Shifting Patterns and Reactions—Migration Policy in the New EU Member States

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of patterns of migration and related policy reactions in the new EU member states. The empiric findings that combine both similarities and dissimilarities between cases are interpreted against two major context factors: (1) democratic and economic transition as well as (2) Europeanization. As it turns out, late socialism and the first stage of transition are more relevant for understanding migration flows, whereas impacts from the EU level help us to make sense of the character of reactions. As expected by Europeanization research, the migration policies of Central European countries do not amount to homogeneous profiles of migration policy. In order to understand differences, we can again refer to different transition paths prevalent in specific cases.

Migration Patterns and Core–Periphery Relations from the Central and Eastern-European Perspective

“…While the largest Hungarian migrant community can be found in Germany, there are also large groups of Romanian residents in Hungary deriving from historical movements and kinship ties, as large parts of today’s Romania were once part of Hungary. In addition, the considerable number of Vietnamese people in the Czech and Slovak Republic can be explained by the international division of labour in the former Soviet bloc 31 . All these illustrate in fact that the migration patterns in the CEE countries are strongly connected to historic events and kinship networks, and not just to economic factors.…”

A comparative analysis of migration systems and migration policies in the European Union and in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

“…At the same time that EU nationals have migrated from East to West, the countries in Southern and Eastern Europe have attracted large groups of migrants from outside the EU, primarily from countries that earlier were parts of the Soviet Union and the Yugoslav Federation, and from countries in Northern Africa (Barnickel & Beichelt, 2013). As we can see from the table above, the national composition of migrant populations in European receiving countries differs a lot.…”

“…An additional complexity creates multiple inflows and outflows in the same regions as some countries are simultaneously sizable sending and receiving countries. For example, new Member States in Eastern Europe have in the last decade been both sending countries and receiving countries, especially for migrants from countries which before were part of the Soviet Union (Beichelt & Barnickel, 2013;Castles et al, 2014;Sobis, Junjan, & De Vries, 2015).…”

“…15 As will be discussed later in the article, many countries in Europe, such as Germany, Poland, France and Hungary, also have large diasporas in Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and the countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. Millions of co-ethnics from these diasporic communities have migrated to their ancestral countries (Beichelt & Barnickel, 2013;Capo Zmegac, 2005).…”

The “refugee crisis” and the transformation of the far right and the political mainstream: the extreme case of the Czech Republic

“…The assumption that immigrants and refugees are not overtly politicised by the CEE far right remains predominant in more recent studies (e.g. Barnickel and Beichelt 2013;Minkenberg 2013;Pirro 2015).…”