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The article discusses the Reflection Papers published by the European Commission (EC), which focus on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), and defence and the social dimension of European Union (EU) activity. Topics include Great Britain's decision to leave the European Union, also known as Brexit, Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) that includes migration management and national security, and EU's budget revenues.

Political debates about immigration provoke strong nationalistic pushback from citizens, constraining the policymaking capacity of states. This paper investigates to what extent labour market policies shape economically motivated preferential divides among European citizens. On the one hand, I concentrate on prospective job loss threats indicative of economic grievances and assess the impact of unemployment risk exposure on immigration policy attitudes. On the other hand, as the original contribution of the paper, I contend that, if such an economically motivated explanation holds, this relationship should vary based on the labour market institutions in each country. Multi‐level analyses of 16 European countries over a decade since 2002 reveal a remarkably robust relationship between unemployment risks and more restrictive immigration policy attitudes. Importantly, more protective employment regulations seem to have a dampening effect on the impact of job loss threats on immigration policy attitudes. Conversely, there are larger attitudinal divides between the risk‐exposed and the more secure workers in countries with generous and expansive unemployment compensation policies. Overall, the paper helps explain the cross‐national variation in economically motivated cleavages about immigration policy attitudes in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the migration policies of Hungary and Germany with a particular focus on the role of elites in the legal, factual, and discursive dimensions of elitist policy agenda‐setting and implementation between 2015 and 2017. Theoretically, the elitist policy‐making model is supplemented with democratic theories and the theories of regional integration. Methodologically, the paper is a comparative analysis aiming to account for the variance between two EU member states with opposite approaches to migration. Indeed, while Hungary and Germany are usually pitched against each other as two radically different examples of migration policy, the elite‐centered approach shows a puzzling symmetry of differences between these two case studies. While policy results are divergent, there is a palpable cohesion of behaviours and narrative patterns, indicating that the political elites are the primary driver behind shaping and implementing migration policies. After establishing the theoretical underpinnings, the paper compares national legislations, accepted migrant quotas, and the official narratives of the Hungarian and German governments. The case analysis allows for the reinterpretation of seemingly contradictory migration policies and, as such, offers new solutions to the problem both on the national and international levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is inscribed into a new line of scholarly work seeking to cast light to the ways in which migrants convert their motivations into action within a policy framework that is characterised by many restrictions and limited opportunities to move. Drawing on recent fieldwork (2013‐2014) on irregular migrants from Afghanistan, Albania, Georgia, Pakistan and the Ukraine, in Greece, we investigate how they perceive opportunities and navigate restrictions eventually crossing borders whether unlawfully (from unguarded border areas or with fake documentation) or legally (abusing the terms of their entry/stay). The paper adopts the notion of social navigation as a heuristics tool to conceptualise the social, temporal and spatial character of the migration journey, its nodal points, and the interaction of migrants with different actors and factors that shape their migration plans and explores different types of migrant agency (recuperation, resilience and resistance) developed during the navigation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a conceptual and methodological approach that psychologists and other social scientists can employ to study emergence. We consider relevant social psychological approaches and conclude that, for the most part, social psychology has tended to focus on processes of normalisation following disruptions, rather than examining emergence in itself. An exception to this is G. H. Mead, whose work we draw on to theorise emergence with a focus on contemporary "affective politics." In the second part of the paper, we use focus group data on the European Union referendum in the UK to empirically illustrate our theoretical points. We discuss in particular three axes for exploring the emergent politics of Brexit: political values, political authority, and the authority of affect. We conclude our discussion by reflecting on some of the theoretical and political implications of our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on EU membership; 52% of those who voted, voted to leave, and 48% voted to remain. During the referendum campaign, two identities emerged: "Brexiter" and "Remainer," which remained salient post‐referendum. This study explores how the categories of Brexiter and Remainer were deployed by posters online. Data comprise comment