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| FINAL REPORT Socrates Intensive Program Komotini 2003-04-05 Final Report of Group B - Social exclusion and integration Annika Skogberg Mart Leys Nynke Lijn Miriam Pfister Catherine Pantou Iro Zoumbopoulou Andreia de Jesus Social exclusion and integration 1. Social exclusion 1.1 Concept Social exclusion is a state of social disintegration and unbelonging in the society that you live in. Another interpretation of the term is poverty and deprivation. It is a multidimensional item that refers to the dynamic relationship between the excluded and the included in the society. It also denotes a break of social band. Everything can be a factor of social exclusion. It depends on which situation you are in and which point of view you have. 1.2 Factors of social exclusion -Education is a factor because the lack of knowledge can lead to exclusion as far as political live and employment is concerned. If you don't have the appropriate knowledge of the language or of the political system in the country you live in, you can't participate in the process of decision making, for example in the elections. -Racism is a factor of social exclusion. It is a recent word created to indicate the doctrine that insinuate the existence of superior races and that the racial mixture degrades the human species. Racism can lead to social exclusion for example if an employee don't want to hire a person because he has a foreign identity. A person who has a certain religion, age or who has aids, etc can be a victim of racism. -Another factor is xenophobia, which means hate, fear and hostility towards foreigners. It's a form of racism. This attitude is opposite to human solidarity, equality and understanding between people. -Lack of the provided social services by the country you live in can also lead to social exclusion. For example if there are no ramps for the disabled in the public buildings, they are literally excluded from social life. In combination with the lack of social services another factor for social exclusion is the geographic location. For example if there are no busses provided for those who live far away from the center they are geographical excluded. -Inadequate income is a factor of social exclusion because when you have shortage of financial recourses your's life level is not high enough to participate in the society you live in. -Dysfunctional families can lead to social exclusion, because for example when there is abuse in the families or when the parents have a alcoholic problem, etc, the child often has problem of adjusting in social live. -Unemployment can lead to social exclusion, because of lack of daily communication, respect and the satisfaction of earning your own money. 1.3 Conclusion of social exclusion These factors are usually not all present in the live of a person. But if there is just one factor present in the live of a person, it can lead to social exclusion. For example poverty can cause the exclusion of social live because you have no means to participate in society. One can look at social exclusion of the point of view of the society and of the individual. The individual can have the feeling that he or she is excluded from society, and from society's point of view a person who don't fit in can be excluded. 2. Poverty 2.1 Fighting poverty In our explanation we refer to Dorotta Lepianka who said; "Neither material poverty necessarily entails exclusion, nor exclusion is bound to involve poverty- not only is it possible to be socially excluded and not materially poor, but it is also possible to be poor and not excluded." Principle of solidarity is used in the fighting of poverty. The principle of solidarity means that people take care of each other: the younger take care for the older, the rich for the poor and the healthy for the disabled. The level of solidarity is related to the view society has on the poor. For example, in the Middle Ages the poor were the children of God. In the Modern Times, the poor were seen as lazy, not responsible and stupid and their situation was a punishment of God. Nowadays, in Europe we don't blame the poor anymore, although the individual view is still used in the USA. In Europe we now have a social view of poverty, but there is still a distinction in the views on different groups of the groups of poor. Since the poor law in the early 19th century, they distinguish different categories of poor people. On the one hand there is a group of poor people who deserve help from society, like the aged, sick and infirm people and children. On the other hand there is a group of poor people who don't deserve this help: like unemployed people, idle paupers and those capable of working. Poverty has different causes: there are political causes, economical causes and social causes, which are different in each European country. The fighting of poverty is probable one of the most important goals of any social society. 2.2 Deservingness criteria The basis of solidarity depends on the criteria used in society. -Level of need: this means that people are willing to offer more support for those in greater need. -Control: when a needy situation is seen beyond the control of the individual of household, the support is generally higher. -Attitude of poor people towards support: when people who are in need respond gratefully to the need they are receiving, the support will generally be higher -Identity of the poor: the people we like and feel comfortable with, mostly get more help. -Reciprocity: we are willing to help those people who have helped us before or of whom we expect to get help in the future. For example: we tend to give more help to the elderly in our society, because we have a bond with them, we have a good chance to belong to this category in the future. Their attitude towards support is known to be grateful. In the public eye, they are seen as having earned their right to be supported. 1.3 Conclusion These criteria are often used in the dividing of benefits and social services in the European countries. The different dimensions of public attitudes towards the poor have created these criteria. So in the end, the attitude of the society towards the poor determinates the level of solidarity. 