According to the new Integration Policies: Who Benefits? (MIPEX 2015), a project led by the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) and theMigration Policy Group (MPG), and CARDET is a partner, several countries have lost positions due to restrictions and cuts: Greece on citizenship and voting rights, and the Netherlands and the United Kingdom on residence restrictions and targeted support cuts, both experiencing major drops in nearly all policy areas. With Sweden ranking 1st,Portugal continues to climb ahead on MIPEX despite the crisis and austerity, maintaining its investment in integration and working to increase its reach and effectiveness.
However, “political will may matter more than a country’s tradition of immigration, since more inclusive integration policies may both encourage more immigrants to settle permanently and the public to trust immigrants more” says Thomas Huddleston (MPG), co-director of the MIPEX 2015, who reminds us that integration policies differ significantly between Germany and Austria, Denmark and Sweden, or Portugal and Spain.
Click here to access the International Key Finding of the MIPEX 2015 research.