threads collected from four online newspapers both during the campaign and after the vote, which focus on the Brexit campaign promise: "We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's fund our NHS instead." We draw on membership categorization analysis and discursive psychology to analyse when categories were made salient and what responses to the invocation of categories were. Analysis revealed that posters explicitly categorize the out‐group and in doing so implicitly define their group. Posters resisted other political identities when attributed to them in relation to the referendum. The analysis shows how Brexiter and Remainer are new, albeit contested, political categories and identities in their own right, with other political identities resisted when used. The paper highlights implications for the political system in the United Kingdom and for social divisions within U.K. society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the moment of Brexit and its political aftermath in order to challenge dominant academic and popular conceptions of the political subject as singular and coherent. Instead, we suggest that there is an urgent political and analytical need for a view of the subject as multiple, contradictory, and dialogic. As interdisciplinary scholars working on the borders of policy studies and cultural studies, we think this is a critical site for transdisciplinary conversations about such conceptions of the subject. In the political field, such subjects are selectively and unevenly addressed and mobilized by political projects—such as Vote Leave—that invite them to recognize themselves as part of an imagined collective identity. In the twin disturbances of the European Union referendum and the 2017 general election, we suggest that it is possible to see that other voicings, other identifications, and other projects remain possible. Specific political mobilizations are neither singular nor stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport infrastructure has represented one of the cornerstones of development and cohesion strategies in the European Union (EU) and elsewhere in the world. However, despite the considerable funds devoted to it, its impact remains controversial. This paper revisits the question of to what extent transport infrastructure endowment - proxied by regional motorways - has contributed to regional growth in the EU between 1990 and 2004. It analyses infrastructure in relationship to other factors which may condition economic growth, such as innovation, migration, and the local 'social filter', taking also into account the geographical component of intervention in transport infrastructure and innovation. The results of the two-way fixed-effect (static) and difference GMM (dynamic) panel data regressions indicate that infrastructure endowment is a relatively poor predictor of economic growth and that regional growth in the EU results from a combination of an adequate 'social filter', good innovation capacity, both in the region and in neighbouring areas, and a region's capacity to attract migrants. The meagre returns of infrastructure endowment on economic growth raise interesting questions about the opportunity costs of further infrastructure investments across most of Western Europe. Resumen La infraestructura de transporte ha venido siendo una de las piedras angulares de las estrategias de desarrollo y cohesión en la Unión Europea ( UE) y el resto del mundo. Sin embargo, y a pesar de los considerables recursos que se le ha dedicado, su impacto es un tema controvertido. Este artículo revisa el interrogante de hasta que punto ha contribuido la dotación de infraestructura de transporte - representada por las autopistas regionales - al crecimiento regional en la UE entre 1990 y 2004. Se analiza la infraestructura en relación a otros factores que podrían condicionar el crecimiento económico, como la innovación, la migración, y el 'filtro social' local, teniendo en cuenta asimismo el componente geográfico de la intervención en la infraestructura de transporte y la innovación. Los resultados de las regresiones de datos de panel de efectos fijos (método estático) de doble vía y MGM por diferencias (método dinámico) indican que la dotación de infraestructura es un pobre indicador del crecimiento económico y que el crecimiento regional en la UE tiene su origen en una combinación de un 'filtro social' adecuado, en una buena capacidad innovadora tanto en la región como en áreas vecinas, y en la capacidad de la región de atraer migración. Los escasos retornos para el crecimiento económico de la dotación de infraestructura suscitan cuestiones interesantes sobre los costos de oportunidad de futuras inversiones en infraestructura para la mayoría de Europa Occidental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the challenge of measuring the extent of immigration to the UK following EU Accession in 2004, and argues that the most commonly used databases (UK Census, Labour Force Survey and Worker Registration Scheme) can be supplemented by the National Insurance Number (NINo) Allocations database, and demonstrates the utility of this data for future research by outlining the geography of immigration derived from NINo. The paper makes three important contributions through the thorough analysis of a data source currently underexploited in migration studies; first that the NINo, when used as a indicator of migration per se offers some interesting insights into migration in the UK, and secondly that as a tool for comprehensively