E.g., 01/16/2021
E.g., 01/16/2021

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

Commentaries
July 2014
An EU Commissioner for Migration? The Devil is in the Details
By  Elizabeth Collett
Reports
July 2014
Moving Up or Standing Still? Access to Middle-Skilled Work for Newly Arrived Migrants in the European Union
By  Meghan Benton, Susan Fratzke and Madeleine Sumption
Commentaries
July 2014
The EU’s Strategic Guidelines on Migration: Uncontentious Consensus, But Missed Opportunity
By  Elizabeth Collett
Multimedia
June 18, 2014
Has EU Immigration and Asylum Policy Failed? Can It Ever Succeed?
asylum brief cover
Policy Briefs
June 2014
Strengthening Refugee Protection and Meeting Challenges: The European Union’s Next Steps on Asylum
By  Madeline Garlick
Reports
June 2014
A Work in Progress: Prospects for Upward Mobility Among New Immigrants in Germany
By  Nadia Granato
Books
May 2014
Migration of Health Workers: The WHO Code of Practice and the Global Economic Crisis
Future EU policy development on immigration and asylum
Policy Briefs
June 2014
Future EU Policy Development on Immigration and Asylum: Understanding the Challenge
By  Elizabeth Collett

Pages

Feature
June 1, 2004
The Changing Mosaic of Mediterranean Migrations

Martin Baldwin-Edwards of Panteion University examines new trends in the long-established phenomenon of migration within the Mediterranean basin.

Profile
June 1, 2004
Greece: A History of Migration
Greece, once known for outward migration, has become a receiver of migrants and a permanent immigrant destination according to Charalambos Kasimis and Chryssa Kassimi.
Feature
May 1, 2004
EU Enlargement and the Limits of Freedom
Joanne van Selm and Eleni Tsokalis of MPI look at the challenges ahead as 10 new states join the European Union.
Feature
April 1, 2004
EU Sees Sharp Drop in Asylum Applications
Countries in the European Union received fewer asylum applications in 2003, according to Veysel Oezcan of the Social Science Research Center Berlin.
Feature
February 1, 2004
Fewer Ethnic Germans Immigrating to Ancestral Homeland
The number of ethnic Germans born abroad who immigrated to their ancestral homeland in 2003 was much lower than the previous year, reports Veysel Oezcan of Humboldt University Berlin.

Pages

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Recent Activity

Commentaries
July 2014

An EU Commissioner for Migration? The Devil is in the Details

In the coming weeks, the President-Elect of the European Commission and leaders of the European Union will discuss the new institutional map of the European Union, including new portfolios for the incoming college of Commissioners. Despite the fact that immigration is a critical challenge for the European Union, it has become harder for EU institutions to forge a strong policy. Perhaps as a result of this disconnect, one of the key ideas on the table is to create a Commissioner for Migration.

Reports
July 2014

Moving Up or Standing Still? Access to Middle-Skilled Work for Newly Arrived Migrants in the European Union

The global economic crisis and changing migration patterns in Europe bring up questions about how well immigrants are able to find employment and progress into better jobs over time. This overview report caps a series of six country case studies evaluating the employment outcomes for foreign-born workers during their first decade in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Commentaries
July 2014

The EU’s Strategic Guidelines on Migration: Uncontentious Consensus, But Missed Opportunity

The European Council's new strategic guidelines, which set the pathway for future policy development in the area of Justice and Home Affairs in the coming years, seem unfeasibly insulated from today's migration and asylum realities and challenges confronting the European Union. The draft represents a missed opportunity to lead EU heads of state forward on critical issues in this area, MPI Europe's Director writes in this commentary.
Audio, Webinars
June 18, 2014

Has EU Immigration and Asylum Policy Failed? Can It Ever Succeed?

This MPI Europe telebriefing, releasing the brief "Strengthening Refugee Protection and Meeting Challenges: The European Union’s Next Steps on Asylum," examines Europe's current reality with respect to migration and asylum and assesses the possibilities for future development of EU immigration policy.

Policy Briefs
June 2014

Strengthening Refugee Protection and Meeting Challenges: The European Union’s Next Steps on Asylum

With the European Council meeting in late June 2014 to adopt strategic guidelines on asylum and migration policy, amid strains resulting from Syrian refugee migration and other flows, this MPI Europe policy brief identifies challenges and proposes a forward course. The brief recommends increased engagement by Member States in practical cooperation as a way to strengthen implementation and consolidation of existing EU laws and achieve more consistent asylum decision-making.

Reports
June 2014

A Work in Progress: Prospects for Upward Mobility Among New Immigrants in Germany

This report analyzes the labor market integration of newcomers to Germany, who tend to have different national origins and higher levels of education than earlier waves of migrants. These new immigrants have had varying levels of success in finding employment and transitioning into higher-skilled jobs.
Books
May, 2014

Migration of Health Workers: The WHO Code of Practice and the Global Economic Crisis

This edited volume from the World Health Organization (WHO), which includes chapters written by MPI researchers, examines country-level responses to the international movement of health-care workers, both before and after adoption of the WHO’s Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel.
Policy Briefs
June 2014

Future EU Policy Development on Immigration and Asylum: Understanding the Challenge

This MPI Europe policy brief, published with the European Council poised to articulate a new set of long-term objectives and priorities for action on migration and asylum policy, details the immigration and other challenges that policymakers confront and sets out the reasons for increasingly sclerotic policy development.

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