3. Multiculturalism 3.1 Definition Most industrialized societies are multicultural. This means that there are different groups of different cultural, ethnical and linguistic background, living in the same society. The notion of multiculturalism is different in each country. Throughout the whole world there is a trend of globalization, an example can be the increase of multinational firms. And there is also a trend of continuous immigration. These trends are causing changes in the European society, for example in the immigration policies or the transformation of cultures: there is a mixing of different cultural aspects in society. There is a cultural relativism that means that the value systems of the different cultures can't be compared to each other. But we should make a distinction between socio-cultural praxis and an ethnicity of the immigrants: those notions are often confused. The cultural difference that exists between "the immigrant" and the local people fades after several decades. Nevertheless the feeling of ethnic "difference" remains highly relevant. 3.2 Social rights The social rights of the foreigners can be seen on three different levels: political and social rights are protected on the universal level (United Nations), on the continental level (European Union and the Council of Europe) and on the national level of each country. For example: the human rights of refugees are protected in the Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations and even illegal foreigners have the right for urgent medical help. There should be a balance between the human rights and the rights in each country, so both on the universal level and on the national level. In this way there can be a harmonization of policies towards refugees and immigrants and can contradicts be avoided. 3.3 Conclusion Every country in Europe becomes more and more multicultural, because of immigration. This demands new policies and attitudes towards different cultures. Both the autochthons and the immigrants can affect each other in positive as well as negative way. People try to find a creative way to combine the different cultural sources in their life. 4. Integration 4.1 Concept The concept of integration represents the way individuals cope with their new country, for example, language skills, knowledge about community and being part of working society. There is a great importance in the economical, social, living and cultural integration. There are two important aspects of integration: or all immigrants should be a member of the society or they should be treated as equals. 4.2 Integration versus assimilation We should make a distinction between integration and assimilation. As we defined in our discussion, the last means that the immigrant should leave his cultural aspects behind and adopt the habits and values of the host country. More likely to demand is an integration; in this case the immigrant can keep his cultural habits and values as far as they are not conflicting with those of the home country and he should adopt those rules and values of the host country that are most important to participate. 4.3 Conclusion It is very hard to measure the integration of immigrants in the society. It depends on your definition, and on your opinion of the level of integration which is needed to be called "integrated". The political policy should be very clear about it, and in the most European countries there is a lack of this. The issue of integration becomes more important because of the increase of the immigration in Europe. 5. Challenges and solutions There should be social services that have answers to the different problems that exist in Europe. Each government in an active welfare state can create social policies that realize the following: -A safety net that provides a basic standard of living for every member of society. This can be realized through minimal income, minimal pensions and funds for children. These funds should be based on the needs of the families: those families without sufficient resources should gain them from the government. -There should be the possibility for all members of society to have a free education and health care. It is the national law that provides these rights for the legal people in society. The international law guarantees the right of urgent medical help for those who are not legal in the country. -Taxes should be higher for the people who earn more money and lower for those who earn less. This is so that the state can provide the social services to the citizens. There should be social services that provides knowledge, information and education in society, such as: -Newspapers in different languages to inform all the people who have difficulties with the national language. -Free lessons for immigrants to learn the national language, spoken in the society they live in. -Centers that provide information for immigrants in each country. -Free books about important historical events, for example information books about the Holocaust. -Urgent investigation of the new needs of the society. This can be realized through locally sharing information about the problems between social workers and the government, which could speed up the process of finding solutions for the problems in society. -Seminars for teachers about multiculturalism. They can learn to teach objectively about ethics and values. It is better to start teaching about ethics and values at an early age. This way you can give the children the instrument to take in, interpret and be critical to the information given to them by the society. Participation of the citizens; Our suggestion is a more active citizen society, where citizens will be given initiatives and will get encouraged to participate in taking decisions. The government should provide more power to the municipalities and to the local authorities. Decentralization would make citizens to participate more actively. Then the citizens will acquire more political power and achieve social change. In some European countries with this way citizens could create social policies where is lack of them. This is the aim that we are trying to achieve that there are adequate social policies for every citizen in the society. We understand that this is a very long process to achieve. 6. Evaluation In the Socrates Program we learned aspect of similarity and difference between countries that participate in this program, about multiculturalism and social policies. FINAL REPORT OF GROUP C Minorities and Community Work in Europe Greece: Agathi Katsonopoulou Georgia-Eleni Lempesi Sweden: Erik Odal Nilsson Kristoffer Rosin Switzerland: Nicholas Corbaz Belgium: Wouter Werelst Portugal: Ana Carolina Vilas Boas Netherlands: Marjolein van Oosterbos Introduction In this final report we have described and discussed some specific topics concerning minority question. The countries that are mentioned are Portugal, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium Switzerland and Greece. We have tried to give a general view of each country which gives us the opportunity to compare minorities in one country to another. We have discussed the historical reasons for the existence of minorities and what kind of different policies each country has. Further more we have discussed the current situation and what kind of community work exists in different countries. At the end of this report we will discuss our own thoughts and our own conclusions about how different minority problems such as segregation and exclusion can be solved. 