Around the Bloc: Croatia Improperly Processing Migrants, EU Says
Brussels takes legal action against Croatia for not registering migrants, Hungary in cross-hairs over asylum laws.
More...We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Brussels takes legal action against Croatia for not registering migrants, Hungary in cross-hairs over asylum laws.
More...
The president, himself a son of war refugees, accuses Europe of losing its global standing and passionately defends Angela Merkel’s leadership.
More...
Central Europeans will not be treated ‘like second-class citizens’ of the bloc, Czech official says.
More...
Legal challenge coincides with ‘vitriolic’ government-sponsored anti-migrant ad campaign.
More...
New EU member states losing hundreds, even thousands, of workers to countries with higher wages struggle to combat the toll.
More...
The Serbian government steps up its efforts to secure its borders with Bulgaria and Macedonia against migrants and smugglers.
More...
The article presents the art of Mara Oláh, known as Omara, a contemporary Romani painter from Hungary. Omara’s art has been interpreted as an aesthetic transformation and representation of the memory of the Roma suffering during World War II. The Author assumes that Omara’s paintings should be interpreted not only in the aesthetic categories but also as a moral message that facilitates the return of memory and the reaction to the contemporary instances of discrimination against the Roma. This role of art is of particular importance because the Romani remembrance of the Holocaust has not been yet transformed into the solid forms of “cultural memory” and therefore insufficiently contributes to the development of knowledge and historical consciousness of the Roma community.
More...
All of the European countries have been affected by a demographic crisis: European societies are “graying” while not enough children are born. The European labour markets, pension systems, sectors of health care and social services are strained. Most of the European countries have already experienced increased migratory flows – either as in- or as out-migration. Most of in-migration comes to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East. The annual ratio of migration to Europe is already higher than the one registered for the United States. Europe is irrevocably turning into a continent of migrants. So far, different European states and societies have reacted differently to the experience of the demographic crisis and migration. Some of the reactions involved stricter policing and social violence. The extreme right has earned some political capital playing the card of anti-immigrant protest. It is clear that institutional and social problems related to the demographic and migratory phenomena are likely to be aggravated in the future if no common European policies are designed and adopted. Taking into account the fact that internal borders between EU member-states are progressively lifted, the demographicmigration issues are bound to spill over from one European country to another. The currently existing differentiation in the sphere of citizenship, welfare and labour market will reinforce the spill-over trends. On the other hand, in a foreseeable future Europe will need more and more migrants to make up for the demographic implosion it faces. Therefore, a common migration policy is necessary from this point of view as well. Moreover, the migration policy must be complemented with a new policy of migrant integration since migrants that Europe needs should rather be perceived as its permanent citizens rather than temporary guest-workers. The construction of such common policies is difficult. To be effective, they need to be based upon both a broad political consensus among elites and on a broad social contract undersigned by the European public opinion and migrants as well.
More...
The subject of present study is the socio-economic outlook of the Russian emigration to Bulgaria as revealed by the 1920 and 1926 Bulgarian population censuses. The quantitative analysis of these census data gives the opportunity to examine in details Russian emigration’s labor activity, social structure and participation of its labor resources in various sectors, sub-sectors, professional groups and individual crafts of post-war Bulgarian economy and especially to delineate Russian women’s place in Bulgaria labor market, their social role. In the first part of the study investigated the literacy level, economic activity coefficient and sex structure of Russian immigrants’ economic activity, and in the second one – its social structure based on status in employment and occupational distribution within the social groups. Russian immigrants’ (sub)sectoral employment was predetermined by the (sub)sectoral development of the Bulgarian economy in whose structure dominated agriculture, and in industry – light industry (food and textile ones). Despite these realities about half of the Russian immigrants worked in industry, which was due to the post-war boom in some of its branches. In the initial period of their coming to Bulgaria the next in line sector, where they found jobs, was agriculture, but in 1926 we see them in public service- and liberal professions. As it concerns the social structure of the Russian diaspora in Bulgaria within it prevailed the workers – about 70% that was in contrast to the Bulgarian society, where its share was not large (but growing); the proportion of Russian workers in the entire working class in Bulgaria was small (0,6%). Russian workers were most numerous in agriculture and coal mines, but their share was most essential in the construction of roads, bridges and railways, maritime transport, metal mines, salt works, production of vegetable oils, livestock trade. Employees among Russians were around 15% (1926); their relative share within all employees in Bulgaria was much larger – they constituted more than 2% of them. Their biggest share was in the professional groups of dentists and dental technicians (17%), engineers (14%), doctors (12%), musical artists (10%). Independent, self-employees were few in Bulgarian society, among Russians even less – with a downward trend; remarkably, the latter were more in the variation of Russian women than within the one of Russian men. In distinction from the typical for Bulgaria female employment in agriculture, thanks to their high literacy and education, the Russian immigrant women found job performance mainly in public service- and liberal professions, and by mid-1920s they had already entered industrial production.
More...
Relations between former Yugoslav countries are being tested by the migrant crisis.
More...
Leaders of Bulgaria and neighbors say they will not allow their countries to become buffer zones for stranded asylum seekers.
More...
Is Oslo’s new policy a sign of warming relations with Moscow or ‘Russophobia’?
More...
