Different legislation in Europe for immigrants

19 August, 2008 20:20

As there are more voice in Europe calling for unifying rules for immigrant workers, we present an overview of the situation in some countries:

United Kingdom: 509,800 legal immigrants in 2006

No quota
No necessity of a contract for integration
Family regrouping
Necessity of a work contract (with point system)
Language test

France: 135,100

No quota
Family regrouping (with conditions)
Necessity of a contract for integration
Necessity of a work contract (with a list of priority sectors)
Language test

Spain: 803,000 (the government has proceeded to a large legalisation)

No quota
Family regrouping (with conditions after 1 year)
Necessity of a contract for integration

Belgium: 83,400

No quota
No necessity of a contract for integration
Family regrouping (with conditions of income)

Netherlands: 67,700

No quota
No necessity of a contract for integration
Family regrouping (limited to the work contract duration)
Language test

Denmark: 23,000

No quota
No necessity of a contract for integration
Family regrouping

Germany: 558,500

No quota
No neccessity of a contract for integration
Language test
Family regrouping (for contracts more than 1 year)

Italy: 181,500

No necessity of a contract for integration
Quota
Family regrouping (with conditions)
Necessity of a work contract (with conditions of income)

Source: Le Monde 8/07/08

In the European Union, illegal immigration measures are taken with a majority vote. However countries are still in charge of legal immigration rules and EU decisions can only be voted with unanimity. There is no common agreement about mass regularisation, despite EU minimum conditions for sending back clandestine.

However, since the publishing in 2005 of a report on "approche communautaire de la gestion des migrations économiques", the EU Commission has suggested to set up a Blue card, equivalent to the US Green card, that will give access to the whole EU work market.

August 2008