Immigration in the EU – policies, trends and impact

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About immigration

Immigration is the international movement of people into a destination country of which

they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle or reside
there, especially as permanent residents or naturalized citizens, or to take up employment
as a migrant worker or temporarily as a foreign worker.

When people cross national borders during their migration, they are called migrants or
immigrants (from Latin: migrare, wanderer) from the perspective of the country which they
enter. From the perspective of the country which they leave, they are called emigrant or
outmigrant.

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Understanding of immigration

One theory of immigration distinguishes between push and pull factors.

Push factors refer primarily to the motive for immigration from the country of origin.

Push factors:
- Economic migration (usually labor migration) - differentials in wage rates are common. If
the value of wages in the new country surpasses the value of wages in one's native country,
he or she may choose to migrate, as long as the costs are not too high.
- Escape from poverty (personal or for relatives staying behind) is a traditional push factor,
and the availability of jobs is the related pull factor.
= Natural disasters are also a factor
Non-economic push factors include persecution (religious and otherwise), frequent abuse,
bullying, oppression, ethnic cleansing, genocide, risks to civilians during war, and social
marginalization.[36][37] Political motives traditionally motivate refugee flows; for instance,
people may emigrate in order to escape a dictatorship.
-Some migration is for personal reasons, based on a relationship (e.g. to be with family or a
partner)
- In a few cases, an individual may wish to immigrate to a new country in a form of
transferred patriotism. Evasion of criminal justice (e.g., avoiding arrest) is a personal
motivation. This type of emigration and immigration is not normally legal, if a crime is
internationally recognized, although criminals may disguise their identities or find other
loopholes to evade detection. For example, there have been reports of war criminals
disguising themselves as victims of war or conflict and then pursuing asylum in a different
country.
Immigration in the EU – policies, trends and impact

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Immigration to Europe

Immigration to Europe has a long history, but increased substantially in the later 20th
century. Western European countries, especially, saw a high growth in immigration after
World War II and many European nations today have sizeable immigrant populations, both
of European and non-European origin.

Beginning in 2004, the European Union has granted EU citizens a freedom of movement and
residence within the EU, and the term "immigrant" has since been used to refer to non EU
citizens, meaning that EU citizens are not to be defined as immigrants within the EU
territory. The European commission defines "immigration" as the action by which a person
from a non-EU country establishes his or her usual residence in the territory of an EU
country for a period that is, or is expected to be, at least twelve months. Between 2010 and
2013, around 1.4 million non-EU nationals, excluding asylum seekers and refugees,
immigrated into the EU each year using regular means, with a slight decrease since 2010.

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Immigration to Greece

The percentage of foreign populations in Greece is as high as 7.1% in proportion to the total
population of the country.
As of 2012, Albanian migrants constitute some 55–60% or more of the immigrant
population. More recent immigrant groups, from the mid-1990s on, consist of Asian
nationalities—especially Pakistani and Bangladeshi—with more recent political asylum
and/or illegal migration flows through Turkey of Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis, Somali and others.
Since the 1990s, increases in such flows have led to the emergence of immigration as an
increasingly important political issue in Greece.
In 2015, arrivals of refugees by sea have increased dramatically in Greece mainly due to the
ongoing Syrian Civil War. There were 856,723 arrivals by sea in Greece, an almost fivefold
increase to the same period of 2014.[4] An estimated 8% of the arrivals applied for asylum
in Greece, with others hoping to find asylum in other European countries
(Germany,Norway,Sweeden,Denmark).

Push factors
Poverty: In the early 1990s, the income per capita in a large number of sending countries,
such as Albania, was less than US $1000. At the same time, job opportunities in their home
countries were pretty scarce. 86.6% of Albanians who migrated to Greece in the 1990s did
so for economic reasons.
Armed conflicts and unstable political situations: Civil and political unrest and armed
conflicts in the Balkans region and the Middle East displaced a large number of people to
Greece. War in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, civil war in Georgia and other countries
in the early 1990s and 2000s, and war in Kosovo during the late 1990s all displaced large
Immigration in the EU – policies, trends and impact

waves of migrants who fled these countries, many of whom settled in Greece.[12]
Additionally, use of chemical weapons in Halabja, Iraq and the Gulf War in the early 1990s,
escalation of violence in Turkey in the mid-90s, and conflict between Kurdish people in
Northern Iraq and Turkey, and ongoing Syrian Civil War and the Saddam regime displaced
large numbers of people, who also sought refuge in Greece.

