Migration crisis and integration: - Europe en crises ? Migration, mobilité et inclusion

a new yet permanent challenge for Europe?

Article publié dans la revue Eurolimes – Journal of the Institute for Euroregional Studies, Vol. 23-24 “Migration at the European Borders”, 2017, pp.17-34.

Abstract

The endless flow of migrants coming to Europe since 2014 and the virulent debates in the media dividing public opinions and politicians, raise the question of migrants’ future inclusion in European countries of arrival and final destination. Different in each country, the integration process depends on several factors: the way the country defines itself as a Nation;

its welcoming culture and welfare model; the political context and dialogue around socio-economic inclusion as well as civic and political rights for migrants. Nonetheless, integration has received minimal attention and its policies have not been considered as a research priority so far, hence this paper aims to highlight some important aspects of migrants’ inclusion process in Europe, in the context of the ongoing crisis. More precisely, this article is offering an overview of the European Union integration policy and tools and of the structural measures put forward by three countries (Sweden, Germany, Italy) in order to integrate the migrants who have settled and continue to arrive on their territory with the purpose to reside.

This panoramic perspective will allow us to pick up the main challenges European countries will have to face in terms of migrants’ inclusion into the society.

Introduction

At the moment where we are writing these lines, the question of migration in Europe has become a real issue to cope with and calls for a deep reflection regarding the future of Europe in terms of migrants’ inclusion in the host countries’ societies. According to the

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) more than 350'000¹⁸³ migrants are estimated to have been travelling to Europe in 2016 and more than 1'000'000 in 2015¹⁸⁴, while the European Union and its Member States are still struggling to find a solution to face the volumes of arrivals. Whether Europe has been mainly focusing on the emergency response to the crisis and on the reinforcement of its external borders’ protection, it is now vital to start thinking of migrants’ integration in the countries of arrival and final destination, as part of them will end up by settling in Europe.

Integration is an important issue - as much for the European Union as an supranational institution, the national governments, the local authorities and population, as for the migrants - mainly for two reasons: (1) it is both a permanent and new challenge as it refers to the place of newcomers and the role of the foreigners in the society;

(2) it contributes to the social cohesion and to the capacity to counter antagonistic feelings towards foreigners. However, if Europe is seen from the outside as a whole, its different countries - and more precisely the European Union’s Member States – do not always share the same vision and definition of how to include migrants into their societies¹⁸⁵. That depends on several factors: the way the country defines itself as a Nation¹⁸⁶; its welcoming culture and welfare model; the political context and dialogue around integration.

Therefore, this article aims to question the integration concept in order to identify and bring out the future challenges that the European Union and its Members will have to face. As such, this article has three main parts: (1) we will start by defining the integration concept as well as its models; (2) we will continue with

183 International Organisation for Migration, “Migration Flows to Europe. The Mediterranean Digest,” 15 December 2016, accessed January 04, 2017, http://migration.iom.int/docs/Med_Digest_3_15_December_2016.pdf.

184 International Organisation for Migration, “Mixed Migration Flows in the Mediterranean and Beyond. Compilation of Available Data and Information.

Reporting Period 2015,” accessed November 11, 2016, http://doe.iom.int/docs/Flows%20Compilation%202015%20Overview.pdf.

185 Jean-Claude Monod, “Quelle(s) politique(s) d’intégration au sein de l’Union européenne?,” Questions d’Europe (Fondation Robert Schuman) no. 53 (March 2007), accessed November 11, 2016, http://www.robert- schuman.eu/fr/questions-d-europe/0053-quelles-politiques-d-integration-au-sein-de-l-union-europeenne.

186 Jacques Barou, Europe, terre d’immigration. Flux migratoires et intégration (Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 2001), 160.

exposing the main elements of the European Union integration policy and tools in order to have a global view of the European context; (3) the final part will focus on a country case studies (Sweden, Germany, Italy) and their integration policies in order to illustrate the diversity of approaches of the matter.

Integration: a multidimensional and ambiguous concept

Integration usually defines the process that migrants are starting once they arrive in a new country where they intend to be established. Here, we are particularly referring to the inclusion of nationals from a third country - meaning a person who is neither a European Union’s citizen according to the article 20, point 1 of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union¹⁸⁷, nor a person who enjoys the right of free movement as defined by article 2, point 5 of Schengen Borders Code¹⁸⁸- that obtain a legal status and who intend to settle on a long term in the host country. In other words, all groups of migrants who have a temporary status are excluded from this definition and from the approach we adopt in this article.

