Immigrant integration in Southeast Europe – integration policy landscapes and integration outcomes in EU member states and EU candidate countries

Coşkun, Laura Elina (2024) Immigrant integration in Southeast Europe – integration policy landscapes and integration outcomes in EU member states and EU candidate countries. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

Dynamic and mixed migration patterns define the region of Southeast Europe. Since the early 1990’s many of the countries in the region have experienced both significant emigration as well as simultaneous immigration flows, having the potential to develop into new or emerging immigrant destinations. These developments are unfolding due to both the region’s geopolitical location in the borders of Europe, resulting in recent immigrant inflows and transit migration, alongside recent EU accession or ongoing EU accession talks, with actual or potential upward economic and social convergence with other European countries. After elaborating on these developments and their implications, I present a comparative analysis of integration outcomes of immigrants in Southeast Europe. This is intended to uncover cross-country differences in outcomes and ascertain if any such differences relate to the national integration policy frameworks within the context of the EU accession. I apply a multidimensional approach to measure immigrant integration and investigate a broad range of indicators, such as employment, income, social participation, and naturalization, using data from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions. My findings reveal large cross-country variation in immigrant integration outcomes, some of which cluster according to EU membership versus candidate status: Immigrant-native gaps in outcomes tend to be larger in the EU member states, and immigrants in the EU member states also often have weaker integration outcomes than their counterparts in the EU candidate countries. The linkages between integration policies and concrete immigrant outcomes are not generally significant, but other aspects of national context, such as country-specific motivations to facilitate certain types of immigration, previous and current immigration patterns, and their interplay, emerge as the key drivers. My findings highlight the struggles that the EU member states in Southeast Europe face in adjusting to the more dynamic immigration landscape that the EU accession brings, by comparison with most EU candidate countries that currently face relatively more stable immigration patterns. I argue that learning from the experiences of these neighbouring EU member states is vital for the current candidate countries, as they may in the future also face the same challenges, if the EU expansion unfolds further in the region.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Laura Elina Coşkun
Library of Congress subject classification:	J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Sets:	Departments > Social Policy
Supervisor:	Platt, Lucinda and Cheliotis, Leonidas
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4835

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