measuring the registration of migrants working legally in the UK, it offers a means of constructing a internal geography of (legal) labour migration, as the paper demonstrates. Third, the analysis also identifies self-employment as a potentially important missing driver behind EU Accession Migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to examine why European Union cultural policy does not address the issue of migration of people from non-European countries to Europe with sufficient recognition of the major impact it has on European cultural identity, and what are some of the advantages of doing so. It is important to note that a strong cultural policy common to all members of the European Union does not exist and may be said not to be in the interest of European nation states. Nevertheless, the impact of European Union cultural policy on various aspects of cultural and social life in Europe is growing and is therefore assessed both in terms of its official description as stated by Article 151 of the Treaty of European Union and with regard to the variety of programmes it establishes. The remit and implementation of cultural policy are found to be constricted by various supranational and national issues, and their relation to the impact of migration, while in existence, is limited. Cultural initiatives already being run within the framework of European Union cultural policy and which address issues related to migrant cultures and European citizenry are assessed. This analysis leads to suggestions and recommendations, the aim of which is to foster a greater recognition of the importance of the value of cultural difference due to the influence of migration on European social settings, and to encourage the formulation of European cultural policies that aim at more reciprocity and mutuality. This paper joins a growing number of calls for a change in the perspective of policy-making to reflect the transnational reality of migration and its impact on and contribution to culture in Europe. It does this while at the same time acknowledging the fact that nation states play a largely determining role in the ideation and implementation of European Union cultural policy. This research is based on a theoretical framework that provides the discussion with a foundation from which to assess contemporary models of multiculturalism and integration as well as grapple with the implications of cultural policy on European self-identification and representation. This analysis roots its critical perspective in a close reading of Ziauddin Sardar's propositions of 'mutually assured diversity' and 'transmodernism' which are applied to the context of cultural policy. This paper is based on research carried out through the collection of secondary data, with resources that provide information which is recent and relevant to current issues of migration, social integration and European culture and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the entrepreneurial endeavours of immigrants' and natives in Germany, concentrating on Turks, Germany's largest immigrant group and one under-studied in the literature. Self-employed Turks in Germany represent about 70 per cent of all Turkish entrepreneurs in the European Union. We use data from the German Socio-economic Panel to study patterns of self-employment. First, we identify the characteristics of the self-employed individuals and understand their underlying drive into self-employment. Next we investigate how immigrant entrepreneurs fare in the labour market and compare their earnings to those of the natives. It is important for decision makers to understand entrepreneurial patterns so that they can shape policy that better fosters entrepreneurial activities. This paper presents several findings that can inform better policymaking. First, our investigation indicates that education is not decisive in determining whether one will choose self-employment over salaried work nor in explaining earnings. The estimated age-earnings profiles are the same for natives and immigrants, while the proclivity to become self-employed is concave with respect to age for both groups. Immigrants' start with a higher probability to work than natives but have a slower increase in the self-employment probabilities thereafter. The earnings of self-employed immigrants' are higher initially, but their earnings path crosses eventually that of the natives. Second, we find some suggestion of ethnic entrepreneurial spirit. Turks are 70 per cent more likely to be self-employed than any other immigrant group, although they do not necessarily earn more. These patterns should be further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of literature problematises the role of the Mediterranean, as both civilisational hearth and liminal frontier, in both ancient and modern Europe. However, much less attention has been directed to the inland sea at Europe's northern edge: the Arctic. Increasingly, as the Arctic becomes attractive to non-Arctic European capitals as a potential site of investment and (in)security, European states, and perhaps the EU as a whole, are seeking to construct the Arctic, like the Mediterranean, as a space that is both marginal and central to the continent's future. This paper seeks to investigate the extent to which the Arctic is, to paraphrase Viljhalmur Stefansson, Europe's 'Polar Mediterranean' and what this means for Europe as it constructs institutions and identities that, as in the Mediterranean, use the concept of the inland sea to both incorporate and differentiate its internal and external 'others.