E.g., 01/19/2021
E.g., 01/19/2021

Europe

Europe

European Union

Europe faces an interesting set of immigration challenges and opportunities: Demographic pressures as many European societies age, a lively and at times tense policy and political debate over questions of identity and immigrant integration, and a unique policy environment that has knit many European countries together with regards to free movement, the management of outer borders, asylum, and other immigration-related topics. MPI has long conducted research and analysis of European policy on topics ranging from labor mobility and border security to immigrant integration, citizenship, and foreign qualifications recognition, which can be found below.

A woman looks out over tents being used by migrants and asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesvos
Articles

Greece Struggles to Balance Competing Migration Demands

When he was elected prime minister in 2019, Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised what he called “strict but fair” reforms to secure Greece's borders and speed up transfers of asylum seekers crowding Aegean islands. Yet domestic and geopolitical tensions continued to roil the islands, later joined by a global pandemic, culminating in a fire that destroyed most of Lesvos's Moria refugee camp. This article examines Greece's efforts to strike a delicate balance on migration in a complex era.

Castle Square in Warsaw, Poland
Reports

Driving Migrant Inclusion through Social Innovation: Lessons for Cities in a Pandemic

Since COVID-19 hit cities across Europe, many have struggled with how to sustain support for migrant inclusion in a time of social-distancing orders and likely budget cuts. This report explores how municipalities and their partners used social innovation to meet the challenges of the 2015–16 spike in arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants, and how those experiences can help localities weather the pandemic and put communities at the center of recovery efforts.

Recent Activity

Reports
July 2013
Skills, Professional Regulation, and International Mobility in the Engineering Workforce
By  Matthew Dixon
Reports
July 2013
Recognizing Foreign Qualifications: Emerging Global Trends
By  Lesleyanne Hawthorne
Reports
July 2013
Tackling Brain Waste: Strategies to Improve the Recognition of Immigrants’ Foreign Qualifications
By  Madeleine Sumption
Articles
June 28, 2013
Diasporas and Development in Post-Communist Eurasia
By Tim Heleniak
Articles
May 10, 2013
Integrating Europe's Muslim Minorities: Public Anxieties, Policy Responses
By Meghan Benton, Anne Nielsen
Policy Briefs
May 2013
Migration and Environmental Change: Assessing the Developing European Approach
By  Andrew Geddes and Will Somerville
Multimedia
April 25, 2013
Sharing Lessons, Sharing Responsibility: Combating Human Trafficking
Reports
March 2013
Immigration and National Identity in Norway
By  Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Pages

Feature
March 1, 2003
Gender, Religion, and Secularism Meet in Germany's Headscarf Battle
A German court has restored the job of a Muslim nursery school teacher dismissed from her post for wearing a symbol of her faith, the headscarf.
Profile
February 1, 2003
España: Hacia una nueva política migratoria

En la última mitad de la década de los 90, la inmigración llegó a ser un tema de vital importancia para los políticos y el público español.

Profile
February 1, 2003
Spain: Forging an Immigration Policy
In the mid-1990s, immigration became a matter of vital importance to Spain's political elites and in the eyes of the public.
Feature
February 1, 2003
Germany's High Court Strikes Down Planned Immigration Law
The German Constitutional Court has blocked a landmark immigration law scheduled to take effect at the beginning of 2003, temporarily ending a running dispute between the ruling and opposition parties.
Feature
February 1, 2003
Sangatte Shutdown Signals New Anglo-French Cooperation
New measures by the United Kingdom to control illegal immigration, coupled with France's closure of a center long used as a base for asylum seekers trying to slip into the UK, signal fresh cooperation between London and Paris.

Pages

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Recent Activity

Reports
July 2013

Tackling Brain Waste: Strategies to Improve the Recognition of Immigrants’ Foreign Qualifications

Immigrant-receiving countries have introduced a range of policies to improve the recognition of foreign qualifications. This report explores strategies for ensuring that qualified immigrants can contribute their training and talent to the labor force.
Reports
July 2013

Recognizing Foreign Qualifications: Emerging Global Trends

This report provides an overview of the global trends in the recognition of foreign credentials, and describes new and flexible ways that governments can recognize the qualifications of immigrants.

Reports
July 2013

Skills, Professional Regulation, and International Mobility in the Engineering Workforce

This report explains the basic structure of the engineering workforce, and the elements that influence the ability of engineers to move across borders. It examines recent efforts to address national differences in education and accreditation, and also considers how serious the barriers to international migration for engineers are in practice.

Articles
June 28, 2013

Diasporas and Development in Post-Communist Eurasia

The region encompassing Central and Eastern Europe as well as the former Soviet Union is the source of a sizeable share of international migrants today, yet many of these countries' development efforts do not benefit from strong diaspora ties.

Articles
May 10, 2013

Integrating Europe's Muslim Minorities: Public Anxieties, Policy Responses

Muslim integration is one of the most contentious issues in the immigration debate in Europe, and one that gets to the heart of public anxieties about immigration. This article explores public perception toward Muslims in Western Europe and the array of integration policies that countries in the region have adopted during the past several years.

Policy Briefs
May 2013

Migration and Environmental Change: Assessing the Developing European Approach

This policy brief explores the relationship between environmental change and migration to Europe in light of recent scholarship challenging the notion that environmental change triggers mass migration. It presents an overview of European policy response in this area and summarizes the spectrum of proposed solutions.
Audio
April 25, 2013

Sharing Lessons, Sharing Responsibility: Combating Human Trafficking

This MPI event discussed the Dutch model for fighting human trafficking and the strategic and operational dilemmas that public prosecutors in the Netherlands face.

Reports
March 2013

The Netherlands: From National Identity to Plural Identifications

This report discusses the political debate surrounding national identity in the Netherlands against the backdrop of growing public anxiety about immigrants and their effect on local communities. While policies designed to mitigate these fears largely stress national identity and demand cultural assimilation, the report provides an alternative set of recommendations based on the notion of plural identification.

Pages