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Since almost 150 years, Luxembourg depends on two kinds of migration, qualified and non-qualified, in order to deal with the workforce needs of its economy. Compared to the other EU Member States, Luxembourg is the country with the largest proportion of foreigners; however, this foreign population is mainly composed of EU citizens. Due to its size and geographic position, Luxembourg was able to have access to a very particular form of economic migration: cross-border workers. Globalisation has also played a decisive role in the development of economic migration for the Luxembourgish labour market. The financial centre was obliged to become highly specialised in order to remain competitive in regards to other financial centres and to maintain its volume of business. In order to maintain its competitive advantage, Luxembourg needs highly skilled personnel, which the country has found, up until now, within the Greater Region. This reality is even more pronounced with regards to the labour market: the number of actives (salaried and non-salaried) on 31 March 2014 shows that Luxembourgish nationals represented only 31%, EU citizens 65% and third-country nationals only 4%. Cross-border workers from Belgium, France and Germany represented 42% of the workforce and the resident migrant population (EU citizens and third-country nationals) 28%. Cross-border workers, which consist of skilled and highly skilled labour are substantially attracted for two reasons: 1) more competitive salaries on the Luxemburgish labour market ; and 2) a geographical location which allows the commuting of cross-border workers. The attitude of the successive governments was to adapt immigration to the economic needs of the country. The government policy intends to focus on attracting highly added value activities focussed on new technologies (biomedicine and information as well as communication technologies – focusing on IT security), logistics and research. However, being one of the smallest countries in the European Union, Luxembourg has limited human resources to guarantee the growth not only of the financial sector but also of the new technologies sectors. The government introduced the highly qualified worker residence permit in the bill on free movement of persons and immigration approved by law of 29 August 2008 almost a year before of the enactment of the Blue Card Directive to facilitate the entry of third-country national highly qualified workers. However, this reform was isolated and incomplete and took place without making a real evaluation of the workforce demand of the different sectors of the economy. Even though until now Luxembourg has been relying on the workforce from the Greater Region, for some socio-economic and political stakeholders, highly qualified workforces began to become scarce in the Greater region. In addition to the cross-border workers, the lifting of restrictions to access all the sectors of the labour market for citizens of the new Member States (EU-8) can be considered as a mitigating factor for the need to make an evaluation of the workforce demand, because the high salaries paid in Luxembourg became a real pull factor for the highly qualified workers. As a consequence, the political authorities did not foresee a systematic plan on how to address labour shortages in specific sectors of the economy, because there has not been a significant need for doing so.

From Lebanese immigrants in Argentina to Iraqi refugees in Sweden, Eastern Christians can be found today scattered across the entire world. Too often, however, this global migration has been seen purely as a modern development, one arising from contemporary political and confessional events in the Middle East, while in fact this phenomenon had its roots in the early modern period. From the sixteenth century onwards, Christians from the Ottoman Empire set out for distant worlds and foreign lands, travelling as far as Europe, India, Russia, and even the Americas and leaving traces of themselves across countless European and Middle Eastern archives, chanceries, and libraries. This transnational, ground-breaking project will gather all of these disparate sources into a single analytical frame to uncover, for the first time, the global and connected histories of Eastern Christianity in the early modern world. Through the work of a team of researchers under the close supervision of the PI, the project will reconstitute and analyse a ‘lost archive’ of literary, documentary, and printed sources in three continents, ten languages, and dozens of archives. Under the expert leadership of the PI, the project will include a robust strategy for dissemination, which will successfully bridge the fields of Middle Eastern, European, and global history. In doing so, this project will respond directly to one of the most pressing conceptual challenges facing global history today, that is, how to link the study of the micro-scale level of everyday life to the macro-narratives emphasised by global historians. Underlying this project, therefore, is a major intervention that seeks to advance a rigorous form of global history, and one which preserves philology and source criticism at the heart of its methodology. The outcomes of the project will include print-publications, workshops, and a searchable database of all writings by Eastern Christians from 1500 to 1750.

