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In recent years, many rural regions of Central Europe have witnessed a massive inflow of non-EU nationals, turning them into new migration destinations (NDMs). The majority of these regions were not prepared for this change and international migration became a hot-button topic. However, as the negative consequences of demographic change are getting more prominent in rural Central Europe, these regions should search for new ways to stimulate the integration of newly-arrived migrants. This can be done with the help of “social innovations.” This paper provides a literature overview on the aforementioned topics, as well as an analysis of the results of the Arrival Regions Project (Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE) that tested nine different social innovation approaches to support the integration of non-EU nationals in rural Central Europe. The results of the project confirmed that social innovation approaches are an effective and easy-toimplement way to support integration of non-EU nationals living in rural Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a comprehensive understanding of the changing and complex migration patterns in Europe, both quantitative and qualitative analyses are needed. In this paper we complement the studies on migration patterns of East-West migration by qualitatively analysing Estonian migration to Finland. The aim of the paper is to analyse the migration histories of Estonian migrants in Finland with a focus on the meaning and consequences of these patterns on an individual level but also on the effect of geographical proximity on migration patterns. The results bring forth the individual level gains and losses of migration and show that geographical proximity between the home and host country is conducive to more incomplete migration patterns. Our results also suggest that incomplete migration may have a positive effect for the home country as migrants continue to be consumers in their home country and relieve the pressure on its social system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The friction that has occurred - and continues to occur - at some of the European Union's internal borders is a reflection of mechanisms for the delegation and transfer of immigration control between member states. This paper addresses these dynamics - defined as "internal externalisation" - through a comparative analysis of the specific management and legal regulation of France's border with Spain and Italy. These two borders are similar in many respects (being two mountain ranges) but are, at the same time, very different (in the geographical intensity of the controls and types of crossings). Comparing them could reveal the border control mechanisms that characterise the subordinate relationships between member states, and which represent true externalisation of the EU's internal borders. Some states are forced to take on the role of containment states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on a comparative analysis of people's attitudes towards immigrants' role in several aspects of countries' life depending on the individual's socio-demographic and economic characteristics in Estonia and Russia. The empirical part of the paper relies on the European Social Survey (ESS) fifth round database. The results of the study show that the Estonian people's attitudes towards immigrants are, on the average, better in all aspects of the country's life - economy, culture and the country as a living place, compared to the Russian one. Both economic and non-economic factors explain the observed variation of individuals' opinions regarding the role of immigrants in a country's life. Ethnic minorities, religious people and people with higher income are more tolerant to immigrants in both countries. Socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender and education are valid determinants of people's attitudes towards immigrants only in Estonia. Highly educated people have more positive attitudes towards immigrants compared to less educated people in Estonia but not in Russia. The results of the analysis therefore highlight the necessity to take different factors into account for the design of the migration and integration policies in the countries with ethnically diverse population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as a reference, empirical analyses conducted in northern European countries and the United States which associate socioeconomic factors to the location patterns of immigrants. It has been suggested that the socioeconomic context of southern Europe could impact immigrants' location choices. We analyze data on the location of immigrants in municipalities of the Andalusian region in southern Spain with respect to the factors that most influence immigrants' location preferences as discussed in the literature: a pre-existing immigrant community, economic dynamism, population size and other scarcely investigated factors such as the territorial characteristics of the municipality and its productive structure. We conclude that immigrant location patterns in Andalusia are very similar to those found in geographical areas outside Spain, with the exception of specific characteristics related to the social and labor model of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores insights and understandings of multilingual dynamics within European-based migrant contexts where Portuguese plays a role. The intermediate position of Portuguese migration in Europe (simultaneously host and sending country) gives Portuguese a bipolar sociolinguistic status at the European scale, both as a ‘dominant’ and ‘non-dominant’ language, useful to use as an analytical springboard. Drawing on linguistic ethnographic work developed in two sites – Portuguese migrant women in London and Eastern European migrant children in Portugal – this paper discusses the tools used to (a) describe the informal emerging and creative multilingual use happening in local configurations of speakers, linguistic ideologies, artifacts, histories and institutions, and (b) explain how this creativity is re-scaled into dominant discourses situated in momentary yet simultaneously long-term historical sociolinguistic configurations, differently narrated by the multiple actors involved. A combined focus on personal trajectories and ‘history in person’, discursive dynamics of recontextualisation and re-scaling and an understanding of the power dynamics in intersubjective spaces helps develop the idea of polycentric speaking positions, affected by local creativities and constraints happening in conflicting historically configured hybrid spaces of verbal interaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to study the determinants of naturalization of non-EU immigrant household heads with a fresh look at the role of integration and ethnicity. Design/methodology/approach -- Employing data on immigrant household heads from the German Socioeconomic Panel differentiation is made among those who already have been naturalized, those who plan to take citizenship, and those who do not have citizenship and do not want it, using multinomial probit models. The subject scope includes