Every day newspapers in the Western world carry articles about illegal immigrants, asylum seekers and other migrants. The focus of these articles varies greatly from migrants as a threat to one or another important social or societal interest, to migrants as an important asset to those same interests. The tone is most often emotional - whichever way the focus goes. The overall impact is to confuse: is migration good or bad? In this book Guild and van Selm seek to investigate these value assessments regarding migrants in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia. While looking at issues such as security, human rights, legal systems, identity, racism, welfare, health and labour, the authors also respond to critics of immigration.

Are immigrants an asset or a threat?
Every day newspapers in the Western world carry articles about illegal immigrants, asylum seekers and other migrants. The focus of these articles varies greatly from migrants as a threat to one or another important social or societal interest, to migrants as an important asset to those same interests.
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International Migration and Security" brings information and analysis to the immigration debate. Experts from a variety of different disciplines-ranging from urban planning to judicial reform-are collected n this volume to consider the impact that and the concept of immigration has on their field. The key question examined is how movement of persons affects areas as diverse as health, national security, the welfare of state, cuisine, identity, law and human rights, and the political, social and legal results.
This innovative and interdisciplinary book provides new insight into the debates around immigration in the twenty-first century and will be of interest to all students and researchers in the area.

Once the sound of NATO bombing campaigns on Serbia died away, Europe was left with the problem of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict, both from Kosovo and from Serbia. Whatever Western governments say about the need for swift repatriation, in practice it is a long and difficult process. The situation became a testing ground for the EU's asylum and immigration laws which came into force in May 1999 with the Treaty of Amsterdam. This book describes and analyzes the vacillations of EU Member states concerning the management of the Kosovo refugee crisis. Contributors looks at seven states - Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom - writing from the standpoints of law, political science, international relations and geography, and addressing key themes: the lessons to be learnt from the reception of refugee Bosnians; the national debates on asylum and immigration within which this crisis took place, and which influence policy making; the wider theortical issues; and the way EU integration impacts on national policy making.

Once the sound of NATO bombing campaigns on Serbia died away, Europe was left with the problem of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict, both from Kosovo and from Serbia. Whatever Western governments say about the need for swift repatriation, in practice it is a long and difficult process. The situation became a testing ground for the EU's asylum and immigration laws which came into force in May 1999 with the Treaty of Amsterdam. This book describes and analyzes the vacillations of EU Member states concerning the management of the Kosovo refugee crisis. Contributors looks at seven states - Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom - writing from the standpoints of law, political science, international relations and geography, and addressing key themes: the lessons to be learnt from the reception of refugee Bosnians; the national debates on asylum and immigration within which this crisis took place, and which influence policy making; the wider theortical issues; and the way EU integration impacts on national policy making.