A new Migration Policy Institute Europe report, Supporting immigrant integration in Europe? Developing the governance for diaspora engagement,
offers an innovative and detailed mapping of the origin-country
institutions that participate in the complex and multilayered governance
of immigrant integration in the European Union and beyond. The report
also assesses the most promising avenues for international cooperation
on immigrant integration policies and programs that run the gamut from
education and training, employment, social inclusion, access to
nationality, civic and political participation and religious practice.
During the past two decades,
migrant-origin countries have come to more fully understand the
development contributions made by their diaspora members, and the
reality that economic gains, knowledge transfers, and other benefits
tend to be greater the more successfully their nationals are integrated
into the countries of destination. For example, the governments of
Turkey and Morocco, the main countries of origin for migrants residing
in EU member states, have progressively moved away from rhetoric that
stigmatises integration in the receiving society, and instead have begun
to encourage integration as an instrumental process for leveraging
development gains.
The report, part of an INTERACT
research initiative co-financed by the European Commission, traces the
ministries, departments, and offices in Turkey, Morocco, the
Philippines, India and other origin countries that are directly
responsible for diaspora and emigration affairs, as well as those that
participate in the process via liaison offices, embassies, and consular
networks. The report observes that 'mainstreaming' of diaspora
engagement policymaking across various general policy areas is similar
to EU destination countries' efforts in the horizontal governance of
immigrant integration.
The report also details the numerous
actors involved in immigrant integration at the European level: from the
local authorities in all EU member states that are pivotal actors in
delivering integration services, to regions and federated states in some
EU member states that participate in the design of integration-related
policies, to national integration departments, and EU institutions that
support and influence member states' efforts through core funding,
exchange of information and coordination.
'The multiplicity of actors involved
in origin and destination countries makes it extremely complex to
identify and convene relevant interlocutors, and represents a major
challenge to international cooperation in each of the thematic areas
that compose the mosaic of integration policy', said the report's lead
author, MPI Europe Policy Analyst Maria Vincenza Desiderio.
Among the most common
integration-related actions that origin countries pursue are policies to
protect the rights and welfare of migrant workers abroad, notably
through bilateral labour and social security agreements, along with
pre-departure and post-arrival support measures to facilitate early
labour market insertion of migrants in occupations matching their
skills. The report finds that these are the most promising areas for
cooperation with destination-country governments in Europe.
'This paper offers a unique insight
into the activities of origin countries regarding their overseas
nationals', said MPI Europe Director Elizabeth Collett. 'Given the
complexity of immigrant integration issues and the greater sensitivity
of some dimensions—such as culture and religion—an incremental, modest
and flexible approach to EU external cooperation is more likely to bear
concrete fruit in a reasonable timeframe than broadly comprehensive and
overly ambitious negotiations'.
