ICSW Expert Meeting

Introduction

Post-war immigration has not only profoundly changed the economic, social and cultural make-up of destination countries in and outside of Europe, it has also given rise to wide-spread concerns about social cohesion being undermined by the emergence of internally cohesive immigrant communities. Thus, the integration of immigrants has become a pressing policy goal in every receiving country aiming to prevent ethnic segregation, conflict and violence as well as to ensure full participation of immigrants and their descendents with a view to strengthening social cohesion in receiving societies. Yet, despite the bulk of scholarly research on the costs and benefits of past and present approaches to the absorption of immigrants, many of the key concepts in this debate, such as "social cohesion" or "integration", remain fuzzy and contested. Equally contested are the policy means by which to achieve particular results such as the recent trend towards compulsory language courses designed to foster proficiency in the host countries' language, the toleration of dual nationality in order to facilitate the naturalization of immigrants or public funding for immigrant associations to create space for self-organization in the civil society.

Against this background, ICSW-Norway and ICSW-Israel organized - in close cooperation with the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Bratislava - an expert meeting. ICSW-Israel also engaged the cooperation of the Israel Ministry of Social Affairs, Department of International Relations, and the Center for International Migration and Integration (CIMI) of the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC-Israel). The expert meeting "Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion: Barriers and Remedies", held in Bratislava June 13-15 2004, was a follow-up to the expert meeting "Immigrants in Europe: Marginalization and Opportunities" convened by ICSW-Norway and ICSW-Europe in October 1999 in Oslo. Scholars of migration and integration issues, representatives of NGOs as well as of international organisations came together:

to discuss the meaning of the key concepts in the debate such as social cohesion and integration;
to identify the barriers and remedies to full participation of different groups of immigrants (labour migrants, family members, asylum seekers); and
to exchange information and knowledge about the situation of immigrants and to assess current trends in policy-making in different countries such as Austria, Germany, Israel, Norway and other Scandinavian countries, Slovakia and Switzerland as well as at the level of the EU.

This web site presents the online proceedings of the Bratislava meeting, and incorporates presentations of participating experts, as well as the rapporteur's summary of the meeting.

Summary of the Meeting

Monday 14th June, Tuesday 15th June, Some discussion points

Presentations

List of Participants

Programme

Organizing committee:
Dilek Çinar, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy & Research, Vienna;
Erika Kvapilova, Economic University, Bratislava;
Avraham Lavine, Israel Ministry of Social Affairs and ICSW, Jerusalem;
Einar Vetvik, Diakonhjemmet University College, Norway and ICSW Norway

Contact: Dilek Çinar, Avraham Lavine