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution has three overarching objectives. First, it seeks to describe the logics of fracture and cohesion governing current geopolitical dynamics in the Mediterranean. Second, in the face of these contradictory tendencies, it proposes the notion of archipelago-frontier as a concept for deepening our understanding of an ever more dispersed and ubiquitous geography defining the Southern border of the EU. In this light we draw on the contemporary resonances of the destabilising cartographic imagination of Al-Idrissi (1100-1165). And we argue that, read today, it helps us rethink the current symbolic, terminological (and hence geopolitical) abduction of the Mediterranean by the European Union, which the very term 'Euromediterranean' encapsulates. Finally, the paper underlines the necessity of forging new vistas on the Mediterranean engendering perspectives that are more dialogical, plurivocal and sensitive to permanent transformation, as evoked by a long-term spatial as well as political horizon of struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the figure of the migrant has come to be seen as a potential terrorist in the West, under the condition of a double, but completely opposed, set of crises internal to the nation-state. The refugee crisis in Europe can no longer be understood as separate from the crisis of terrorism after the Paris attacks on 13 November 2015. In fact, the two crises were never really separate in the nationalist imaginary to begin with. The difference is that, with such a quick shift of attention between crises, we now see what was only implicit in the European response to the Syrian refugees has now become explicit in the response to the tragic attacks in Paris: that migration is understood to be a form of barbarian warfare that threatens the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite technological upgrading of borders at the edges of Europe, 'Fortress Europe' continues to fail as an effective means of controlling irregular migration. As a consequence, European states are restructuring their border regimes by externalizing migration management to non-EU countries beyond the border and creating new programs and policies to do so. Autonomy of Migration (AoM) offers a distinct way for thinking about border control mechanisms and goals of managing mobility. AoM does not read this off-shoring of borders through the lens of centralized and coordinated state powers, but develops an autonomous gaze that supplements these institutional readings of apparatuses of capture with a view that takes as its starting point the ways in which border architectures, institutions, and policies interact with and react to the turbulence of migrant mobilities. By engaging current EU externalization policies, this paper illustrates the shifting relationship between border control and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by noting a number of recent trends which challenge the self- contained autonomy of the nation-state, and the recent conceptualization of such trends in terms of 'globalization', a concept which is hard to fault, embracing as it does so many ambiguities and contradictions. Much related sociological work has focused on the cultural and economic dimensions of globalization, although one of its defining features is the emergence of multinational and transnational institutions. In the traditional intellectual division of labour it has fallen to our neighbour disciplines of law, international relations and political science to consider the substantive detail of such institutional developments. The present paper investigates their sociological significance, through a preliminary exploration of the issues raised by international population flows and policy responses in the context of the European Union (EU). Minimally, it proffers an account of the global/national tension noted in much of the globalization literature and apparent in the policy and politics of migration. More critically, this account attempts an assessment of quite how `post-national' Europe really is, and whether 'globalization' offers any help in unravelling the complexity of empirical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the working experiences of the French highly skilled in London's financial and business sectors, this paper examines the impact of ongoing pan-European variegation on intra-EU highly skilled migration in two key respects: firstly, in its role as a driver for mobility, through its association with divergent opportunity structures across different nations and regions; and secondly, as a potential obstacle to the successful realization of such opportunities, post migration, where mobility exposes the highly skilled migrant to new and embedded forms of difference. Such differences necessitate adaptations, and the acquisition of new inter-cultural competencies, that go on to mediate the experience, evaluations and outcomes of such opportunity-driven mobilities. In unpacking the particularities associated with the mobilities of specific populations (the French), to specific places (London) we seek to contribute to a people and place-sensitive understanding of the relationship between spatial mobility and social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain has one of the highest levels of early school leaving and educational failure of the European Union. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the anatomy of early school leaving in Spain and its characteristics. In order to do so, in the first part we discuss the measurement problems related with this concept and the evolution of drop-out rates in Spain. We argue that the published figures of early school leaving slightly underestimate the phenomenon, and discuss the impact of the increase in immigration rates on the level of educational failure and its very unequal distribution in terms of gender. In a second part, using data from the Labour Force Surveys of 2000 and 2007, we explore the factors behind educational failure by means of a logistic regression. The results of this model confirm the explanatory power of social reproduction hypotheses, but also show that there are important aspects of the patterns and recent evolution of early school leaving which cannot be explained by a single theoretical approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the development of integration policies concerning third country nationals at the level of the European Union (EU). Starting with the discovery of recent policy developments at the European level, including new European directives mainly granting social rights to non-EU citizens, the paper proceeds to examine the reasons that enabled this shift from the national to the European level of decision making. It concludes that integration policies have been created as a new EU policy field amidst the also fairly new policy field of immigration policies. In light of the theoretical concept of “organisational fields,” the interests and motives of the main actors involved in the emergence of this policy field are analysed. The research combines neo-functionalist and intergovernmentalist assumptions, and it results in the following conclusions: First, a European integration policy could only be established within the emerging field of immigration policies, which laid the groundwork for member state collaborations in this highly sensitive policy area. Secondly, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, several non-governmental organisations and most notably the European Commission played an important role in promoting integration policies at the European level. Their engagement is interpreted as a necessary but not as a sufficient condition for the establishment of this policy field. Thirdly, these actors tried to strengthen the status of integration policies by emphasising the linkage between successful integration policies and economic and social cohesion. This semantic strategy, among other discussed reasons, facilitated the member states’ decision at the European summit in Tampere 1999 that all third country nationals shall be granted comparable rights to EU citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the causes, consequences, and policy implications of Lithuanian emigration following the country’s European Union (EU) accession in May 2004. After placing Lithuanian emigration in its historical context, the study assesses the recent dynamics, including the driving forces and characteristics of Lithuanian emigration at both the international and domestic level. The study finds that the primary determinants of this movement are both demand- and supply-side factors. On the demand side, the labour shortages, decline in the working age population, and desire for cheaper labour in Western European countries function to attract Lithuanian labour. Concurrently, lower wages, higher unemployment, and the generally less developed economic conditions in Lithuania are encouraging Lithuanians to take advantage of the greater mobility that came with EU accession. The expanding networks linking migrants and potential migrants are facilitating this out-migration, as well as the social mind-set by which emigration is a perceived solution to socio-economic difficulties. This study concludes that the consequences of this new emigration reality are mixed. The free movement of workers has helped to relieve pressure on the domestic labour market, drive down unemployment, place upward pressure on wages, and increase the remittances rate to Lithuania. However, concern is not ill-founded; recent emigration has introduced labour market shortages, placed greater demographic pressure on the country, and increased the likelihood of brain drain. This study argues, therefore, that while Lithuanian emigration cannot and should not be stopped, Lithuania does have policy alternatives as a sending-country that will help to mitigate the costs of emigration and maximize the benefits for the country’s long-term development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the European Union, an internal liberalisation of cross-border labour mobility for EU citizens is currently being combined with the tightening of control and management efforts at the external borders. At the same time, attempts are being made to strategically select immigrants from new member states as well as from outside the EU who will be of economic value. In this paper we argue that by implementing such protectionist and selective immigration policy, the EU has come to resemble a gated community in which the bio-political control and management of immigration is, to a large extent, the product of fear. Often fear manifests itself in terms of fear of losing material gain, eg the anxiety of losing economic welfare or public security. More often, however, this fear relates to the entrance of the immigrant, the stranger and is, as such, associated with a fear of losing a community's self-defined identity. These