1. History of minorities in Europe In this issue we will discuss some of the historical reasons for the existence of minorities in six European countries -Portugal, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Belgium and Greece. 1.1 Portugal The minorities in Portugal have they origin mostly in the flow of immigration. But apart from this, we can say that there has been ethic minorities in Portugal since the foundation of the nation. The majority of these ethnic minorities come to Portugal for economical reasons, but we can also talk about historical reasons-most of them came from the ex-Portuguese colonies in Africa and they start coming after the decolonisation (70's). A large number of this African Minorities are Muslim but the majority of them are Christian. Beside the African minorities, Portugal also have Asians, gypsies and Indians but their number is not as significantly as the African minorities. 1.2 Sweden In Sweden there are five minorities that are recognized by the government, these are: Sapmis, Swedish-Finnish people, Romans, Tornedal-Finnish people and the Jewish people. These groups have been living in Sweden for several hundred years. The Muslim minority started to arrive to Sweden in the 1970's and they came mostly from the Middle East and Africa. In the 1990,s they mostly came from Yugoslavia. These groups came mostly because of war and starvation. 1.3 The Netherlands In the Netherlands we discern several groups of former immigrants. -Indonesian people. Indonesia is a former Dutch colony and many came in the 1950's after World War 2. -Moroccan people. Came in the 1960's to work and due to family reuniting. -Turkish people. Came in the 1960's to work and due to family reuniting. -Surinamese people came in the 1970's. Surinamese was a Dutch colony. -Antillean people begun coming in the 1970 and are still coming. The Antillean is a Dutch colony. The people from Suriname en the Antillean came to improve their life situations. During these decades till now people from other countries came to Holland. They came to Holland to work, to have a better education, flew from war countries, etcetera. The abovementioned are the largest groups in Holland 1.4 Belgium From the period after World War 2 till the seventies, Belgium had an active encouraging immigration policy. Because there was a lack of workers in the Belgian mines. Belgium organized bilateral pacts. There were pacts with Italy in 1946, with Spain, with Greece and since the "golden sixties" with Turkey and Morocco. We can see that just till now all groups forms an important minority in Belgium. In 1974 the Belgian government declared a immigration stop stimulated by economic decreases. 1.5 Switzerland There are 7 million inhabitants in Switzerland ad 20% of them are foreign nationality (without people who have provisional work permit -50.000-, and asylum applicants-65.790-). But you have to consider that more than a half of foreigners have resident in Switzerland for 15 years and many are born in this country. In fact 62 % of them could ask for Swiss nationality, but the naturalization process is one of the most strict and expensive in Europe. That is why only 2 % request for it per year. Most of them come from Spain, Portugal, Ex-Yugoslavia and Italy. They came in this country for work in the context of the Swiss economic growth. Because of the petrol crisis in 1974, quotas were introduced according to the needs of work market. 1.6 Greece Although there are several minorities in Greece, the only one officially recognized is the Muslim minority. The war in Asia Minor ended with the Lausanne Treaty in 1922. According to this treaty "from the 1st May 1923 there shall take place the compulsory exchange of Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox Religion established in Turkish territory and of Greek nationals of the Muslim religion established in Greek territory". It was the first time in the history of International Law that states were obligated to exchange populations. The Orthodox of Istanbul, Imbros and Tenedos and the Muslims of Western Thrace were excepted from the exchanges. With the Lausanne Treaty the Greek and the Turkish state accepted officially, for the first time, the existence of minorities in their territory. The Muslim minorities in Greece is composed of three culturally different groups: -The Turkish origin -The Pomaks -The Roms Estimates from the information office at Greek Embassy in London based on the 1981 Census figures, give a total of 110.000 people belonging to religious minorities in Greece of whom some 60.000 are Muslims speaking Turkish, 30.000 are Pomaks and 20.000 are Athigani or Roman Gypsies. In conclusion, what we can see when we look at all these facts is that there are lots of differences in what concerns minorities in Europe. The biggest difference as we can see is that the Greek Muslim minorities aren't immigrants, as they are on the rest of the countries. 2. Current Situation and Policy Evolution 2.1 Portugal The actual situation of ethnic minorities in Portugal is quite preoccupant. The rates of unemployment are now increasing inside this communities, that are facing a lot of problems connected with this. Their living conditions are now becoming worst, and the social policies have now to face new problems. The minorities are usually physic and socially isolated from the rest of the community and tend to concentrate in certain cities. The range of participation in the global society is low. Although this, some minorities are considered to be well integrated in the Portuguese society, like the Islamic community in Lisbon. The Portuguese Law for immigrants is now more severe and restricted that in the past, due to the economical problems that the country is facing. It was introduced a "quotas system"- the country only receives the number of immigrants that correspond to the needs of the work market. Nowadays, if an immigrant wants to live in Portugal, he will have to go to the Portuguese Embassy or Consulate on his country of origin and apply to the available job offers. In what concerns social policies, the minorities have the right to access to the health and education system and other social benefits if they are legal. The exception are the children, that have special system of social benefits, no matter is legal status. The government created an organism to deal with the integration questions, namely information and Portuguese courses. His main goals are reached with the help of the immigrants associations and NGO's, trough communitary networks. 