Europe’s Migrants and Refugees: Integrating into European Societies

What are the criteria for becoming an integrated migrant/refugee? Realities and perceptions, lessons and debates in Sweden, Italy, Austria, France, and Germany.

Migration is a prevalent political topic in most European countries, often mentioned in connection with demographic decline and labour shortages. While current political debates focus on controlling the borders, the seminar will explore: What does it take to become a successful migrant/refugee? What are the criteria? On the other hand, what are the major fears regarding migration: demographic, cultural, linguistic, religious, or security? Is there a common EU integration policy or each country follows its own path?

Melita H. Šunjić is an Austrian citizen with Croatian roots. She started her career as a journalist with the Foreign Desk of the Austrian daily Wiener Zeitung and, in 1993, joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) where she stayed for 25 years in various communications functions and worked in numerous conflict zones: the Balkans, Pakistan/Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Angola, Georgia, South Sudan, and the Middle East. 

Sara Prestianni (1979) is a specialist on international migration policies. She is currently the Head of the Thematic Program Unit for Euromed Rights, in the Brussels office.

Rainer Bauböck is part time professor in the Global Governance Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. He is corresponding member Austrian Academy of Sciences and chairs the Academy’s Commission on Migration and Integration Research. He teaches at the Central European University Vienna campus as a guest professor.

Bernd Parusel is a senior researcher in political science at the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS) in Stockholm. His main research interests are in policies on migration, asylum, integration and borders in the European Union and the EU Member States.

Patrick Weil is a senior research fellow at the French National Research Center in the University of Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School. Professor Weil’s work focuses on comparative immigration, citizenship, and church-state law and policy. His forthcoming book is The Madman in the White House. Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullitt and the lost psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson (Harvard University Press, May 2023). His most recent book is De la Laïcité en France (Grasset, 2022 and 2021).

Ivan Vejvoda, IWM Permanent Fellow and Head of Europe's Futures - Ideas for Action.