Poor countries are often plagued by civil wars. They are also, in many cases, emigration countries. Anybody interested in the development of such countries must understand to what extent these phenomena are interrelated, and how they interplay with each other. If it is pretty clear that civil wars push people to leave the country, it remains understudied how diasporas play a role in the emergence and evolution of violent conflicts. Indeed, the interactions between diasporas and conflict have roughly been overlooked by the economic literature to date, in spite of the very suggestive pieces of evidence provided by related research fields and of the very important policy questions that it raises – in particular, how to optimize the contribution of diasporas to peaceful development. Based on case studies such as those of Erytrea or of Sri Lanka, the literature in history and political science underlines diverse mechanisms through which diasporas have intervened in the evolution of violence in their home country, either as peace-builders or as peace-wreckers. On the other hand, in these case studies, the evolution of civil wars also appears to have been determinant of emigration and return migration patterns and, eventually, of the nature of diasporas’ involvement in the political situation in the homeland. This project will investigate the joint dynamics of civil conflicts and migration in developing countries. It will first build a theoretical framework to characterize how diasporas and civil wars interact together, accounting for the endogeneity of both migration and violence. The theoretical predictions derived from this framework will then be empirically tested, relying on recent and original data. Through a multi-disciplinary perspective, nourished by the findings of the qualitative research and relying on economic tools – both theoretical and empirical – this project will allow to build the first comprehensive investigation of the diasporas – conflict nexus.

With Southern Europe suffering deeply from the financial crisis, a renewed public discussion on emigration from this region has emerged. The European South, which had only recently become a destination for immigration, seems to be experiencing a new major emigration wave. This is especially true for Greece, the country which has been hit hardest by the economic crisis and concomitant austerity measures. Despite public attention on the matter, however, little is known about who is emigrating, what alternative mobility strategies are considered and pursued, or the reasons underling migration decisions. EUMIGRE will provide an answer to these questions by introducing an innovative mixed methods approach. This approach allows identifying and studying a sizeable and diverse group of young adults whose spatial and social trajectories are retrospectively traced to explore the influence of the current crisis on their strategies. In so doing, it will also contribute to migration theory at a period when space-time flexibilizations, processes of neoliberalization, and the economic crisis are changing established modalities of and motivations for migration in ways that render the emigration–immigration country distinction obsolete.

The present report provides an in-depth assessment of integration policies and outcomes in the case of Greece by specifically bringing into focus the needs of three migrant groups who for various reasons are commonly considered to be especially vulnerable: women, children and victims of trafficking (VoTs). Do the migrant integration policies and programmes in Greece meet the specific integration needs of these three vulnerable migrant groups? In addressing this question, the present report describes and evaluates both a) the general national framework for the integration of migrants and the extent to which existing legal provisions and policy frames acknowledge and take into account the specific needs and conditions of these especially vulnerable immigrant subgroups, and b) the extent to which the application and implementation of existing laws, policies and practices promote a degree of integration of migrant women, children and VoTs in Greece, on the basis of measurable indicators. The assessment of integration outcomes focuses on collecting quantitative (statistical) data about the levels of integration of each of the three vulnerable migrant groups in comparison to the following groups: migrant women in comparison to migrant men; migrant women in comparison to women in the total population (native women); migrant children in comparison to children in the general population (native children).

