Introduction

Ten years ago the Lisbon Strategy proclaimed that the EU was to become ‘the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world’. In order to guarantee sustainable economic growth, full employment and an increase of highly skilled labour participants is considered to be essential. Beyond this, international migration must also be regarded in its global context, both socially and economically. From economists’ perspectives, liberalisation of migration will achieve greater welfare benefits than liberalisation of trade in goods and services and of capital flows.

In the light of Europe’s declining fertility rates and an ageing population, the Member States and the EU, specifically in the 2009 Stockholm Programme, have argued in favour of a more demand-driven immigration policy even in a period of economic crisis. At the same time, the idea of temporary and specifically circular labour migration has regained increasing popularity.