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Migration in Europe

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International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Population ((IHOP,volume 6))

Abstract

Europe is a diverse and unique area of the world. Arguably, nowhere else is there such a varied set of populations and migration patterns. Countries in Eastern Europe are facing population decline from very low and sustained fertility levels and net emigration, while many populations in Western Europe are growing because of its attractiveness and opportunities to migrants. Europe also contains the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) with 31 member countries having the right of free movement and residence within the system. Some 3–6 million persons each year are estimated to migrate to these countries from other member countries and from across the world. The aims of this chapter are to provide a sense of the diversity and importance of migration to and within Europe. After presenting a general overview of the context in which the migration patterns have evolved, harmonised estimates of migration flows obtained from the recently completed Integrated Modelling of European Migration (IMEM) project are presented for the EU and EFTA countries from 2002 to 2008. The chapter ends with a discussion of the future prospects of migration for this region of the world.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The EFTA countries are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland .

  2. 2.

    Belgium, Denmark, France , Germany , Greece, Ireland, Italy , Luxembourg, Portugal , The Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom .

  3. 3.

    Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

  4. 4.

    http://esa.un.org/MigAge/ (accessed 1 August 2012).

  5. 5.

    Austria, Belgium, France , Germany , Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Switzerland .

  6. 6.

    Channel Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom .

  7. 7.

    Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy , Malta, Montenegro, Portugal , San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

  8. 8.

    Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia and Ukraine.

  9. 9.

    This section draws from Raymer et al. (2013) and Raymer (2012).

  10. 10.

    This section draws from Raymer et al. (2013).

  11. 11.

    Belgium and Switzerland provide migration flow data but not by country of origin or destination .

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Acknowledgements

The Integrated Modelling of European Migration project was funded by new Opportunities Funded by New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe (NORFACE). I would like to thank the other team members, Jakub Bijak, Solveig Christiansen, Jon Forster, Nico Keilman, Jeannette Schoorl, Peter Smith, Rob van der Erf and Arkadius Wiśniowski, for their efforts in producing the estimates described in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Demography, Australian National University, Canberra, 2601, ACT, Australia

    James Raymer

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  1. James Raymer
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Correspondence to James Raymer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brown University Dept. Sociology, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Michael J. White

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Raymer, J. (2016). Migration in Europe. In: White, M. (eds) International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution. International Handbooks of Population, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7282-2_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7282-2_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7281-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7282-2

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