At present, every fifth resident of the Federal Republic of Germany has a migration background. This state is the first immigration country in Europe and the second in the world after the United States. German policy and legislation in the field of immigration have long been an expression of a defensive attitude. Their main goal was to stop the recruitment of foreigners to work and to regulate their influx. The issue of the integration of immigrants into the host society remained outside the field of interest of decision makers. After decades of neglect in this area the first government of Chancellor Angela Merkel counted challenges related to the integration of immigrants among its priorities. Nevertheless, not until the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century did it start officially to talk about the lack of culture of welcome and recognition in Germany and the need for its creation. The second government of Angela Merkel took up this task. The change it proposed in attitude to foreigners, however, was a selective expression of openness in guidelines and practice and as such did not constitute a sufficient response to the challenges for the German state and its society. After the first - successful, but cautious - step towards a new paradigm of integration policy, the third government of Angela Merkel has already followed this path decidedly. The aim of the article is to discuss and assess both the change in the immigration policy of Germany, in particular in its integrationpolicy, towards a culture of welcome and recognition observed in recent years and the first regulations which reflect a new approach to th admission of immigrants in this country.
More...
The migration crisis which affected the European Union after the so-called Arab Spring intensified in 2015 as a result of the conflict in Syria, as well as due to the German promise to grant protection to all Syrians who entered the territory of Germany. Consequently, migration pressure increased and affected the transit countries: Italy, Greece and Hungary. Since that moment, deep differences have been visible concerning the ways to address the migration crisis, especially the quota system proposed in May and September 2015 by the European Commission.
More...
A former refugee from Iraq, now running refugee services in the U.S., offers his recommendations for improving the anti-migrant climate in the Czech Republic.
More...
The aim of this paper is to analyse, through the prism of risk theories, migration from Ukraine to the European Union in a multidimensional perspective. Risks taken by different actors associated with migration along this route have been considered. At the micro-level these are risks borne by Ukrainian migrants themselves. At the macro-level these are risks borne by both states of destination and origin. The concept of risk is the most suitable theoretical approach to be applied in the case of analyzing Eastern European migration. Migration to the fortress “Europe” creates many risks for the migrants and is treated as a challenge by the state actors. At the same time, it cannot be regard as a as a security threat. It is very modest both in the numbers and possible adverse consequences for all stakeholders involved. The article pays special attention to the issue of possible risks related to the eruption of armed conflict in Eastern Europe. It argues that those risks have grown but not significantly and the most affected actor is the Ukrainian state itself, who in a long-term perspective may experience dramatic demographic challenges. Both migrants as well the EU destination states may be at higher risk only in a case of serious destabilization at the whole Ukrainian territory.
More...
Difficult political and economic situation of Ukraine is quoted as the reason underlying growing inflow of the nationals of that state to Poland. The most frequently used instrument to obtain the right of stay and employment in Poland by Ukrainians is comprised by the declaration of an employer on the intention to entrust employment to a foreigner. Growth in the number of registered declarations causes a reaction of the government aimed to restrict the scale of the inflow. At the same time in the debate before parliamentary elections in 2015 the topic was addressed very rarely. In the case of migration issues, the debate was pursued around the problem of potential arrival to Poland of refugees from African states, who reached the European Union. The paper contains a statistical analysis of the scale of inflow of Ukrainians to Poland and conclusions from a review of the election agendas that emerged before the 2015 parliamentary elections in terms of account taken of migration topics. The paper also shows evolution of Polish immigration policy in the first years of 2010s. On this basis, three scenarios were presented for changes in Polish immigration policy as a result of the so-called “Ukrainian crisis”.
More...
The paper is based on a wide range of research findings which represent an empirical basis for a sociological analysis of the social life in the municipality of Crna Trava, located on the borderlands of Southeast Serbia. An interpretation of the research results based on the integrative theoretical and methodological approach to the study of the dimensions of socio-demographic changes in rural settlements, functioning family farms, the quality of life of young people and older people in the countryside, to modify certain practices, as well as the religious and social roles of fairs and cult places. In addition, the paper discusses the social role of priests, role models, artisans and teachers in terms of their contribution to the sustainability of the identity of the Serbs and national minorities in the border municipality of Crna Trava. The empirical and statistical findings that have been reached, on one hand, point to the economic underdevelopment, poverty, depopulation and the ageing of the population in most villages in the borderlands of Southeast Serbia, while the abandoned houses and „extinguished hearths” are a strong indicator of the demographic collapse, and the „drama” in the Serbian village is a clear and visible outcome. On the other hand, the maintenance and fostering of cultural traditions, respect for the customs and the existence of religious beliefs, with some modification in accordance with the socio-economic context, bear witness to the survival and sustainability of the national identity of the Serbs and ethnic minorities in the municipality of Crna Trava, but also to the possibilities of development, despite a number of socio-economic problems the people of Crna Trava encounter living in this underdeveloped border municipality.
More...
The Muslim population of Smederevo sndjak was since the end of the 17th century very often a subject of tribulation, persecutions, pauperization, pandemics and numerous other existential trials. Not much has been written about the losses and traumatic experiences of this once a large community in their struggle for survival. Being silent about this tragedy is even a bigger tragedy in itself. During the first six decades of the 19th century as a result of a number of inner as well as foreign military-political factors mass emigration of Muslims from this sandzak took place in different directions within the Ottoman state mainly towards Bosanski ejalat. One big migration took place after Serbian uprising in 1804 that was followed by a general persecution of Muslims. After the uprising was crashed in 1813, some had returned to their devastated homes. The process of creation Serbian nation in the territory of Smederevo sanjak will bring about further marginalisation and finally disappearance of Muslim population. They were forced to relinquish their property for very small or without any compensation and with the consent of the Ottoman government, leave their homes. Between 1830 and 1834 mass migration of rural population took place and the next end the final in 1862 the mass migration of urban population. The only Muslim population partially spared were Gipsy Muslims. Cultural monuments left behind the persecuted Muslims were demolished and all the traces of centuries of their existence there as the majority population were wiped out. The process of de-Ottomanization and all the crucial events in the history of the Balkans must be considered from the viewpoint of all its nations respectively.
More...
The Scandinavian country comes under fire for plans to build a new fence to deter migrants on a border crossing with Russia.
More...