2.2 Sweden The situation for the immigrants in Sweden are that when they have received their permission to stay in Sweden they often are offered apartments in the suburbs, mostly in the bigger cities. Because of that there are suburbs in Sweden that is mainly occupied by the minorities it leads to segregation and exclusion from the Swedish society. One of the main problems in Sweden concerning this areas is lack of Swedish people, which prevents the immigrants to improve their Swedish language, cultures and values. But it is important to mention that immigrants are not excluded by law, they have the same rights as the rest of the population. In order to assimilate and integrate immigrants the Integration Board were established in 1998. The Integration Boards main goal is, "that all residents should be offered equal opportunities to participate in the Swedish society, with all that means in terms of rights, obligations and opportunities." The current situation in Sweden is that the unemployment rate in this areas are high and also the crime rates. In other parts of Sweden in more sparsely-built areas, there is an positive development according to integrating immigrants in the Swedish society. 2.3. The Netherlands Until the end of the seventies the Netherlands had a policy that differed strongly according to the staying of the newcomers was temporarily. The first generation of immigrants came to the Netherlands to work and their staying was thought to be temporarily. They had to live in their own community, which was called integration with preservation of their own identity. In 1973 the Dutch government stopped with obtaining with migrant workers, but the migrant workers who were already in the Netherlands had made a beginning with family reuniting. This led to a policy on family reuniting. At the end of the seventies its was clear that the immigrants were going to stay. This led to a new policy. The aim integration with preservation of their own identity was adjusted. The migrant workers had to integrate in the Dutch society. The society had to be shaped in a way that all groups in the Netherlands can live together. During the time the policies were changed, but the main aim stayed integration and emancipation of immigrants in the Dutch society. The current situation in the Netherlands is that the Turkish and Moroccan groups are large groups in the society. Even though they don't have to live in their own community, a lot of Turkish and Moroccan people live together in the same parts of cities. The Moroccan group is a topic of discussion in the Netherlands. The unemployment rate is high even as the criminality rate and high school dropout rate among the Moroccan youth. Society is saying that the integration policy held by the government failed. This stream of consciousness led to an increase of right wing politics in the Netherlands. ( LPF) 2.4 Belgium In Belgium the topic of ethnic cultural minorities have an important place on the political agenda. After a great electoral gain in 1991 of the "Vlaams Blok", a Flemish extreme right party, the government tries to change the former thought; that immigrants would return after a temporary stay. Although government is trying to construct a coherent policy they are scared to take "extreme" measures that will give the extreme right party the opportunity to become stronger. Government nowadays stresses 3 kinds of policy. Firstly the emancipation policy for people who are here permanently, secondly the treatment policy is established for people who are new in the country, thirdly the reception treatment opt to give people a human treatment when they stay only a short period in Belgium. The current situation is that Muslim communities live in the suburbs of the big cities. Mostly they live in the same neighborhood with strong ties between people of the same culture. Trends towards decentralization help governments to reach easily geographical and cultural communities. Mixes between allochtonous and autochthonous people are more common on this level. So f.e.: a lot of programs / projects with minorities find place on the community level. 2.5 Switzerland In Switzerland, the lucrative activity of a foreigner is regulated in his authorization of stay. They can only occupy jobs for which no Swiss has been found. Equal labor rights are only accorded after 5 or 10 years of non stop work and stay. That is why most foreigners work in cheap and low qualified sectors, mainly construction, agriculture, hotel trades and restoration, manufacturing industry and services. This situation explains why 34 % of the working poor in this country are foreigners. But the introduction of the Agreement on freedom of movement of people between EU and Switzerland in June 2002 deeply changes the immigration policy and foreigners life conditions. It will become totally effective only after one limited period twelve years, to try having a better control of it effects. The main changes are: -The working conditions are the same for Swiss and foreigners -Professional and geographic mobility is authorized -The seasonal permit is abolished -Foreigners may have an independent job This Agreement should improve the work conditions of foreigners in Switzerland. But in parallel, the only way for non EU citizens to come in this country is to request asylum, what improves illegal situations. 