Although integration, as described here above, is largely accepted and used, the concept of integration is more toned and has to be briefly explained. The ambiguity of integration lies in the fact that it simultaneously belongs to two languages: the sociological one and the political one. From the point of view of sociology, integration is a term that has been conceptualized by Emile Durkheim¹⁸⁹ at the end of the eighties. It defines as a phenomenon that is applied to the society as a whole, and not only to migrants, their inclusion being considered as a particular case of this process that is the fact of

187 Consolidated Versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, December 13, 2007, accessed November 11, 2016, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:12012E/TXT.

188 Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 Establishing a Community Code on the Rules Governing the Movement of Persons across Borders (Schengen Borders Code), accessed November 11, 2016, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02006R0562-20131126&from=EN.

189 Emile Durkheim, Le suicide, Coll. Quadrige, 14^e édition (Paris: PUF, 2013).

“becoming an accepted part of the society”¹⁹⁰. Put another way, integration is a series of complex and non-finished steps¹⁹¹ that allow the understanding of ties linked between people - whether local or migrant - and the society, and that do not aim to have a result that could be identified¹⁹².

From the political point of view, integration implies the notion of policy meaning all implemented measures in order to apply a political will, formerly expressed. In other words, the public policies of the European Union’s Member States. Within this particular framework, integration means a final and measurable goal and sets the elements that determine the individuals’ societal inclusion and inherently, the exclusion from this same society. In short, integration has a normative role that disregards the fact that it applies to all individuals and not only to migrants. This contributes to the creation of a negative perception of migrants, tendency noticed in several European countries, and that partially explains by European history.

Whether the Old Continent has been a land of emigration for a long time, Europe encounters some difficulties in accepting itself as an immigration land and therefore to legitimate European societies which are becoming more and more multicultural under the influence of worldwide populations¹⁹³. Consequently, European identity - built on common values formerly defined and to which all individuals, migrants included, have to adhere to - dreads multiculturalism’s evolutive dynamics that nourishes from the contact with other cultures¹⁹⁴. In the context of the ongoing migration crisis, the fear of

190 Rinus Penninx and Blanca Garcés-Mascarenas, “The Concept of Integration as an Analytical Tool and as a Policy Concept,” in Integration Process and Policies in Europe. Contexts, Levels and Actors, IMISCOE Research Series, ed. Blanca Garcés-Mascarenas and Rinus Penninx (Springer Open, 2016), 11-29.

191 Laurence Le Ferrec, “Les immigrants dans la vie socio-économique.

Réflexions sur l’articulation entre langue, travail et intégration,” in Langue(s) et immigration(s) : société, école, travail, Coll. Logiques Sociales, ed. James Archibald and Stéphanie Galligani (Paris : L’Harmattan, 2009), 220.

192 Dominique Schnapper, “Penser l’intégration,” in Langue(s) et immigration(s) : société, école, travail, Coll. Logiques Sociales, ed. James Archibald and Stéphanie Galligani (Paris : L’Harmattan, 2009), 20.

193 Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, “Démographie, immigration, integration”

Questions d’Europe (Fondation Robert Schuman) no. 113 (13 October 2008) : 3, accessed November 14, 2016, http://www.robert-schuman.eu/fr/doc/questions-d-europe/qe-113-fr.pdf.

194 Ibid.

foreigners is only bigger and reinforces national identities as well as it brings to the implementation of restrictive integration policies, where migrants have more obligations than rights.

Moreover, European history is strongly tied to the history of the Nations which means two main things: (1) integration is synonym of Nation-state; (2) integration is linked to the creation of institutions and organisations that have the role of unifying the multicultural population¹⁹⁵. Talking about integration is therefore even more important as it adjoins the interdependence between politics and national identity and more explicitly, the approval of the politics and its decisions related to integration, by civil society.

The European Union integration policy and tools

Starting with the XIX^th century and the Nation-state, deciding who enters and resides on a territory - meaning managing migration flows and provide migrants with rights - has become the symbol of national sovereignity. Hence, over the years, the European countries initiated the implementation of migration norms¹⁹⁶ - in order to control migrants’ movement and settlement across national borders - which raised, at a later stage, the question of their inclusion into the societies and the gradual creation of national integration policies.

