Migration poses a complex set of challenges and opportunities to the European countries. This chapter starts by discussing definitions of who is a migrant and how and when migrants can become citizens. It puts recent migration trends into historical perspective, looking at the impact that a series of crisis events have had on immigration into Europe (including the 2008 economic crisis, the Arab Spring, and refugee emergency of the 2010s, and the Covid-19 pandemic). European countries are presented, organized into four groups in relation to the length and nature of their migration experience, as countries of destination, origin, or transit. The chapter highlights the interplay between migration policies and the politics of migration in approaches towards migrant integration.

ITHACA studies the links between migrants’ integration and their transnational engagement. Migrants engage in transnational mobility for an array of economic reasons as well as emotional or political ties with their country of origin. They develop transnational business, trade, investments, or social and cultural programmes and circulate between their two countries. ITHACA explores the interconnections between the integration process and transnational mobility of migrants and aims to answer three key questions: To what extent, and in what ways, do integration conditions in the country of destination encourage transnational mobility? What are the conditions in the country of origin that may encourage transnational mobility? What type of transfers take place through the transnational mobility of migrants? ITHACA focuses on economic integration and mobility conditions as factors that encourage or prevent transnational mobility.

ITHACA studies the links between migrants’ integration and their transnational engagement. Migrants engage in transnational mobility for an array of economic reasons as well as emotional or political ties with their country of origin. They develop transnational business, trade, investments, or social and cultural programmes and circulate between their two countries. ITHACA explores the interconnections between the integration process and transnational mobility of migrants and aims to answer three key questions: To what extent, and in what ways, do integration conditions in the country of destination encourage transnational mobility? What are the conditions in the country of origin that may encourage transnational mobility? What type of transfers take place through the transnational mobility of migrants? ITHACA focuses on economic integration and mobility conditions as factors that encourage or prevent transnational mobility.

This authoritative yet accessible introduction to understanding Europe today moves beyond accounts of European integration to provide a wide-ranging and nuanced study of contemporary Europe and its historical development. This fully updated edition adds material on recent developments, such as Brexit and the migrant and Eurozone crises. The concept of Europe is instilled with a plethora of social, cultural, economic, and political meanings. Throughout history, and still today, scholars writing on Europe, and politicians involved in national or European politics, often disagree on the geographic limits of this space and the defining elements of Europe. Europe is, therefore, first and foremost a concept that takes different shapes and meanings depending on the realm of life on which it is applied and on the historical period under investigation. At a given point in time, depending on the perspective we adopt and the situation in which we find ourselves, Europe may represent very different things. Thus, we should better talk about ‘Europes’ in plural. What is Europe? explores these evolving conceptions of Europe from antiquity to the present. This book is all the more timely as Europe responds to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Britain’s departure from the European Union, financial slump, refugee emergencies, and the COVID-19 pandemic. This book offers a fully updated introduction to European studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is a crucial companion to any undergraduate or graduate course on Europe and the European Union.

In this paper, we discuss the ways in which integration, transnationalism and the relationships between the two have been conceptualised. Given the diversity in scope and in intensity that characterises transnational mobility, we suggest that there is a need to revisit the various facets of the interconnections between the two phenomena and take into account new variables to explain: under what circumstances migrants engage in transnational mobility; in what ways does their integration in the society of settlement influence this engagement; what sort of transfers are being made; and in what ways are the particular characteristics of each migration corridor relevant for the link between integration and transnational mobility. We thus define the boundaries of our research and critically analyse the available quantitative strategies for addressing the multidimensional nature of the integration-transnational mobility matrix.

Today in the EU, there are more than 30 million third-country nationals. These non-naturalized foreigners often find themselves on the move, having families and socio-economic relations and engaging in economic and political activities in more than one country. It is a challenging task for experts and policy-makers to understand the dynamic and complex relationship between integration and transnational mobility and to initiate changes in migration-, (re)integration- and diaspora policies. We may ask therefore: * What drives migrants to be transnationally engaged and mobile? * Which dimensions of integration matter most for migrants to engage in transnational mobility? * Which factors may encourage or hinder transnational mobility?

The ITHACA project aims to contribute to the rising research and policy interest on migrant transnationalism and its effects on countries of origin and destination as well as on migrants themselves (and their families). This concept paper sets out the research framework within which the ITHACA Project will develop. More specifically, in this paper we propose a working definition of integration and highlight the conditions of integration that may be relevant for migrants’ transnational mobility. We then discuss transnationalism and physical mobility as one type, perhaps the most basic, of transnational activity. We connect our definition of transnational mobility to the wider field of transnationalism studies today. We subsequently focus on the types of transfers that may be triggered through transnational mobility. In the concluding sections we present the project’s research design and the research questions to be explored.

In 2013, the EUI’s Global Governance Programme launched an e-survey to gather new qualitative data on high-skill emigration from five EU Member States hard hit by the crisis: Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. The e-survey was launched in collaboration with Real Elcano Institute, Trinity College Dublin and the Technical University of Lisbon. It was launched simultaneously in five languages (English, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) and ran between 21st May and 18th August 2013. This report examines emigration of high-skilled citizens from five EU Member States hard hit by the crisis: Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. It presents a general overview of the data generated from the web-based survey on ‘Emigration from Southern Europe and Ireland’ coordinated by the Global Governance Programme of the EUI.

AbstractThis chapter first takes a look at the drivers that led to an EU framework for the integration of legally residing TCNs. It then traces the development of the most important instruments from the Treaty of Amsterdam to the Juncker Commission (2014–2019), which declared migration management and the need for effective migrant integration policies as being among the top political priorities for the EU (Juncker 2014; COM(2015) 240). It examines the Union’s legislative framework in the field of migration, as well as its wider toolbox elaborated to contribute to immigrant integration. The chapter concludes with a discussion of some of the most important challenges that hinder fair and effective integration in the EU.

The EU has developed a substantial framework to promote equality, address discrimination and manage diversity. Over the course of six decades of EU integration, the Union has integrated equality across the Union’s policies through multiple pillars combining law; funding for positive action programmes; a set of policy instruments that contribute to social cohesion, anti-discrimination and equal opportunities; and by creating spaces for mobilisation, exchange of good practices, mutual learning and cooperation. What has driven the EU’s equality framework and the EU’s approach to gender mainstreaming? What are its limitations? How have the concepts of discrimination, diversity and equity framed the EU’s framework? This chapter traces the development of the Union’s framework, and argues that beyond attempting to simply steer Member States towards a common approach to gender equality, the EU institutions have taken a prescriptive approach aimed at promoting fair treatment, non-discrimination and equal opportunities.