Old Wine in New Bottles? Comparing the Post-War Guest Worker Migration and the Post 1989 Migration from CEE-Countries to EU-Member Countries

Migrants and Refugees in Europe

“…Integration is generally understood by migration scholars and policymakers as 'the process of mutual adaptation between host society and migrants, implying a sense of mutual respect for values that bind migrants and their host communities to a common purpose' and mutual acceptance of each other (IOM, 2011: 51). At the core of this process is the reciprocity between migrants' needs and the hosts' actions (Penninx, 2018). This means that migrants should make an effort to learn and master the new culture while the hosts should try to understand the migrants' needs and provide a variety of cultural and economic accommodations to include the migrant in the host society as fully as possible.…”

“…In practice, however, such expected reciprocity is usually skewed, to a certain extent, towards the responsibility on the part of the migrant. In terms of labour market integration, the main task of finding employment and negotiating its conditions rests on the shoulders of the migrant and depends mostly on his/ her capacity for independent and proactive decision-making (Penninx, 2018). The autonomy of the migrant's agency thus manifests itself in his/ her decision-making in the conditions of minimum reciprocity with the host society.…”

Anti-immigrant Attitudes in the European Union: What Role for Values?

“…Internally, one of the pillars of the European Union (EU) is the freedom of movement that allows European citizens to travel and work across the continent. Hundreds of thousands of people exercised this freedom when Central and Eastern Europeans migrated to the West looking for a better life (Penninx 2018;Van Mol, De Valk 2016). Externally, immigrant flow to Europe from former colonies and guest worker programmes enabling people from outside Europe to move to the continent shaped migration in the 20th century (El-Enany 2020; Penninx 2018).…”