Europe's Immigration Challenge: Reconciling Work, Welfare and Mobility (Policy Network) - Hardcover

As the financial crisis continues to cast its long shadow over Europe, the view that immigrants compete unfairly for jobs and present an unsustainable burden on the European Social Model appears to be gathering support in some circles. But at the same time, the 'right' type of immigrant has often been perceived as a potential cure for Europe's sluggish labour markets and ailing welfare systems - especially immigrants who are young, easily employable and who arrive without family. So far, efforts to solve this conundrum - as in the UK's points-based system - have focused on increasing the selectivity of the admissions process. In this book, leading immigration experts question the effectiveness of this approach. Besides efforts to regulate the flow and rights of immigrants, they argue that governments across Europe need to devise labour market, welfare and immigration policies in a more integrated fashion.

Elena Jurado is Senior Consultant at ICF GHK, an international research consultancy. Between 2007 and 2011, she was Head of Research at Policy Network, where she led work programmes on labour migration and the future of European social models. Previously, she worked in the minorities unit of the Council of Europe and as a Politics lecturer at the University of Oxford. Grete Brochmann is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo. She has served as a visiting scholar in Brussels, Berkeley and Boston, and in 2002 she held the Willy Brandt Guest Professorship in Malmo, Sweden. She was recently head of a governmental commission on International Migration and the Norwegian Welfare Model.