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This article examines the utility of a revised postfunctionalist theory in explaining regional (dis)integration dynamics. The case study employed to test the theoretical framework is based on Ukraine's regional integration processes with respect to Eurasian and European regional organizations in the early 2010s. The principal research question posed is: what factors contributed to Ukraine's decision to opt out of deeper integration with Eurasia in the early 2010s and pursue integration with the European Union insead, and how can this case study move the postfunctionalist theory forward? Three assumptions proposed by postfunctionalism, enriched with insights from social constructivism, were applied to the (dis)integration processes: salience, politicization, and collective identity. The analysis suggests that the revised postfunctionalist framework is indeed instrumental in explaining both integration and disintegration, providing insights into the role of collective identity mobilization once public discussion reaches a critical juncture in the politicization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of pro-Islamic politics, the eastward expansion of the EU and the invasion of Iraq have increased the Western media's interest in the only Muslim member of Nato: Turkey. Popular discussion, however, has overshadowed a lack of systematic analyses for a proper understanding of major political developments in Turkey. This paper aims to debate Turkey's state of affairs from the perspective of political economy. It will be argued that Turkey's already troubled democracy is under the threat of absolute collapse, triggered by fundamentalist and fascistic tendencies, and that the current policies of the EU nurture such processes despite the EU's pro-democratic claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles, which discussed the findings of a European Union funded study, which explores the changes in education governance and their effects on social integration and exclusion. Countries included in the study; Other issues addressed in the study; Relationship between center and locality; Analysis of issues of interpretation that arise in listening to policy-makers giving an account of their actions; Significance of depoliticization in supporting system redesign.

In France, the parties of the Left have been in power for two thirds of the period since the beginning of the 1980s. Thus the Left has had time to express itself and to show the world its true nature, in its diversity and its internal contradictions. It inherited a serious situation, in which big state and private enterprises were facing difficulties in international markets and a prolonged economic recession which its leaders became aware of only belatedly. Moreover, the economic constraints resulting from globalisation, and the more institutional constraints arising from the European Union, obviously limited possible responses to the situation. However, could the Left not lean for support on the expectations on the 'people of the Left' who had lived through 23 years of domination by the parties of the Right? Was it inevitable that the governments of the Left would continue the liberal economic policy, favourable to capital, while clothing it in an egalitarian veil, and above all masking it with humanist discourse? What effect do these practices have on social affairs, on the workplace, on unemployment issues, on civic life, on the family etc.? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reply to a commentary made on the article "Immigration to Spain: Implications for a Unified European Union Immigration Policy." Geographies of reference define how we view and analyze political problems. The importance of terminology is highlighted by the commentary and what implications demography itself will have on a unified European Union (EU) immigration policy. If we use immigrant to refer to individuals entering the EU, then EU citizens are no longer immigrants but citizens changing geographic location within the territory adhering to the EU. EU citizens are no longer immigrants whose movement across borders within the EU can be "controlled" by Spanish immigration policy. Nevertheless, everyone who is not a Spanish citizen is still a foreigner in Spain. Perhaps after reading too much Euro-literature, I had come to believe quite unreflectively that Spain is a unit of Europe and that Europeans or EU citizens in Spain are no longer immigrants. This idea is a reflection of a distinction that is not clearly delineated in speech but is in policy practice between immigrants originating within the EU and those originating from beyond the EU. Further distinctions in Spanish policy circles are made between economic immigrants from impoverished countries and immigrants from wealthier non-EU countries. The classification of EU citizens as foreign national and immigrant is ambiguous. In the Spanish census, EU citizens are included as foreign nationals.

This article comments on the article "Immigration to Spain: Implications for a Unified European Union Immigration Policy," by Laura Huntoon. I have to start by saying that the article has aroused my interest, and the topic, being of a political nature, has received less attention in the journals devoted to migration or social sciences in Spain. The article is not fundamentally demographic or does not have data as its central focus. And this is fortunate, given the low level of accuracy with which this question has been usually treated. I reckon, as some European documents do, that data on migrations are not at the level of other statistics on population studies. However, this should not be a problem, for there are several sources of data and each of them is adequate for a certain study or topic. In this work, "Dirección General de Migraciones," has been consulted, but not its publications. Data drawn from census data should refer to the institution that publishes the data. If, actually, the data correspond to the "Dirección General de Migraciones,"the data would be different. The author is right when she states that the proportion is low. The author does not demonstrate that return migration has grown since 1986, and that it showed the same or lower levels in the three previous years. The analysis of the workers from outside the European Union differs from that of the active population of foreign origin, of which there also exist available data.