perceived threats to a community's comfort lead to the politicisation of protection, whereby the terra incognita beyond the border is justifiably neglected due to the indifference and the intentional blindness shown to the outside. Hiding in a gated community in order to protect this comfort zone and trying to exclude outsiders, ‘Others’, from the community, is not only in vain since the desire for completion of the Self can never be fulfilled, but what remains still more troublesome, is that this tendency will sustain and reproduce global inequality and segregation, both in the material as well as symbolic sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation has increased the mobility of people while rapid development of the knowledge economy places human capital at the centre of economic progress. Both result in competition for highly skilled labour among states, particularly the more-developed states. The EU has a particular role in this global competition for the highly skilled. It is faced with the ageing of its population. Furthermore, the quest to revitalise the EU's economy by implementing the ambitious Lisbon Strategy requires an additional 700,000 research positions. Lastly, the EU is trying to design a common European policy for economic migration, starting with the Green Paper in 2005. This article aims to contribute to a common policy design in the area of highly skilled temporary migration. It compares the UK and German schemes for highly skilled immigrants (the only two in the EU) with the successful US scheme, still seen as the benchmark for the EU. The findings are twofold. First, there is a set of obligatory characteristics that should be introduced to the schemes to make them more attractive. Second, as the programmes are not the only factors that determine the attractiveness of a respective country, the article argues that an EU common policy for highly skilled migrants would make the EU area more attractive as a whole and therefore increase its competitiveness in the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate on the development of the future common European Union Policy on Asylum and Immigration. It seeks to explain the rationale behind the evolution of the Union's policy outlook on asylum and immigration. It then analyses the most recent Union-wide policy tools available to address asylum and migration issues, arguing that common European asylum policies thus far have focused on containment of migration flows seen as a threat to the European internal security regime and in response to perceived populist pressures. The return and readmission clauses now being implemented, in agreements with countries outside of the Union, serve to illustrate this point, as does the political willingness to extra-territorialize asylum processing. However, the focus on eliminating the root causes of migration flows is a relatively new paradigm, developed since the 1999 Tampere European Council. Although off to a slow start, the European Union Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument may become an institutional outlet to create a more normative framework for asylum and migration. The success of such a framework is contingent upon breaking with earlier conceptualizations of “asylum” as a security threat. Implicit in such a framework is the need to retain a clear distinction between asylum- and labour-related migration. Partnerships must also be granted a budget sufficient for their establishment in real terms with countries of origin and transit. Lastly, there must be changes in modes of governance, as well as institutional reform, if efforts to elaborate a strategy on asylum and migration are to be executed successfully. Curiously, while the proposed Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe sought to abolish the pillar structure put in place by the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, it would have retained the institutional inhibitions imposed by long-existing tensions between national and community administrations and the “inter-pillar” battles between the foreign policy, humanitarian and development dimensions of the EU apparatus. The current political debate about moving Europe “closer to its people”, following the rejection of the proposed Constitution at national referenda in France and the Netherlands, appears unlikely to solve any of these tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the challenges that migration flows pose on policymaking aimed at fostering human capital accumulation in peripheral regions. We employ a unique data set generated through a postal survey designed and conducted by the authors. The focus of our analysis is on the micro-level location decisions of a sample of highly educated and skilled individuals residing in Basilicata, an Italian Mezzogiorno region, who have benefited from a locally funded human capital investment policy. Investigamos los retos que los flujos de migración imponen en la formulación de políticas dirigidas a acoger la acumulación de capital humano en regiones periféricas. Empleamos un único conjunto de datos generado a través de un muestreo postal diseñado y llevado a cabo por los autores. El punto focal de nuestro análisis es en las decisiones de ubicación a micro-nivel de una muestra de individuos altamente educados y capacitados residentes en la Basilicata, una región del Mezzogiorno italiano, que se han beneficiado de una política de inversión en capital humano financiada localmente. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]