Integrating Immigrant Children into Schools in Europe

Integrating Immigrant Children into Schools in EuropeAnnual immigration of less than 0.5 % of the total population has mainly been recorded in the new EUmember countries (except Cyprus) as well as in Greece, Italy and Finland. This situation also applied toSpain and Portugal until the end of the 1990s. Both these countries underwent a major transitional phaseduring the period concerned. From being countries associated with emigration, they became hostcountries. This change in migratory flows is attributable to several factors, the most important of whichseems to be strong economic growth and the structural changes induced by these countries joining theEuropean Community in 1986. Greece also experienced renewed immigration when the countries ofeastern Europe opened up between 1990 and1995 and citizens of Greek origin returned to the countryon a substantial scale.In eastern Europe, immigration has been attributable to two main factors, namely population movementsrelated to political renewal in the countries concerned and their transition to a market economy. Theyhave accordingly experienced a renewed modest increase in immigration following their transition todemocracy (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Bulgaria and Romania) or theirdeclaration of independence (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). This transition has often gone hand in handwith the return of a proportion of those belonging to ethnic minorities who were scattered throughoutvarious countries in the (former) eastern bloc, or who had settled in western Europe immediately after theSecond World War. These countries have also had to confront an influx of refugees as a result of theconflicts that deeply affected central Europe and the Balkans in the final years of the 20th century(refugees from the former Yugoslavia in Slovenia or from the Republic of Moldova in Romania). Yetimmigration to them has remained modest in relation to their total population.Finally, very limited immigration to Malta (under 0.2 % a year in the period between 1985-2001) maypartly be attributed to the small size of the island.2.2. Countries and Continents of Origin of the Foreign PopulationThe data in the table under Figure 2.2A show that, on 1 January 2002 in the majority of countries, theforeign population was recorded as between 2.5 % and 9 % of the total population. This applied toBelgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Austria,Sweden, the United Kingdom, Iceland and Norway. The situation in the other countries was markedlydifferent. The proportion of the foreign population recorded in the total population was 20 % in Estoniaand Latvia – as a result of the size of their minority population of Russian origin (many of whom were notEstonian or Latvian nationals) – Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, whereas in Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal,Slovenia and Finland, the foreign population accounted for under 2.5 % of the total population.Over and above the relative size of these foreign populations in the various countries, it is important herethat their own countries and continents of origin should be more clearly identified. Two majorapproaches have been adopted to examine, on the one hand, the proportion of non-nationals who arenationals of EU-15 countries as opposed to any other country of origin (Figure 2.2A) and, on the other, theproportion of the foreign population in the population, by continent of origin (Figure 2.2B). As the freecirculation of persons has not yet been established on a fully uniform basis for the 25-member EuropeanUnion, both these indicators still relate to the 15-country EU.From both these diagrams, it may be concluded overall that the origin of the foreign population variesamong the countries for which data are available. More specifically, as illustrated in Figure 2.2A, theproportion of all nationals of third countries in the total population (i.e. countries other than those in the15-member EU) is higher than the proportion of citizens of countries in the 15-member EU, in all countriesexcept Belgium, Ireland and Luxembourg. However, the breakdown of the immigrant population by their20