Immigration and the Transformation of Europe

This review article discusses the issues raised in 'Immigration and the Transformation of Europe' by Craig Parson and Timothy Smeeding (Cambridge University Press). These include the main drivers informing EU and European States' policy towards immigration, including changing demographics and the 'shrinking future' of Europe's population; divergent patterns in immigrant earnings in different parts of the continent, and the factors that affect upward mobility (migration mobility in European diasporic space); assessment of the economic and social consequences and impacts of immigration for both host communities and migrants; employment trends, and the effects of disparate welfare regimes; and popular perceptions of migration ('migrants in the people's court') - eg 'useful gastarbeiter' v 'burdensome asylum seekers'.