Pull factors
Financial and political stability - As a member of the EU since 1981, Greece was seen as an
oasis of stability in the tumultuous Balkans. Even poorly paid irregular migrant workers in
Greece could earn as much as four to six times the wages they could expect to earn at
home.
Geographic location - Greece, at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, is not just a final
destination for migrants from Asia and Africa but is seen as a gateway or stepping stone to
Western Europe. Greece's large coastline and multiple islands mean that policing migrants'
entry is very difficult. The evidence now indicates that nearly all illegal immigration to the
European Union flows through the country's porous borders. In 2010, 90 percent of all
apprehensions for unauthorized entry into the European Union took place in Greece,
compared to 75 percent in 2009 and 50 percent in 2008. For these reasons, many
immigrants enter Greece to try to gain access to the rest of the European Union.

Greece has had problems with illegal immigration, many of whom transit through Turkey.
Greek authorities believe that 90% of illegal immigrants in the EU enter through Greece,
many fleeing because of unrest and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
Numerous solutions have been proposed by the Greek government such as building a fence
on the Turkish border and setting up detention camps.
Greece is used as a gateway to the Schengen Area by flows of illegal immigrants, especially
those originating from the Middle East. Neighboring Turkey is also involved in the issue,
since the majority of the illegal immigrants are reaching Greece from that country.

Impact immigration had on Greece:

The uncontrolled flow of immigrants from Turkey to Greece results, among others, in a
number of negative social and political consequences: destabilisation of social cohesion
through demographic change, as well as encouragement of the spread of organized crime
and terrorist networks. For example, a high level terrorist of Al-Qaeda who passed the Greek
borders from Turkey was arrested in his attempt to receive political asylum in the country.

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Immigration to Italy
Since the expansion of the European Union, the most recent wave of migration has been
from surrounding European states, particularly Eastern Europe, and increasingly Asia,[5]
replacing North Africa as the major immigration area. About a million Romanians, around
10% of them being Roma,[6] are officially registered as living in Italy.
Immigration in the EU – policies, trends and impact

2000s Mediterranean Sea crossings crisis

Due to the peninsula geographical position and close proximity to the North Africa coast,
the crossing of the Mediterranean Sea has historically been the most used route for
undocumented migrants.
As a reaction to the gradual increase in migration flows through the Mediterranean Sea,
Italian governments stepped up cooperation with Tunisian and Libyan authorities to halt
activities of people smuggling organisation on land, as well as to allow boats rescued from
the Italian Military in international waters to be towed back to the port where they left
from.
In 2008, Berlusconi’s government in Italy and Gaddafi’s government in Libya signed a treaty
including cooperation between the two countries in stopping unlawful migration from Libya
to Italy; this led to a policy of forcibly returning to Libya boat migrants intercepted by the
Italian coast guard at sea.[24] The cooperation collapsed following the outbreak of the
Libyan civil war in 2011.

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Immigration to Germany
Germany is the second most popular migration destination in the world, after the United
States. Of all the 27 European Union states, Germany has the second highest percentage of
immigrants in its population after the United Kingdom. By UN estimates, as of 2017,
12,165,083 people living in Germany are immigrants, or about 14.8% of the German
population.

Due to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, many people are hoping to seek asylum in the
European Union and Germany.

On 1 January 2005, a new immigration law came into effect. The political background to this
new law was that Germany, for the first time ever, acknowledged to be an "immigration
country".

In April 2012, European Blue Card legislation was implemented in Germany, allowing highly
skilled non-EU citizens easier access to work and live in Germany, subject to certain
requirements. According to the federal statistics office in 2016, over one out of five
Germans has at least partial roots outside of the country.
In 2015. Germany opened its borders to 1 000 000 immigrants.

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Immigration to Hungary