This paper analyses the impact of large and persistent emigration from Eastern European countries over the past 25 years on these countries’ growth and income convergence to advanced Europe. While emigration has likely benefited migrants themselves, the receiving countries and the EU as a whole, its impact on sending countries’ economies has been largely negative. The analysis suggests that labor outflows, particularly of skilled workers, lowered productivity growth, pushed up wages, and slowed growth and income convergence. At the same time, while remittance inflows supported financial deepening, consumption and investment in some countries, they also reduced incentives to work and led to exchange rate appreciations, eroding competiveness. The departure of the young also added to the fiscal pressures of already aging populations in Eastern Europe. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for sending countries to mitigate the negative impact of emigration on their economies, and the EU-wide initiatives that could support these efforts.

Even as the 2013-2017 "migration crisis" is increasingly in the past, EU countries still struggle to come up with alternative solutions to foster safe, orderly, and regular migration pathways, Europeans continue to look in the rear-view mirror. This Report is an attempt to reverse the perspective, by taking a glimpse into the future of migration to Europe. What are the structural trends underlying migration flows to Europe, and how are they going to change over the next two decades? How does migration interact with specific policy fields, such as development, border management, and integration? And what are the policies and best practicies to manage migration in a more coherent and evidence-based way?

In this open access book, experts on integration processes, integration policies, transnationalism, and the migration and development framework provide an academic assessment of the 2011 European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals, which calls for integration policies in the EU to involve not only immigrants and their society of settlement, but also actors in their country of origin. Moreover, a heuristic model is developed for the non-normative, analytical study of integration processes and policies based on conceptual, demographic, and historical accounts. The volume addresses three interconnected issues: What does research have to say on (the study of) integration processes in general and on the relevance of actors in origin countries in particular? What is the state of the art of the study of integration policies in Europe and the use of the concept of integration in policy formulation and practice? Does the proposal to include actors in origin countries as important players in integration policies find legitimation in empirical research? A few general conclusions are drawn. First, integration policies have developed at many levels of government: nationally, locally, regionally, and at the supra-national level of the EU. Second, a multitude of stakeholders has become involved in integration as policy designers and implementers. Finally, a logic of policymaking—and not an evidence-based scientific argument—can be said to underlie the European Commission’s redefinition of integration as a three-way process. This book will appeal to academics and policymakers at international, European, national, regional, and local levels. It will also be of interest to graduate and master-level students of political science, sociology, social anthropology, international relations, criminology, geography, and history.

Rejecting the assumption that migration is a 'crisis' for Europe, Squire explores alternative responses which provide openings for a renewed humanism.

Recent debates on migration have demonstrated the important role of concepts in academic and political discourse. The contributions to this collection revisit established analytical categories in the study of migration such as border regimes, orders of belonging, coloniality, translation, trans/national digital culture and memory. Exploring notions, images and realities of migration in their cultural framings, this volume sheds light on the powerful work of these concepts. Including perspectives on migration from history, visual studies, pedagogy, literary and cultural studies, cultural anthropology and sociology, it explores the complex scholarly and popular notions of migration with particular focus on their often unspoken assumptions and political implications. Revisiting established analytical tools in the study of migration, the interdisciplinary contributions explore new approaches and point to the importance of conceptual nuance extending beyond academic discourse.

Jews and Judaism played a significant role in the history of the expansion of Europe to the west as well as in the history of the economic, social, and religious development of the New World. They played an important role in the discovery, colonization, and eventually exploitation of the resources of the New World. Alone among the European peoples who came to the Americas in the colonial period, Jews were dispersed throughout the hemisphere; indeed, they were the only cohesive European ethnic or religious group that lived under both Catholic and Protestant regimes, which makes their study particularly fruitful from a comparative perspective. As distinguished from other religious or ethnic minorities, the Jewish struggle was not only against an overpowering and fierce nature but also against the political regimes that ruled over the various colonies of the Americas and often looked unfavorably upon the establishment and tleration of Jewish communities in their own territory. Jews managed to survive and occasionally to flourish against all odds, and their history in the Americas is one of the more fascinating chapters in the early modern history of European expansion.

Developed countries, especially in Europe, face a number of issue related to migration: social and economic disruptions caused by the declining demand for unskilled labour and resulting unemployment, a shortage of skilled labour in many professions, increasing international competition for highly qualified human capital, radical demographic changes, and the forthcoming expansion of the European Union, which will trigger further immigration into major European countries and create new market opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe. This suggests a need for a deeper knowledge of the causes and consequences of increased labour mobility. This is especially important when it is associated with tension and fears among native populations. This book brings together analyses of migration issues in major European countries, and compares evidence with more countries that have traditionally seen the most immigration. First, it studies migration streams since World War II, and reviews major migration policy regimes. Second, it summarizes the empirical evidence measuring wages, unemployment, and occupational choices. Third, it investigates how migrants affects the labour markets of their host countries, and evaluates econometric studies into the wage and employment consequences of immigration. Surprisingly, there is wide evidence that immigration is largely beneficial for receiving countries. There might be phases of adjustment, but there is no convincing evidence that natives' wages are depressed or unemployment increases as a consequence of migrant inflow. However, there is a growing impression that migration does serve less and less the needs of the labour market. This suggests a stronger focus on economic channels of immigration, for which the book provides a conceptual basis and the required empirical facts and institutional background.