Publisher's Synopsis
This study takes as its starting-point the growing concern amongst policy-makers and the public throughout Western Europe over developments in the southern and eastern Mediterranean rim countries and eastern and central Europe - both areas perceived as having the potential for creating an explosive immigration crisis. The author places the current migration debate in Europe within a global and historical context. She sets current immigration trends and policies against Europe's post-war immigration experience. The author argues that present immigration flows should not be seen in isolation from past inflows, particularly when considering the reception and integration of migrants. Nor, it is argued, can international migration be separated from wider international political, economic and social processes operating between and within states (sending as well as receiving states). The study is not confined to the receiving-country side of the equation, but devotes considerable attention to pressures operating in the sending countries. The author raises questions about possible future responses to the migration challenge, and asks, ultimately, what is the nature of the challenge?
