What explains differences in countries’ migration policies?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the reasons for differences in national migration policies. European societies are struggling with the problem of how to best include the immigrants in their social structures. Although national migration policies in Europe have developed some common elements in recent years the contents and structure of national programmes vary widely in terms of their scope, goals, target groups and the institutional actors involved. The main question of the paper is “What explains the different migration policies of countries?” To answer the question, after mentioning the current differences within the European Union in terms of their migration policies, the paper will take Germany and France as examples which demonstrate sharply different cases of immigrant integration policies in the public course.