2.6 Greece During the post Second War period, Greek policy sought to disfranchise the minority in Thrace, viewing it as a danger to national unity and territorial integrity that had to be assimilated or defended against . The major policies taken part are: -The members of the Muslim minority were severely restricted in their freedom of movement to 30 kms radius of their residence until 1991, where this measure was abolished. -Although the members of Muslim minority are Greek citizens unlike Greek Orthodox Christians they couldn't buy real-estate. They also didn't have the permission to build or restore their houses and the mosques. -Till 1990 the government policy towards Thrace had a strategic character. Economic motives were given to Christian so they could invest in Thrace and to obtain their financial power. -Under the military Dictatorship of 1967-1974 the situation were even worse. Members of the Turkish minority community boards were dismissed and replaced by non elected people, appointed by government agencies prepared to act contrary to Muslim interests. These nationalistic politics had as aim the total isolation of the minority and has as a result a huge social economic gap and inequality between Christians and Moslems communities. At 90's, because of the pressure coming from the EU and the interest of political parties to attack the Muslim vote, the policies changed. There was an effort of promoting the representation and participation of the minorities in decisions about resources, distribution and regional development. Within the framework of transference of responsibilities to Local Authorities in the whole country, there was an effort of promoting the participation of Muslims in the local councils so they can promote their requests. Since 1995, despite the problematic implementation, the local perfectual institutions have already produced important and positive results at the relationship between minority, government and public administration. As for the minority education, primary and part of the secondary is bilingual (lessons are given in Greek and Turkish). Minority education is ineffective since a large part of minority members cannot speak Greek well so they leave school too early. This situation has a serious impact on their participation in the labor market. Some of them study at secondary and higher education in Turkey. Recently after 1996 there are about 1200 students in Greek Universities, with the decision of the Minister of National Education to define a separate percentage of 5% to be admitted in Universities without taking general examinations. There are also debates about changes in the primary minority education. In conclusion, the policy evolution in Switzerland, Portugal, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece are different. It seems that different countries have different ways of dealing with immigrants and minorities but there are similarities. Every country tries to integrate them and tries to prevent exclusion. In some of the countries the work have been going on for a long time but in other countries the work has just begun. Even if the countries have similar problems with segregation and exclusion the causes of these phenomenal are different. In Greece for example, lot of the problems are caused by historical reasons such as the conflict between Greece and Turkey. Every country has it's own way to achieve their goals but common opinions are sometimes in contradiction with government policy. Due to the problems with unemployment and criminality among the immigrants xenophobic voices are increasing, in Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland there already "xenophobic" parties in the government. 3. Community Work Community work is essential for developing the society in a positive direction, without the community work it would be nearly impossible to create a better society for people who are living in it. 3.1 Portugal In Portugal, community work with minorities is made mainly in two fields: in the field of the general information and Portuguese courses for foreigners and a more specific work, done in specific communities. This includes, most of the time, projects for certain quarters, normally made in the basis of parternership between associations of minorities and other institutions like churches, schools, local authorities, among others. These projects, which aim is to improve the living conditions of this populations, are also trying to promote the participation of the minorities in the general society. 3.2 Sweden In Sweden the community works in different ways to prevent segregation and exclusion, for instance, language courses and courses for unemployed immigrants. Community work in Sweden also provides with financial aid and free medical treatment for people in need for such help. 3.3. The Netherlands In the Netherlands the main aim of the community works is to create a climate of understanding that will help in the integration processes. There are classes for immigrants to learn the language and the culture. In mostly all neighborhoods there are meeting centers. Social workers work there to arrange contacts between native and migrant youth and elderly people. 3.4 Belgium In Belgium community work is based on different themes. Particular discussion groups tries to combine the visions of all social actors on a specific social problem. Examples are: creating multicultural houses, bringing cultures together in art projects, organizing language courses, 3.5. Switzerland. In Switzerland the state doesn't directly interfere in the integration programs. In fact it gives money to private organizations to deal with that question. The state protection only appears when every other solution hasn't worked. However the structural conditions offered to the migrants by legislation about the access to the labor market and the way in which they are received strongly condition the possibilities of integration. 3.6 Greece In Greece essential attempts of community work have recently started to develop. Such examples are the two "Social Intervention programs" in Thrace that are carried out from the Department of Social Administration of the Dimocritus University of Thrace. These programs are taking place at Muslim villages that are undeveloped and multicultural societies. Their purpose is the local development, the improvement of communication between different cultural groups, the mobilization of the population and the social inclusion of the excluded groups. 4. Conclusion During the Intensive program and writing the final report we noticed differences and similarities on minority policies and community care. The discussions held on those subject helped us to create an important goal of community care. We can formulate it as: One of the aims of community work is to approach an objective image about the "not-known" cultures. We divided the aim in three different pillars, that will all influence the image. The three pillars are: 1. Information Social workers have the responsibility to improve mutual understanding that can led to respect. They can obtain the understanding by giving objective information about different cultures. This process needs to be reciprocitive. We think that in this way the mainstream image can be changed. 