Relationship between immigrant integration and socioeconomic indicators of European immigrant-receiving countries

Abstract

Integration is a two-way process depending on host countries, and the immigrants. Immigrants' successful integration in the host countries is an important issue bringing benefits for both immigrants and the host countries. Immigrants receiving countries' migration policies, actions, and peoples' perception towards accepting foreign citizens is an essential factor in the successful integration process. However, the integration process in a specific geographical region, such as Europe, also differs from one country to another. The integration process depends on the socioeconomic position, and development of the host and home countries. It also depends on the types of migration, migrants' status, etc. Therefore, this study tries to investigate and explain the typology and socioeconomic characteristics of European immigrant receiving countries regarding integration policies. It discusses the relationship between Human Development Index, Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, Social Progress Index, Gross National Income, Internet users % of the population, Ranking of Happiness, Happiness Ranking for the Foreign-Born, KOF Globalization index, and Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). This study uses a descriptive-analytical method, to show the socioeconomic characteristics of European immigrant-receiving countries. To show the strength of the relationship between the indexes, the study used pairwise correlation analysis (sig. level, 0.01). The main results of the study show that Northern and Western European countries have more favorable integration policies for immigrants than Southern and Eastern European countries. Moreover, there is a mutual positive interrelationship between all the indexes. The happier the citizens of the host countries are, the happier the immigrants are and the more favorable the integration policies are for immigrants.