Immigration and the Politics of Identity in the European Union

Immigration and the Politics of Identity in the European Union addresses the challenges facing European states today with relation to both immigration and integration policy. Changes in the patterns of immigration over time as well as a fundamental shift in the function and formation of "identity" have left behind societies balancing somewhere between assimilation and multiculturalism. Both the EU and the individual Member States have struggled to create effective immigration and integration policies. The key difficulty in creating effective policy lies in finding the balance between the political and legal, socioeconomic, and cultural positive and negative aspects of immigration. This book explores the recent history of immigration to the European Union, the changing role of identity in society today, and the concrete challenges these changes pose to policy makers.