Country profiles provide information on migration, refugee flows and integration in different countries – covering countries of immigration and emigration in Europe and world-wide. The profiles include information on: •Data and statistics •Historical background •Legislation and policy •Current public debates
In addition, they offer further tips on reading and internet links, giving readers the chance to gain more indepth knowledge on the country in question.
Germany was mainly a country of emigration in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Since the mid-1950s, however, Germany has become one of the most important European destinations for migrants. The recruitment of guest workers, the influx of Aussiedler (ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet states), as well as the reception of asylum seekers have led to the growth of the immigrant population in the country.
The immigration situation in France has been strongly influenced to the present day by the legacy of colonialism of earlier centuries as well as the long tradition of recruiting foreign workers. Overall, there has been a steady increase in immigration over the last century, and this has had a strong impact on the nature of French society.
The history of migration in Poland is characterised largely by emigration. Because of its geographic location between Eastern and Western Europe, Poland frequently serves as a transit country for migrants. In addition to this, it is developing into a destination country, primarily for migrants from neighbouring countries on its eastern border, and from other parts of the former Soviet Union.
Traditionally an emigration country, Spain has been transformed within the space of a few decades to become one of the most important immigration countries in Europe. Since the middle of the 1980s Spain's foreign population has risen nineteen-fold to 4.52 million. Legislation has been modified many times in order to keep pace with this ever-changing situation. From the beginning, the focus has been on controlling the flow of immigrants and combating illegal migration, which represents a central problem for Spain.
Lithuania, the biggest of the three Baltic states, lies on the eastern border of the EU, to which it was admitted in 2004. Since regaining independence in 1990, Lithuania has been strongly affected by labour emigration. Additionally, the country has been trying since its entry into the EU to overcome the difficulties arising from its role as a destination, source and transit country for legal and irregular international migration.
During the past one hundred years Romania was predominantly a country of emigration, with a rather impressive record regarding the number of persons involved, the outcomes and the varieties of migratory arrangements. Emigration, combined with an ageing population, will likely make Romania turn to labour immigration in the future.
The Netherlands have attracted migrants for centuries. Initially, they were encouraged to maintain their own cultures. Since the 1990s, however, there has been increasing pressure to assimilate into Dutch culture. Successful integration has become a prerequisite to acquire political rights. The electoral success of anti-immigrant parties since the turn of the millennium has fuelled this development.
The United Kingdom became a country of immigration after the Second World War. Currently, the large number of immigrants leads to much controversy. For the first time in the country’s history, Migration from other European Union Member States lies at the core of these discussions. The winner of widespread anti-immigrant sentiments in the population is the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Its current popularity suggests that the immigration issue could realign the country’s party system.
Cooperation in matters of immigration and asylum is one of the most recently addressed aspects of European integration. Its significance has expanded rapidly since the matter was first introduced at the end of the 1980s, and today it is without doubt one of the core areas of the European integration project.
Sweden is a country with a long tradition of immigration. Already in the 1960s, when, against the backdrop of an economic upswing, foreign labor was recruited, Sweden did not regard immigrants solely as "guest workers" who would eventually return to their countries of origin. Instead, the government assumed from the outset that immigrant workers would stay.
Traditionally Ireland has been a country marked by a declining population and high rates of emigration. Within the last two decades this situation has reversed dramatically. Immigration has increased significantly in the context of rapid economic growth.
Switzerland is a country of immigration. Despite early labor migration across national borders, this fact has for a long time not been recognized. With the strong economic upswing following the Second World War, the targeted recruitment of labor began, a phenomenon which especially marked the second half of the 20th century.
The transformation of the role of Italy from a country of emigration par excellence to a country of immigration took place somewhat suddenly from the late 1970s onwards. Especially in the last twenty years, Italy has experienced stronger immigration than many other European countries and currently the annual growth rate of the immigrant population is one of the highest in the European Union. Despite its young history of immigration, the country has significant experience regarding migration movements.
Contemporary Albanian migration is considered to be unique by virtue of its intensity over a short period of time. By 2010 nearly half of Albania's resident population had emigrated and was living abroad, while many others had moved internally.
Since the 19th century, Croatia has had comprehensive experience under different constitutional constructions and territorial demarcations with migration, asylum and displacement. To be emphasized are the overseas migration in the 19th century, the increasing migration in the direction of the northern and western European states in the early 20th century, the subsequent inclusion in the system of the European recruitment migration in the second half of the 20th century as well as the various migration and refugee flows connected to the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Croatia can be equally described as a land of emigration, immigration, transit, and remigration as well as a country of both origin and destination for asylum seekers and displaced persons.
Greece has traditionally been an emigration country. This changed in the 1970s when immigration started to outnumber emigration. However, Greece first started to create a legal framework for the management of immigration flows only in the 1990s. Yet, lacking perspectives to acquire and maintain a legal residence status continue to shape the situation of many immigrants from non-EU states until today.
With the exception of the influx of the Turkish Muslim populations of the Ottoman Empire who were left out of its newly established borders in 1923, Turkey has largely been considered a country of emigration throughout much of the 20th century. However, the last quarter of the 20th century witnessed a significant change in Turkey's role in international migration regimes as it transformed into a transit and immigration country.
International migration in Russia is composed of the inflow of immigrants from other countries of the former Soviet Union and an outflow of emigrants into economically more developed countries.
Since the 1980s, Canada has accepted more immigrants and refugees for permanent settlement in proportion to its population than any other country in the world. During the twentieth century, the country’s immigration policy was transformed from a mechanism for keeping people of non-European origin out into a tool for selecting a mixture of newcomers – regardless of origin – designed to fuel the country’s economic and demographic growth.
The United States is often regarded as the definitive “immigrant nation”. After more than two hundred years of significant inflows, immigration to the U.S. is characterized by its diversity. Each year large numbers of people from different socio-economic, educational and ethnic backgrounds are drawn to the country.