This vision of the European governments to assure local population’s safety and territory’s security through migration control – and implicitly of the strong bound between Nation-state mechanisms and integration policies – carried on with the European Union. Starting with The Schengen Agreement¹⁹⁷, The Single

195 Han Entzinger, “Politiques d’intégration en Europe : un modèle multidimensionnel,” in Les minorités ethniques dans l’Union européenne.

Politiques, mobilisations, identités, ed. Lionel Arnaud (Paris : La Découverte, 2005), 25.

196 Thaïs Laborde, Les enjeux de l’intégration des migrants dans l’Union européenne (Toulouse : Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Toulouse, 2011), 2.

197 The Schengen Acquis - Agreement between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the Gradual Abolition of Checks at Their Common Borders, Official Journal L 239, 22/09/2000, P. 0013 – 00, accessed November 14, 2016,

European Act (SEA)¹⁹⁸, The Treaty of Maastricht on European Union (TEU)¹⁹⁹), the EU put the basis of its migration policy that predominantly focuses on strengthening external borders and combatting irregular migration which reflects the security concerns of the EU Member States. The responsibility of migrants and more specifically, third country nationals’ integration, has been left to Member States, according to the principle of subsidiarity²⁰⁰. Indeed, the EU only has a limited competence regarding integration, meaning “of support and encouragement of the Member States’

action”²⁰¹. None of the articles of the European treaties currently in force – not even the Treaty of Lisbon²⁰² – gives EU a competence regarding migrants’ integration.

However, integration is a main component of migration, a cross-border phenomenon, and requires a coordination between Member States’ policies in order to be efficient. This necessity has been recognized and expressed when The Amsterdam Treaty came into effect, at the Tampere European Council (1999)²⁰³. There, “the need for approximation of national legislations on the conditions for admission and residence of third country nationals” has been officially affirmed. From that moment, integration matter is explicitly included on the European Union’s agenda and becomes a strategic and common concern. Integration is defined in the following terms:

200 The Principle of Subsidiarity, accessed November 14, 2016, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=URISERV:ai0017&from=fr. Establishing the European Community, Official Journal of the European Union 2007/C 306/01, accessed November 25, 2016, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:12007L/TXT&from=EN.

203 Tampere European Council, 15 and 16 October 1999. Presidency

Conclusions, accessed November 25, 2016,

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/tam_en.htm.

A set of uniform rights which are as near as possible to those enjoyed by EU citizens; e.g. the right to reside, receive education, and work as an employee or self-employed person, as well as the principle of non-discrimination vis-à-vis the citizens of the State of residence (art. 21)²⁰⁴.

Nonetheless, facing strong resistance from Austria, The Netherlands and Germany, the Member States later conceded to a less radical definition regardless to the third country nationals, confirmed at the European Union’s Council of 25 November 2003:

“Member States may require third-country nationals to comply with integration conditions, in accordance with national law” (art. 5, al.2)²⁰⁵. In other words, this is a backwards step to national law of the host country - which is free to decree its own definition and criteria of integration that is applied at the regional and local level - and to the discrepancy among EU Members States’ approaches of migration. Hence, the European Commission created a common framework for the integration of third country nationals in order to spread a common vision regardless to this matter among the Member States.

The common framework for integration is composed of different elements. Firstly, there are the eleven Common Basic Principles ((CBP), (2004)²⁰⁶ adopted by the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council and that form the foundations of the European Union initiatives in the field. They are reaffirmed ten years later²⁰⁷ and stressed by the affirmation that while integration measures are within the competence of Member States, “they need to be

204 Ibid.

205 Council Directive 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 Concerning the Status of Third-country Nationals Who Are Long-term Residents, Official Journal L 016, 23/01/2004, P. 0044 - 0053, accessed November 25, 2016, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32003L0109&from=fr.

206 European Commission, The Common Basic Principles for Immigrant Integration Policy in the EU, 19 November 2004, accessed November 25, 2016, https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/librarydoc/common-basic-principles-for-immigrant-integration-policy-in-the-eu.

207 Council Conclusions of the Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on the Integration of Third-country Nationals Legally Residing in the EU (JHA Council Meeting Luxembourg, 5 and 6 June

2014), accessed November 25, 2016,

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/?cc%5B%5D=610&stDt=20150217.

implemented in accordance with the EU acquis and can be funded through EU financial instruments”²⁰⁸.

