Abstract
The Euro‑Mediterranean region has become one of the most critical areas in the European Union on the issue of attracting migrants and experiencing the subsequent migratory pressures, but this has had very little impact on major comparative studies of European integration policies. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are easily identifiable as exponents of a ‘non-model’ system of integration. This trend changed on an academic and political level in the period from 2003 to 2009. Southern European countries have yet to establish nationwide integration policies for immigrants, and in times of economic crisis they have strongly restricted welfare protection, even though social rights are keystones for immigrant integration. Looking mainly at the Euro-Mediterranean region, this paper aims to analyse crossed interactions, to detect strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the emulation of nationalistic models in order to boost immigrant integration through equal access to social rights.
Highlights
The Euro-Mediterranean region has become one of the most critical areas in the European Union on the issue of attracting migrants and experiencing subsequent migratory pressures
Looking mainly at the Euro-Mediterranean region, this paper aims to analyse crossed interactions, to detect strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the emulation of nationalistic models in order to boost immigrant integration through equal access to social rights
Access to social rights for immigrants is important to ensure integration in society, and the absence of rights inevitably means a high risk of social exclusion, no country has a “truly consistent incorporation
Summary
The Euro-Mediterranean region has become one of the most critical areas in the European Union on the issue of attracting migrants and experiencing subsequent migratory pressures. One of the first issues to deal with is how and why: due to the impact of compulsory integration policies and the effects of the economic crisis, increasingly divergent patterns have been consolidated throughout Southern Europe as well as greater convergences with Northern and Western European countries (OCDE, 2015: 17) To this end, the secondary objective of this study is to understand how the problem of social integration depends on certain legal categories, including the impact of austerity and discriminatory measures in education, housing, health and civic participation in Southern European countries (Emmenegger and Careja, 2012; Petmesidou and Guillén, 2015). Following the austerity measures required by the European Union, the Member States approved regressive measures on social benefits that had been previously available to immigrants, as is notably the case regarding access to education, housing and health services (Mole, 2013: 9) This regression in social rights impacted inclusion and exclusion, in the management of immigration policies, the acquisition of citizenship and the different types of residency status.
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