Times are changing

In recent decades, international migration has become a major phenomenon. While the number of persons living outside their country of birth worldwide was estimated at ‘more than 105 million’ in 1985 (United Nations, 1998: 1) this number had nearly doubled to approximately 200 million 20 years later (GCIM 2005). Figures for the European continent show an even steeper increase of residents in European countries that have been born outside their present country of residence: in a shorter period of 15 years their number grew from an estimated 23 million in 1985 (United Nations, 1998: 1) to more than 56 million, or 7.7 per cent of the total European population in 2000 (IOM 2003: 29).

Such absolute numbers already demonstrate that Europe has factually become an immigration continent. The relevance of this thesis is reinforced if we look at the relative importance of migration in the demography of Europe. Recent analyses of Eurostat show that since 1988 net migration has become a more substantial contributor to the growth of the population of the 15 original member states of the EU than natural growth (i.e. births minus deaths). For the year 2005 this holds also for the EU-25: in that year a total net migration of 1.69 million (on a total population of 462 million) contributed significantly more to population growth than 0.327 million natural growth. For the near future prognoses of Eurostat expect a negative natural growth from 2010 on. Net migration is expected to prevent an absolute decrease of the EU population until the year 2025 (Eurostat 2005, 2006).

How impressive such general figures for Europe may be, they do not mirror the differential impact of immigration. Migration and settlement patterns of immigrants are basically uneven, both in time and in space. Some West European countries, such as Switzerland, Belgium and France, have a history of immigration before World War II and immigration resumed soon after 1945. Other countries in the western part of Europe only started to acquire their immigration experience in the decades following the Second World War; these include the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.