literature on naturalization, ethnicity, and integration. Findings -- A robust finding is that German citizenship is very valuable to female immigrant household heads and the generally better educated, but not to those educated in Germany. The degree of integration into German society has a differential effect on citizenship acquisition. While a longer residence in Germany has a negative influence on actual or future naturalization, arriving at a younger age and having close German friends are strong indicators of a positive proclivity to citizenship acquisition. Likewise, ethnic origins and religion also influence these decisions. Muslim immigrants in Germany are more willing to become German citizens than non-Muslim immigrants, but there are also fewer German citizens among Muslims than among non-Muslims. Research limitations/implications -- Future research should also investigate the second-generation naturalization proclivities and those of illegals. Practical implications -- Allowing for dual citizenship helps generate more naturalizations among Muslims. Originality/value -- The paper provides a test of the relative importance of the integration approach in comparison with the ethnicity model; demonstrating that integration in German society has a stronger effect on naturalization than ethnic origin and religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Economic theory predicts that unemployment benefits may increase expected income and reduce its volatility, thereby attracting immigrants to countries which implement such programs. This article aims to explore whether and how changes in countries' unemployment benefit spending (UBS) affect immigration. Design/methodology/approach – Data are collected for 19 European countries over the period 1993-2008. The relationship between immigration flows and UBS is first tested using the OLS technique. Instrumental variable (IV) and generalised method of moments (GMM) are then used to address reverse causality. Findings – While the OLS estimates suggest the existence of a moderate within-country welfare magnet effect for the inflows of non-EU immigrants, the IV approach reveals that the impact is substantially smaller and statistically insignificant when GMM techniques are implemented. Research limitations/implications – Since information on the immigrants' country of origin is not available, it is not possible to exclude that for immigrants coming from certain areas, unemployment benefits constitute a strong incentive to immigrate. This hypothesis awaits further research, once detailed data is available. Originality/value – This paper complements previous literature on immigration and welfare by exploring the endogenous nature of welfare spending. The empirical results provide insights into the interaction between immigration and welfare policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the phenomenon of West African parents living in Europe and North America who send their older children back home: from places of high immigrant aspiration to those of hardship and privation. Drawing on a project on West African immigration to Europe and on previous field studies in Africa, we conclude that West African immigrants fearing the consequences of their children’s indiscipline in the West, where racism and hostility can endanger the entire family, may send unruly children back to the home country. In doing so, we believe, they build on long-standing African disciplinary efforts in hopes of toughening their children’s resilience to the challenges in the new place and wait for the risk to dissipate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has been devising new methods to manage irregular migration and border control. In the last few decades, a clear link has been established between migration, borders and security in Europe. he paper critically examines this link and the EU's response to the problem through the implementation of two methods: the externalization of border control and increased surveillance. Both these instrument mainly aim at eradicating risk with the help of surveillance tools such as databases and profiling people travelling from third countries, preventing irregular migrants from reaching the EU through pre-emptive measures, and dealing with them outside of the Union as much as possible. However, these methods create other forms of insecurities while claiming to attain a more secure Europe, such as empowering states at the expense of individual liberties and making individuals part of a total surveillance system where their daily actions and preferences are recorded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use data from the first two rounds of the European Social Survey to analyze the extent to which differences in average attitudes towards immigration across the EU-15 countries may be explained by differences in socioeconomic characteristics and individually perceived consequences of immigration, using an extension of a decomposition technique developed by Fairlie (). We find that despite the significant effects of socioeconomic characteristics on attitudes, differences in the distributions of these characteristics can only explain a modest share of the cross-country variation in average attitudes. A larger part can be explained by differences in perceived consequences of immigration, but the main part is still left unexplained. Apart from providing useful input for policy makers working in the area of immigration policy, this raises a number of questions for further research for which the ESS data can be successfully applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although national European governments prefer to manage orderly, legal migration flows, the presence of irregular immigrants on European territory is evident. Although Southern- European countries are, for various reasons, the ones with most such irregular inmigrants, the rest of Europe must also come to grips with the same phenomenon. The goal of this paper is to analyse the mechanisms and instruments implemented through the years in order to deal with immigration irregularities in the different European countries. We will pay special attention to year 2005, in which the European Union has began to build up a common framework within which to discuss the political answers needed to manage irregular immigration in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of the European Union and diaspora engagement policy within changing realities. The author focuses on the main research question concerning how the new, uncontrolled migration flows may influence the approach on diaspora engagement policy within member states. This process could have positive as well as negative implications for the Community space even if the EU attempts to develop a new legal framework on migration. The interdisciplinary approach and methods as empirical analysis, comparison and observation on some good practices and new issues gave the possibility to estimate the results of how changing diaspora role perception reduces the gap between different migrants in the EU and improves the diaspora engagement dialogue on institutional and civil society level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]