ICMCEUROPE WelcometoEurope.pdf (5.89 MB)

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For refugees, the 1951 UN Refugee
Convention lists a range of social, economic
and legal rights states should
afford refugees, including a longterm,
secure legal status leading to
citizenship, and the possibility of being
reunited with family members living in
a third country.
1.2. EU involvement in
Integration
While the EU exercises some level
of competence in a number of areas
related to refugee and migrant integration
- such as in immigration policy,
reception conditions and family reunification
- integration remains a Member
State competence. There is thus no
common European integration programme
for refugees or migrants, and
no legally binding European standards
on integration. Member States are able
to develop national integration legislation
and shape national programmes,
and the extent to which these policies
and programmes are articulated and
implemented thus varies widely across
the EU.
The Lisbon Treaty enables the EU to
‘establish measures to provide incentives
and support for the actions of Member
States with a view to promoting the
integration of third-country nationals’,
while also prohibiting ‘any harmonisation
of the laws and regulations of
Member States’ in this regard. 5 The EU
therefore adopts an ‘open method of
coordination’ in relation to integration,
coordinating integration policy without
harmonising it.
The EU has articulated a common
policy agenda to underpin its actions
in the field of integration, most clearly
set out in the Common Basic Principles
for Immigrant Integration Policy in the
EU (CBPs) adopted by the Justice and
Home Affairs Council in November
2004. The CBPs include the definition
of integration (CBP 1 - see above), and
the following ten additional principles:
CBP 2: Integration implies respect for
the basic values of the EU.
CBP 3: Employment is a key component
of the integration
process. It is central to immigrant
participation, facilitating
and making visible immigrant
contributions to receiving
societies and making these
contributions visible.
CBP 4: Basic knowledge of the
receiving society’s language,
history and institutions is
indispensable for integration,
and immigrants should be
provided with opportunities
to acquire it.
CBP 5: Education prepares immigrants
and their descendants
for a more successful and
5 Lisbon treaty Article 63a (4)
CHAPTER VII