"Theoretical background and objectives Since the late Summer of 2015 Germany has experienced what is now already one of the largest immigration waves in its history, which moreover is occurring suddenly and within an unprecedentedly short span of time. Dynamics of public opinion on the topic have likewise been volatile, from initial hostile outbursts of anti-refugee collective action, to a massive wave of solidarity and support for refugees, and what seems to be a strong bifurcation of opinions later on. This project aims to investigate these dynamics while they are happening by fielding a survey on attitudes towards and social contacts with refugees, as well as on participation in pro-refugee or anti-refugee collective action. To get a handle on the mechanisms that drive opinions towards refugees, the survey includes several experiments. In a vignette experiment we measure how support for the granting of refugee status to an applicant depends on his or her profile, randomly varying reasons for seeking refuge in Germany (political persecution or economic hardship), religion (Muslim or Christian), level of education, and gender. By way of an authority support experiment we will be able to investigate to what extent support for pro- and anti-refugee statements depends on their endorsement by politicians of different political affiliations. The data allow to link respondents' attitudes to context variables, e.g. the ethnic composition of their community. The survey went into field in early November 2015. A second wave was done in summer 2016. Findings Results of the first wave showed an overall positive attitude towards granting asylum to refugees. With respect to the refugee profiles that were tested in the vignette experiment, the reason for seeking refuge (political persecution vs. economic hardship) was most decisive. The results are summarized in the WZB Mitteilungen No. 151, pp. 24-27. Furthermore, the current research tests how people's political attitudes are influenced by political elites when traditional party lines are blurred. In a representative sample of Germans, we assessed support for restrictive and lenient proposals regarding refugee admission in two experiments. For both statements, we find that citizens decrease their support when it is endorsed by political parties in a stereotypical fashion: conservative endorsement of a restrictive statement in Experiment 1 (marginally significant) and liberal endorsement of a lenient statement in Experiment 2 (significant). This suggests backlash to political elites who attempt to polarize. "

This paper gives an outline of the policies adopted in Senegal for dealing with the emigration of its citizens and for engaging with its diaspora. It shows that the country does not have a coherent policy framework for managing this phenomenon, despite the long history and the high level of international out-migration. The managing of migration is done by different governmental departments and ministries, which have been criticized for their lack of coordination. Senegal is increasingly working with European states and has signed several bilateral agreements with France and Spain, whose objectives are reducing irregular flows, organizing legal channels of migration and offering public aid for infrastructure. Moreover, the government has been actively trying to engage Senegalese living abroad in the economic development of Senegal and of their origin communities, while also promoting the return and reintegration of the members of the diaspora. Other actors, such as international organization, private banks and particularly migrant associations have been involved in such efforts.

Tunisia has a long history of emigration to the European Union. The Tunisian state has progressively created and implemented a migration policy to protect Tunisian citizens abroad and to tighten ties with the country. This report presents the current policy concerning emigration – strengthening migrant ties with Tunisia and fighting against illegal migration – and policies that concern the diaspora – measures encouraging investment in Tunisia, protection of social rights abroad, new integration of the diaspora within political and civil Tunisian society. To this end, the report provides an update on the political and civil rights of emigrants (voting, plural nationalities, military duty), socio-economic rights (agreements on labor migration, custom/import incentives), social rights (family, social security) and cultural rights (languages, school, media). The report also presents the engagement of non-state actors from abroad. The collapse of the revolution has permitted the country to redefine the political participation of Tunisians abroad and their integration in politics in Tunisia. The demands of Tunisians abroad for rights to participate in politics at high levels (the right to become representatives in the Assembly; the right for a Tunisian with dual-nationality citizenship to become President) were ratified on January 2014.

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan does not have concrete policies focussing on emigration and/or the diaspora. Despite the large numbers of Afghan nationals residing outside the country, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan does not have an overall policy-framework related to migration. This report describes the existing structures and laws that can have an impact on emigration from Afghanistan and on Afghanistan’s diaspora.

Russian Federation is the closest Northern neighbour of China. Relations with Russia are thus in the center of Chinese geopolitical and economic interests are nowadays. In 1990-2010 socio-economic and political cooperation between the two countries got more dynamic and presented the following features: cross-border labor increased; the amount of investments and trade increased; new forms of migration appeared, and intercultural exchanges between the populations intensified. The transformation of socio-economic and political relations changed also the style of living and infrastructure of the border regions of Russia and China. The objective of the present paper is to probe the links between the Chinese investments and migration of the Chinese to Russia in the period 1990-2012. The paper proceeds thus in the following four steps: brief description of investments and trade exchange between Russia and China; analysis of migration flows between China and Russia in the new economic context; categorization of Chinese migration to Russia and of economic activities of Chinese diaspora and their links to investment; analysis of specificities of socio-economic adaptation of Chinese migrants in Russia.

