are all failed asylum seekers and in the German case, the numbers represent not only failed asylum seekers, but also illegal immigrants or those who have overstayed their visa and are being sent back to their country of origin.

The discussion turned toward issues related to the eastward enlargement of the European Union. There were concerns about the existing EU labor markets being flooded with immigrants from the accession countries. This will most likely not be the case, seeing as nearly all current Member States have decided to restrict access to their labor markets for a period of two years. After 2006 they can continue to restrict citizens of the accession countries after notifying the European Commission. If they want to go beyond 2009, they must prove that allowing access would be a major distortion to labor markets.

It was pointed out that the United States relies on border control much more than Europe. Dr. Münz explained that Europe relies on many more internal controls than the United States and therefore does not need to rely so heavily on border control. Without a legal residence permit in Europe, it is nearly impossible to function in society and there is virtually no way into the formal economy. This does not mean that an underground economy does not exist. In fact, in Germany it is growing by 5-7% per year. Europe as a whole has a net amount of illegal immigration that is similar to the United States.

Participants agreed that it has become increasingly clear that Europe needs immigrants. Dr. Münz stressed that Europe will need immigrants that have not come through the asylum or family reunification process. He said it will be a matter of figuring out how to attract them to the labor markets of EU countries, which will involve competing with traditional immigration countries such as the US and Canada.