Developed countries, especially in Europe, face a number of issue related to migration: social and economic disruptions caused by the declining demand for unskilled labour and resulting unemployment, a shortage of skilled labour in many professions, increasing international competition for highly qualified human capital, radical demographic changes, and the forthcoming expansion of the European Union, which will trigger further immigration into major European countries and create new market opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe. This suggests a need for a deeper knowledge of the causes and consequences of increased labour mobility. This is especially important when it is associated with tension and fears among native populations. This book brings together analyses of migration issues in major European countries, and compares evidence with more countries that have traditionally seen the most immigration. First, it studies migration streams since World War II, and reviews major migration policy regimes. Second, it summarizes the empirical evidence measuring wages, unemployment, and occupational choices. Third, it investigates how migrants affects the labour markets of their host countries, and evaluates econometric studies into the wage and employment consequences of immigration. Surprisingly, there is wide evidence that immigration is largely beneficial for receiving countries. There might be phases of adjustment, but there is no convincing evidence that natives' wages are depressed or unemployment increases as a consequence of migrant inflow. However, there is a growing impression that migration does serve less and less the needs of the labour market. This suggests a stronger focus on economic channels of immigration, for which the book provides a conceptual basis and the required empirical facts and institutional background.

Managing migration promises to be one of the most difficult challenges of the twenty-first century. It will be even more difficult for south European countries, from which emigration has levelled off and to which immigration has become a significant economic issue. Southern Europe is close to other regions where the pressure to emigrate is intense: these regions have a high level of unemployment, above the European Union average, and a large informal sector, often 15-25 per cent of their economies as a whole. This book analyses the southern European migration case using an economic approach. It combines a theoretical and an empirical approach on the fundamental migration issues - the decision to migrate, effects on the country of departure and country of destination, and the effectiveness of policies in managing migration. It also explores the transformation due to migration of southern European countries in the 1980s and 1990s.

Providing interdisciplinary and empirically grounded insights into the issues surrounding gender and migration into and within Europe, this work presents a comprehensive and critical overview of the historical, legal, policy and cultural framework underpinning different types of European migration. Analysing the impact of migration on women's careers, the impact of migration on family life and gender perspectives on forced migration, the authors also examine the consequences of EU enlargement for women's migration opportunities and practices, as well as the impact of new regulatory mechanisms at EU level in addressing issues of forced migration and cross-national family breakdown. Recent interdisciplinary research also offers a new insight into the issue of skilled migration and the gendering of previously male-dominated sectors of the labour market.

This volume, “Fertility of Immigrants: A Two-Generational Approach in Germany” by Dr. Nadja Milewski, is the sixth book of a series of Demographic Research Monographs published by Springer Verlag. Dr. Milewski is now working for the University of Rostock, but at the time she wrote the book, she was a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. The book is a slightly-revised version of her doctoral dissertation (“Fertility of Immigrants and Their Descendants in West Germany: An Event History Approach”), which she completed at the Max Planck Institute and submitted to the University of Rostock. She was awarded highest honors, summa cum laude, for her dissertation. As Professor Jan Hoem wrote in his review of Dr. Milewski’s dissertation, the research focuses on the patterns and levels of childbearing among immigrant women. Given Germany’s varied immigration experience with refugees, asylum seekers, guest workers, and foreign-born persons of German ancestry, Dr. Milewski’s topic is of particular interest, especially with regard to differences in the patterns and levels of childbearing among various kinds of immigrants to Germany vs. native-born Germans. Numerous empirical and theoretical studies of childbearing among immigrants to various countries have been published and Dr. Milewski carefully reviews them. While earlier studies have tended to be rather fragmentary, particularly for European populations, Dr. Milewski’s research provides a comp- hensive picture of the recent female fertility of post-war migrants and their desc- dants in West Germany, with an emphasis on migrants who came to Germany to work.

This collection of twelve papers provides case studies and thematic reflections on the growing transnational networking of European Muslims and their involvement with contemporary global Islam. The volume pays particular attention to the mechanisms and significance of this phenomenon.

The ongoing processes of globalization and regionalization have drawn attention away from the traditional domains of nation-states and their interaction. However, the border-crossing activities of non-state agencies, organizations and institutions should not be overlooked, as they can shed new light on our common understanding of the contemporary world. Using the concept of transnational social spaces, contributors to this volume demonstrate the importance of transnational spaces. A collaborative project by experts across the social science disciplines, Transnational Social Spaces focuses in particular on the German-Turkish context.

Europäische Staaten haben sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten in mehrfacher Hinsicht auf Transnationalisierungsprozesse eingelassen, die ihre migrations- und integrationspolitischen Handlungsspielräume verändert haben. Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes analysieren verschiedene Facetten dieser Veränderungen auf den drei Transnationalisierungsfeldern Migration, Integration und Religion. Die dabei beleuchteten Kernfragen sind: Wann akzeptieren Nationalstaaten transnationalisierungsbedingte Einschränkungen ihrer Souveränität? Und wie reagieren sie auf unerwünschte Transnationalisierungsfolgen?