In the last decades Portugal has become a new receiving country of international migration flows. This report seeks to provide an overview of immigrant integration policies in Portugal. Special focus is given to evolving integration policy tools and to the role of state and non-state actors in the promotion of migrants’ integration. Furthermore, the report also addresses local-level policies stressing new forms of governance and good practices. The implementation of a policy of inclusion and interculturality has brought major changes to immigration phenomena in Portugal, though the present-day economic and social crisis constitutes a major challenge to be dealt with, especially in a European context of rising anti-immigration discourses and xenophobia.

In 2012 there were approximately 50 million Chinese people living overseas across more than 100 countries (Wu 2011). By 2006, more than 30 million Chinese people had returned to China from abroad (Gao 2007). Both overseas Chinese nationals and those who had returned from overseas are regarded as important in China’s modernization drive (Liu Z. 2005). The Chinese government values the rights and interests of the diaspora Chinese, Chinese returnees, and their family members, and the rights and interests of Chinese citizens abroad. To this end, it has promulgated laws and policies and established designated departments and offices, including the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and the Bureau of Emigration and Entry Administration in the Ministry of Public Security, to deal with matters relating to overseas Chinese and Chinese citizens abroad.

Since new rules on labour migration came into force in 2008, Sweden’s migration policy has been recognised as being among the most open and liberal in the OECD countries (OECD 2011). Sweden also has a generous asylum system compared with other EU countries, taking large numbers of refugees from countries in conflict such as Iraq and Somalia. Integration is a political priority in Sweden, and is high on the political agenda. The goal of Sweden’s integration policies is to ‘ensure equal rights, obligations and opportunities for all, irrespective of their ethnic and cultural background’. The country report provides a very brief overview of Swedish integration policies with a special emphasis on cooperation with the States and communities of origin. Particular attention is given by the author to developments that are relevant for the main INTERACT countries of origin.

This report aims to answer questions concerning emigration policy and institutional frameworks in Thailand. It identifies the different types of measures taken by the Thai Government since the introduction of the first constitution in Thailand. The government currently has three departments working extensively with emigrants and diasporas, namely: (i) the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare—the Thailand Overseas Employment Administration; (ii) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—the Protection of Thai Nationals Abroad Division, and (iii) the Office of the Attorney General—the Office of International People’s Rights Protection (OIPP)—the Department of Peoples’ Rights Protection and Legal Aid. In summary, the report highlights the fact that the roles and functions of existing migration departments are designed primarily for labour emigrants. In the end, the organised nature of labour migration (which is handled recruitment agencies) facilitates a higher volume of migrants to be assisted and protected. Unfortunately, such a policy makes others–who are less prepared or more isolated–more vulnerable to unsafe migration situations.

Emigrants from the Korean peninsula are one of the biggest migrant communities in the world, but yet little is known internationally about their characteristics or differences by geographic area. This explorative paper attempts to shed light on overseas Koreans and their classifications, and on the ways in which the state (mainly the South Korean government) deals with them. Generally speaking, it is possible to distinguish overseas Koreans into Kyopos (in the Western world and in Japan), Koryos (based in the ex-Soviet Union), and Chosuns (the Korean diaspora in China). While the South Korean state tends to only address their situation with a visa policy upon those returning to their homeland, NGOs and other private organizations are more active in addressing the needs of the Korean diasporas abroad.

Despite the 2008 economic crisis and the increase in emigration flows, immigration to Italy has continued, albeit to a lesser extent than in previous years. In 2013 immigrants stood at 7.4% of the country population. Nevertheless, immigration is still considered a problem, even an emergency: political and public attention is often focussed on illegal migration, whereas a well-structured integration policy discourse is nowhere to be seen. This paper offers an insight into this issue, giving an overview on integration policies in Italy: which social actors are involved in the formulation and implementation of these policies, and how the issue is discussed in public and political discourses. Mapping the main policy tools and social actors in migrant integration, the paper highlights how Italian integration policies are mostly concentrated on economic integration, whereas social and cultural policies remain marginal. The paper also shows that a gap between policies and practices may occur, due to failed or absent policies, which is largely compensated for by the intervention of non-state actors.