An Expert Stakeholder's View on European Integration Challenges

2008

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

This paper sheds light on the labor market situation of ethnic minorities in the European Union. Facing a serious measurement challenge and lacking adequate data, we apply several measures of ethnicity and examine various data sources as well as secondary evidence. We find significant gaps between ethnic minority and majority populations in terms of labor market outcomes. In particular, ethnic minorities appear to face disproportional difficulties in finding a job. Although experience in the host country improves the status of immigrant minorities, we do not find any clear assimilation of further immigrant generations. Roma people seem to face particularly grave integration barriers in European labor markets.

2007

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has changed enormously since the fall of the communist regimes. Countries in CEE have undergone-often very painful-the triple transition of democratisation, marketisation and nation state-building (Offe, C., 1991). Moreover, eight of them joined the European Union on May 1, 2004. A number of recently published comprehensive studies of the EU's impact on CEE either portrays the Union as a key actor in process of complex political, economic, administrative and social changes (

Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe JEMIE

2014

J. Eur. Integration

This article examines whether there exists a genuine link between different sorts of "minorities" and the European Union which would legitimise talk of minorities "of" rather than "within" the European Union. The author examines the cases of the member states themselves, EU migrant workers, third country nationals and traditional minorities within the member states. Whereas migrant workers and the member states hardly constitute such "community minorities", third country nationals do. Regarding the traditional minorities the author doubts that the Union will ever assume a full fledged competence in this field which would establish a direct link between the minorities and the Union thereby bypassing the national level. He even portrays such a development as legally unconvincing. This, however, does not pre-empt the Union from developing a policy in the field of minority protection. In the conclusions the author hints to some possible developments in this direction.

Romanian Journal of Political Sciences, 2007

Abstract: The aim of this introductory chapter is to provide an overview of the theoretical framework informing the case studies presented in this issue. In the context of nation and state building, it describes and analyzes the presence of minorities in Europe, their politicisation at the regional-local level in post war Europe, as well as the role played by EU regional economic processes and human rights policies since the early 1990s. European integration extends to minority-inhabited areas through processes of regional ...

International Journal of Manpower, 2009

The paper studies opinions and attitudes towards immigrants and minorities and their interactions with other barriers to minorities' economic integration. Specifically, we consider the minority experts' own perceptions about these issues, the veracities and repercussions of unfavorable attitudes of natives. Employing newly available data from the IZA Expert Opinion Survey 2007 we depict main trends in the integration situation of ethnic minorities in Europe in a comparative manner. Using a unique dataset, this innovative study is the first to gauge the perspectives of expert stakeholders and ethnic minorities on their integration situation and the main barriers that hinder it. Robust findings show that ethnic minorities: face integration problems; natives' general negative attitudes are a key factor of their challenging situation; discrimination is acknowledged as the single most important integration barrier; low education and self-confidence as well as cultural differences also hinder integration; minorities want change and that it come about by policies based on the principle of equal treatment. Well designed integration policies that take the specific situation of the respective ethnic minority into account, are persistent and enforce anti-discrimination laws are desirable.

Annual Review of Political Science, 2007

▪ Most European countries are examining how they have sought to integrate immigrants in the past and how they might change their policies to avoid some of the problems exhibited in immigrant and minority communities today. Discrimination and issues of racism, including the rise of anti-immigrant radical right parties, have become important, as evidenced in part by the passage of the European Union's Racial Equality Directive in 2000. This essay reviews comparative research in political science on immigrant integration in Western Europe. It discusses multiculturalism and assimilation, party politics, antidiscrimination policy, and policy at the European Union level.

European Centre for Minority Issues, 2006

Chapter 2-CULTURE AND AGENCY IN THE MULTI-DIMENSIONALITY OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION 2.1 Individual Capabilities 2.2 Individual Recognition and Economic Opportunities 2.3 Weak or Vulnerable? 2.4 Culture 2.5 Cultural Boundaries and Inter-cultural Exchanges 2.6 Cultural Hegemony and Ethnic Exclusionism Chapter 3-ETHNIC MINORITIES, CULTURE AND EU SOCIAL POLICY AFTER LISBON 3.1 Ethnic Minorities and the OMC Common Objectives Common Indicators 3.2 Culture and the OMC 3.3 Culture in EU Social Policy