2. Education. Education plays an important role in creating values. That's why a multi-cultural approach is necessary to obtain our aim. A collaboration between social workers and teachers can help teachers approaching children and parents from different cultures. 3. Social life. Social life is an instrument to improve contact between people of different cultures. By organizing social events the social worker can reduce the distance between the different cultures. FINAL REPORT OF GROUP D Contents: 1: The European Aims in the Immigration Policy 2: Immigration policies in different countries 2.1 Portugal 2.2 Switzerland 2.3 Belgium 2.4 Greece 2.5 Netherlands 2.6 Sweden 2.7 Conclusion 3. Rights of migrants in the European Union. 3.1 Rights for internal migrants: 3.2 Rights for external migrants 4. Analyses of the Schengen agreement 4.1 Political immigrants. 4.2 Economical immigrants 4.2.1 Quest workers 4.2.2 Permanent economical immigrants 4.3 Illegal immigrants 1: The European Aims in the Immigration Policy One of the main goals of the European Union besides developing a common asylum policy is also to develop a common policy towards immigration. It is known that the co-operation in Europe in the area of immigration is considerably less progressive than within of the area of asylum rights. Since May 1999 when the Amsterdam Treaty came into force and the immigration and the asylum policies were handed over to the European Commission, a set of proposals is being presented for the elaboration of the future community regulation. Although just in 2001 they have specified the global goals of the common rules about immigration. The main goal is to establish a co-operation in judicial and domestic issues to develop a region of freedom, security and justice. They worked on the following issues: - Free movement of people: the aim of this is to gather under one single legislative act the current rules for both professionally active people and non-active people's rights to enter and stay in the member state. - Expulsion and return: to arrange a common policy on the return and expulsion, bilateral agreements and negotiations have been signed with third countries. - Illegal Immigration: an action plan for combating illegal immigration and human trafficking are the following: visa's, border control , preventive measures and sanctions against smuggling and human trafficking. It is also important to refer to the role of the sea borders, e.g. try to find a possibility of establishing a common seaway border control force. - Asylum :the main goal must be to convert as many transit countries as possible to secure first asylum countries. - Border policy: common policy for EU's co-operation in external border control including the sea borders. - Area of visa's: practical application of the Schengen regulatory frame work and strengthening of the local consulate co-operation between EU's Member States but also between EU and the candidate countries is of significant importance. Several important legislative acts have been adopted in the area of visa's, including the EU agreement on a common list for third countries that must have a visa and a common list of third countries that are except from visa requirements. Beside the EU there are other international organizations who work also on the field of immigration, such as the IOM (International Organization for Migration), CAHAR (the European Directorate General of Legal Affairs expert committee for the protection of asylum-seekers and refugees), OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and United Nations organizations like the UNHCR (UN high Commissioner for Refugees). 2: Immigration policies in different countries 2.1 Portugal In Portugal if an immigrant wants to live in the country he will have to go to the Portuguese embassy or consulate on his country of origin and apply for the job offers. The family and the immigrant who already lives in the country has to be already legalized himself.There is a restriction on foreign labor legally authorized to work in Portugal. There is an annual report about the provision of job opportunities, by sector.There are also systems to find illegal labor and immigration, when the laws are disobeyed there are severe punishments. 2.2 Switzerland Switzerland does not know a distinct work permit. Lucrative activity of a foreigner in its authorization of stay. A foreigner who wants to be employed in Switzerland has to have an authorization of work and stay. The priority on the labor market is given to Swiss.The authorizations of stay are assigned only to the workers from the European Union and the European free Exchange. Asylum is given strictly, only if the person can prove that he was persecuted personally in his country and that he absolutely needs protection in Switzerland. Switzerland accept that immigrant workers come only if its economic situation allows it. Switzerland accepts only precise number of foreigners who comes to work . These quota's which regulate the admittances of the foreigners depends on the relative size of the labor market of each canton and its manpower of workers. Switzerland gives only professional permit to the foreign workers and allow establishment only after a long stay in the country. 2.3 Belgium Since 1974 decided to close the borders for the immigrants. Just for two reasons they made an exception, for bringing a family together or on request of asylum. The controls on the borders of the airports got stronger and who did not have the right papers are sent back. But the government started the regularization in 1999 of the immigrants without papers. Since 28th of April 1998 there is a policy that gives special attention to three aspects of the minority policy concerning ethnic cultural minorities namely the emancipation policy, the treatment policy and the reception policy. The emancipation policy is meant for people that are staying permanently in the country. The purpose of this policy is to get rid of the arrears of the foreign inhabitants. The treatment policy is especially established for people that are new in the country. It is meant to show them the way in our society. The reception policy is to give people that are only for a while in Belgium and maybe even illegal , a human treatment. 