Secondly, there is the Common Agenda for Integration (2005-2010)²⁰⁹ that provides a framework for the implementation of the CBP and makes plans for a series of supportive EU mechanisms and instruments in order to promote integration but also to facilitate exchange between integration actors - such as the European Web Site on Integration²¹⁰ and the European Migration Forum²¹¹-.

Ministerial Conferences are also organized (Groningen (2004)²¹²,

208 Council of the European Union. Council conclusions of the Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on the integration of third-country nationals legally residing in the EU. Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, Luxembourg, 5 and 6 June 2014, p.2, accessed October 4, 2017,

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/templates/press-releases.aspx?id=1440&p=125

209 Commission of the European Communities, Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - A Common Agenda for Integration - Framework for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals in the European Union, Brussels, 01.09.2005, COM/2005/0389 final, accessed November 25, 2016, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52005DC0389.

210 https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/home, accessed October 4, 2017.

211 Formerly The European Integration Forum that became The European Migration Forum in 2015, accessed October 2017, http://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/sections-other-bodies/other/european-migration-forum

212 Council of the European Union, Information on the Ministerial Conferences of Groningen (9-11 November 2004) and of Rotterdam (6-7 July 2004), accessed

November 27, 2016,

http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%2015434%202004%20I NIT.

Postdam (2007)²¹³, Vichy (2008)²¹⁴, Zaragoza (2010)²¹⁵) and an annual report is released.

Since the Treaty of Lisbon and the Stockholm Programme (2010-2014)²¹⁶, other European Union’s institutions are also dealing with integration issue such as the Council of the European Union²¹⁷; the European Parliament; the Committee of the Regions²¹⁸ and its six Commissions among which the Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional Affairs and External Relations, responsible for matters relating to immigrant integration; and finally the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)²¹⁹.

These measures provide Member States with a framework based on the emergence of common good practices, the coordination of interrelated politics and the participation of civil society yet they remain general and are synonyms of good intentions at the intergovernmental level, with no constraining dimension.

Integration : country case studies

The integration process implies several levels - social, cultural, economic and political - and comprises two forms: (1) a structural

213 The Council of the European Union, 2807th Council meeting Justice and Home Affairs, Luxembourg, 12-13 June 2007, (Press release), 10267/07 (Presse 125),

accessed November 27, 2016,

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/jha/94682 .pdf.

214 Strengthening Actions and Tools to Meet Integration Challenges – Report to the 2008 Ministerial Conference on Integration, MEMO/08/612, Brussels, 08 October 2008, accessed November 27, 2016, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-08-612_en.htm.

215 Council of the European Union, Declaration of the European Ministerial Conference on Integration (Zaragoza, 15 & 16 April 2010), accessed November 27, 2016, https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/librarydoc/declaration-of-the-european-ministerial-conference-on-integration-zaragoza-15-16-april-2010.

216 European Council, The Stockholm Programme – An Open and Secure Europe Serving and Protecting Citizens, 2010/C 115/01, accessed November 17, 2016, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52010XG0504(01.

217 Responsible for decision-making and coordination on basis of proposal put forward by the European Commission.

218 The EU consultative body.

219 Accessed October 4, 2017, http://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/policies/policy-areas/migration-and-asylum.

one, when it refers to the socio-economic status of the migrant in the host country (e.g. employment, education, housing) and that depends on the resources put in place by the receiving state (2) a cultural one, that refers to the model that the host country adopts and the way in which the migrant identifies with it²²⁰. This is what is usually called acculturation²²¹.

The three main integration models that we notice in Europe are: (1) the ethnonational model meaning both ethnic²²² and pragmatic, applied in countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland; (2) the assimilation model, also called republican model²²³ advocated in France, for instance; (3) and finally, the multicultural or pluralist model²²⁴ found mainly in the United Kingdom or The Netherlands²²⁵. Much has been made of these different models of integration and their outcomes but studies have found that they « fail to account for most of the variation of integration, especially socio-economic outcomes »²²⁶. In addition, the socio-economic dimension is more measurable than the sense of belonging, nevertheless consequential to it, idea emphasised by the European Union’s indicators of migrants’ integration: employment, education, social inclusion and active citizenship. In other words, the socio-economic

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