The emerging European immigration regime: some reflections on implications for southern Europe

"Immigration is one of the more controversial areas in the history of European integration. Whilst northern European countries have been constructing elaborate compromises in the European Union (EU) Treaties and in the Schengen group, southern European countries have been trying to construct their own immigration policies. Little attention has been paid in the literature to the relationship between these two phenomena: it is suggested here that southern countries have found it expedient to fit in with EU and Schengen arrangements, even though these appear impossible to implement. This contradiction is seen as intrinsic to the overall relations of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece to the EU."