2.4 Greece Recently there as been a review in the Greek legislation about immigration in order to cope with the increasing inboard flows. Since the legislation of of 1991 was proven to be totally deficient in facing it. The reason for that was that this law was actually a policy that had many points in common with the previously tested ones which had failed in the past. The new law which is called "Entrance and residence of foreigners in Greece Possession of Greek citizenship by naturalization and other regulations", is consisted of 16 chapters and 75 articles. The chapters include the circumstances under which a foreigner is allowed to enter the country and get a permission of staying information for the services needed to be constructing for the implementation of the new legislation, regulations for the possession of the Greek citizenship, etc. 2.5 Netherlands The Dutch policy is based on the Geneva pact of 1951. The European pact for human rights and the foreigner law of 2000. If someone will choose to immigrate in Holland and has a Dutch passport he/she will have the same rights as all the others Dutch citizens. The foreigner can also keep his own nationality. Also for immigrants with a Dutch or equal nationality the contribution to the Dutch government depends on the income during the application .This may be financial impossible for many immigrants especially the ones who care to Holland at an older age. So a lot of foreigner people depend on social security allowance. 2.6 Sweden The main goal of the Swedish government is that the immigrants should have the same standard as the Swedish citizens. The immigrants should be treated as equals and their cultural background is accepted and encouraged. All organizations and Swedish boards are obligated to make sure that the immigrants are treated in the same way and have the same rights as the Swedish citizens 2.7 Conclusion As we can see there are some similarities as well as differences between the immigration policies of the different countries. All the countries respect the human rights. Despite the fact that the different countries have different immigration policies they try to live up to the immigration goals of the European Union. There is still a long way to reach the same aims as the European Union 3. Rights of migrants in the European Union. When we talk about rights of migrants in Europe, at first we have to make a distinction between internal migrants and external migrants: -Internal migrants: migrants within the European countries. -External migrants: migrants from other countries. In this chapter we will summarize the current situation in the EU that refers to the rights of migrants within the EU countries. 3.1 Rights for internal migrants: The roots of the EU were grounded in the "Schengen Agreement". The basic idea behind this agreement was to make it easier to travel for citizens. By then, Germany, France and the Benelux countries signed this agreement. It removes controls on persons (irrespective of their nationality) at internal borders between member states. It also harmonizes controls at the EU's external borders and introduces a common policy on visas. The original five "Schengen states" agreed that they would create an area where people could move freely between their respective territories. They removed all internal border controls, and countries may only reintroduce them in certain well specified circumstances. Now every European Union citizen has the right to travel freely around the EU and settle anywhere within its territory. The Maastricht Treaty (1992) introduces the concept of citizenship of the EU, which confers on every EU citizen a fundamental and personal right to move and live where he or she wants. The basic idea behind this is improve the European identity by greater involvement of citizens in the European integration process. The Amsterdam Treaty strengthened these rights; now the Schengen agreement was fully incorporated in all EU countries (no control of persons within the EU). This treaty also made legislation to tackle most form of discrimination against individuals of specific groups of people (on grounds of nationality, race, sex, religious belief, disability, age or sexual orientation). The Amsterdam Treaty has established procedures intended to secure their protection. It also gave the European Court of Justice the power to ensure respect of fundamental rights and freedoms by the European institutions. Fundamental rights of EU citizens (Treaty of Amsterdam): -Moving freely in security -Prevent illegal entrance in EU as much as possible -More efficient crime fighting (cooperation between police services and judicial authorities) Other basic rights of EU citizens: -The right to vote, and stand as a candidate in elections (of EU parliament) -Benefit from diplomatic and consular protection from EU authorities when traveling outside the EU -The right to complain about EU institutions directly (at either the European Parliament or the Union's Ombudsman) The whole idea behind these treaties (especially the Schengen Agreement) is not to create a kind of a fortress against "foreigners", but they try to make it easier to travel within the EU countries for a legitimate person. On the other hand they try to decrease the criminality (for example exploiting people). The EU members: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway fully implement the Schengen provisions. Ireland and the United Kingdom will take part in aspects of the Schengen Agreement that deal with cooperation between police forces and judicial cooperation, but have said they will not end border controls with other Schengen states. For this reason, travellers still have to show their passports when travelling between the UK or Ireland and the rest of the EU, although not between Ireland and the UK for which passports are not needed. 3.2 Rights for external migrants An increasing number of people wanted to have either temporarily or permanently stay in Europe. These include asylum seekers, refugees, displaced persons and those seeking temporary protection, family members coming to join migrants already settled in the EU, labour migrants and growing numbers of business migrants -those who move from country to country as part of their job. At present, methods for dealing with these people differ considerably from one EU Member State to another. The rights for external migrants depend of which status they have. For a immigrant person who comes in EU he has to stay 3 years to have the possibility to apply for the nationality. To have the same nationality means that he exactly has the same rights of membership. A immigrant has the right to family reunification when he comes to the country. It means that the spouse, the minor children of the applicant and his/her spouse, children of full age in certain specific dependent categories, and relatives in the ascending line when dependent upon the applicant, are eligible to the family reunification. Unmarried partners come under the same heading as spouse, but only where allowance is made for this under legislation of each Member state. For an asylum seeker who comes in the EU, there are some general rights. Every country has to give asylum seekers the same rights, like a minimum standard such as; social protection, education for the children. 