EU states could do much more for immigrants, says report

HELENA SPONGENBERG

15.10.2007 @ 18:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU member states are not doing enough to integrate legal immigrants from outside Europe, according to a new report launched on Monday (15 October), which ranks Sweden top and Latvia last.

The Migrant Integration Policy Index – released by the Brussels-based Migration Policy Group think tank and the British Council – ranks European Union countries as only "half way to best practice" for policies that ease immigrants' integration into the national societies.

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The report assesses immigrants' and migrants' chances of participating in European societies by looking at six different key areas, such as labour market access; family reunion; long-term residence; political participation; the possibility to adopt a new nationality and protection from racism and discrimination.

Overall, the EU member states are doing well when it comes to policies that make immigrants eligible for long-term residence, but they do less well when it comes to allowing political participation and access for migrants to become a national.

There are currently an estimated 20 million third country nationals legally living in the EU, which is one for every 24 EU citizens.

The scores

Sweden came out on top with high scores in all key points and earned – as the only country - the mark of being "favourable" for promoting integration.

The Nordic country was followed by EU members Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Italy, the UK and Spain respectively which were all branded as "partially favourable".

Latvia came in last and narrowly beating Cyprus, Austria, Greece and Slovakia, with the report deeming the member states' policies as being "partially unfavourable" for promoting integration.

France came in as number 11 out of 28, Germany and Ireland ranked 14 while Poland and Denmark together ranked 21.

The report also included Canada, Norway - both partially favourable - and Switzerland – partially unfavourable. It excluded Bulgaria and Romania as research began before they joined the EU at the beginning of this year.

Motivation, not criticism

The score should not be seen as a criticism of member state but as a motivation to improve policies that favour integration of immigrants coming to the EU, said Jan Niessen from the Migration Policy Group and co-author of the report.

"The idea is not to name and shame the member states," he said at the launch of the 191-page report in Brussels on Monday. "We want to help create a discussion on the issue that will hopefully lead to better policies and again to better integration."

Mr Niessen explained that in the case of Denmark – the only Nordic country at the lower end of the score list – it was a clear political question.

Earlier today, a spokesperson for integration from the Danish centre-right governing party – Ventre – Irene Simonsen, dubbed the report as being "useless" because it only looked at legislation and not at the practical aspects of integration, according to Danish daily Politiken.

Denmark has in later years become known for its strict immigration policies.