Towards a Common European Immigration Policy

Immigration policy has become a very controversial subject for legal policy discussion in the European Union. Dramatic demographic changes make it evident that immigration is one of the means for replacing an ageing labour force and maintaining the social system. A comprehensive immigration policy has to take into account the needs of the labour market, efficient selection procedures and the cost of integration. In October 2002 the Institute for Legal Policy at the University of Trier held a workshop on those issues. Eminent specialists from different European countries presented papers on different aspects of immigration and integration in an interdisciplinary way. These papers and the discussion reports are contained in this volume.