4. Analyses of the Schengen agreement When we are speaking of the Schengen agreement, this means free movement of people from EU countries. There is a problem concerning this issue. There are different migrants in the EU; the internal and the external migrants, that both have specific rules and rights (as we discussed before) which may cause problems. In this chapter we make an analyses about the idea of free movement of people (Schengen agreement), and what consequences come with the territory. When we are talking about migration of people from Europe between European countries, than it is clear that Europe looks more and more as one nation. But especially when we are talking about immigrants that come from non-European countries, than it gets more complicated. At first we have to make a difference between political and economical migrants. The political immigrants want to come to Europe, because they are in danger in their own country. When we are talking about economical immigrants, then we are talking about people who want to come to Europe because they seek better economical conditions. 4.1 Political immigrants. We may assume that political migration within the EU will not occur, because that would go against the fundamental rights which every EU government accepted. So that's why this topic is only a matter when we speak about non-European immigrants. Then we look at the human rights, which obliges us to give shelter to all political immigrants. But that is not as simple as it may seem. Many of the immigrants who come here could say that they are in danger in their own country. The question is: are they telling the truth? The solution could be to do an investigation about why they want to come to Europe, and if it is really necessary or not. Given the situation as such, this seems to be the only solution to make a distinction between real political immigrants and non-political immigrants. When we are talking about the number of immigrants that want to come to Europe, the number of requests is often over 30000 a year for every single European country. So it would be impossible to have a specific investigation for all those people. A solution for this problem could be to make categories of non-European countries (restriction policy): -Political stable non-European countries -Political instable non-European countries So if anyone tries to come to Europe who says he or she is in political danger in their own country, and the country is not recognized as a political instable country, then he or she will not be accepted. By doing that, the selection becomes more strict and easier to practice. Of course, on the other hand, there is a possibility that people who are in fact in danger have to stay in that situation. 4.2 Economical immigrants There are also many problems concerning the economical immigrants, for European- as well as non-European countries. We can make a distinction here as well: do the immigrants only want to come to Europe to work temporary, or do they want to stay period? Both cases need to be handled very different. 4.2.1 Quest workers A good example concerning guest work is season work. This could be agricultural work, or tourist work. Many vacancies in Europe could be fulfilled by European citizens from other countries. Then there won't be a problem, because of the Schengen Agreement. But what if Europe would be in the same circumstances as it was forty years ago, when there were a lot of jobs which the citizens of a country were not willing to do? Then we would need non-European workers to do these jobs. A possible solution could be a European databank concerning vacancies. Then the different embassy's would know what kind of jobs are available in Europe as a whole. A person from a non-European could apply for a job; if the job is available then he could come to the specific European country temporary or period, that would depend on the job. 4.2.2 Permanent economical immigrants If we are talking about economical immigrants who want to stay permanent, then the following discussion could be held. We can say that compared to political immigrants the economical emigrants don't have the same chance for staying in Europe. In what circumstances should we allow economical emigrants permanently? This question can be divided in two aspects. Should the permit for economic immigrants be dependent on: -The need for workers in the EU, or -The financial capacity to help people who want to come to Europe? There is not one best solution to this problem. In many European countries, economic immigrants are not allowed anymore, because there is no work for them, and as a result of that they would be dependent on social care in that county. Another important aspect is: what kind of immigrants could be allowed to the EU: only the well educated, or physically strong and healthy immigrants? Shouldn't disabled people, or older people have the same chances to reach better life circumstances? Given the humanity rights it would be most logical that everybody from non-European countries should have the same opportunities. That way we avoid discrimination of people, and that is the main purpose of humanity rights. 4.3 Illegal immigrants When we talk about people who cross the border illegal, or people that got a temporary stay but stayed in Europe anyhow, then we are talking about illegality. In this case there are many problems as well. First there is the problem about how we find these people, and then there is the question what to do with them. Normally, of course, someone who is illegal and gets caught has to go back to their own country. Many of these illegal immigrants work illegal as well; the result of this is that they are of serious competition to legal workers, because they are cheaper. Besides that, they don't contribute to the social capital. Of course they do so indirectly, because the company makes money. So by sending these illegal workers back to their own country, we could damage the European economy. Now there are many European countries which have a police force which are specialized to track down illegal people. When they find out that they have been working illegally, then not only the illegal people will be send back, but their employer will be punished as well (by giving a fine, for example).
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