European Reintegration Networking

Glossary on migration

take over of elements of a foreign culture (ideas, words, values, norms, behaviour, institutions, techniques, products) by persons, groups or classes of a given culture. Examples may be the influence of the Greek culture in ancient Rome or the "Americanisation" of western industrialized countries. The partial or total adaptation is caused by contacts and interactions between different cultures like migrations, trade relations and conquests.

adaptation of one ethnic or social group – usually a  minority – to another. Assimilation means the take over of language, traditions, values and behaviour or even fundamental vital interests and the change of the feeling of belonging. Assimilation therefore goes further than acculturation. As assimilation is a slow process, generation conflicts within the assimilating group are frequent.

the word "asylum" has its origins in the ancient Greek word "asylos" which means "what cannot be seized". In this sense the word has two original meanings: on the one hand the persecuted person himself/herself looking for shelter where s/he is not to be seized, on the other hand the inviolable place of refuge where a person is safe from persecution.

foreigners looking for shelter from political persecution in or from deportation into a country where their life or freedom is threatened because of their race, religion, nationality, their membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Some countries also accept  non-governmental and gender-related persecution as reasons to grant  asylum.

A person applying for asylum has to prove that s/he is persecuted by instruments of state in the whole territory of the home country. If the person succeeds in doing so, s/he will be accepted as asylum seeker and get a residence permit, if not, she will be rejected and has to leave the country. In some cases rejected asylum seekers can still stay in the host country under "temporary protection".

Migration of the educated and skilled from developing countries to industrialized countries. The emigration country loses precious human capital in which it has invested through education and training. The emigrated qualified personnel is not easy to be replaced in the developing country’s labour market, and the money transferred home by the emigrants can hardly compensate their loss. However, many developing countries are lacking of qualified work place or efficient employment agencies, so there’s often no possibility for skilled labour to make use of their potential within their home country. So-called "return of talents" programmes are aiming at reversing brain drain.

The world bank estimates that about one third of all highly qualified Africans are living abroad, especially in Western Europe and North America.

Country in which the person was born
Country of nationality
Country whose language is the person´s mother tongue.

Person whose asylum application is non-appealably rejected. The deportation was suspended because her or his life, body or freedom is in concrete danger. On grounds of humanitarian law / international law they are tolerated in the host country.

The enforcement of a foreigner’s duty to leave the national territory, for example after his asylum application was rejected or after his temporary residence permit or visa has expired. The principle of non-refoulement defines circumstances under which a deportation is not permitted.

The unequal treatment of individuals or groups on the basis of some attribute, such as racial, gender, ethnic, religious, or social-class membership. Discrimination is the disparaging treatment of people according to special values or as a result of unreflected, sometimes also unconscious attitudes, prejudices, and sentiments toward these people. Discrimination includes any conduct based on a distinction made on grounds of natural or social categories, which have no relation to individual capacities or merits, or to the concrete behaviour of the individual person. Usually social ® minorities are discriminated against, but sometimes also bigger parts of a population or even whole societies that the originator of discrimination is exercising power over.

Refugee who comes from an area of pauperism (poverty, unemployment) and/or immigrates into a country with a considerably higher economic prosperity than the country of origin.

emigration of parts of a population (in general minorities) of their home country caused by menace and violence

Student enrolled at a university in a country that is not his country of nationality. In Germany, foreign students are divided into "Bildungsinländer" and "Bildungsausländer". The former are children of migrant families who have attended school and who have got their qualification for university entrance in Germany. Unlike the latter, they don’t belong to the category of migration on grounds of education.

People who emigrate to another country to find or start a job and/or to earn more money. This type of migration is reinforced by the decrease of the birth rate and the unwillingness to accept unattractive jobs in the industrialized countries and by the growth of population and unemployment in developing countries. Besides, the migration from poorer, economically less developed countries to prospering industrialized countries is favoured by the internationalisation of the economy and the greater efficiency of means of transport.

The term foreign workers includes guest workers, contract and seasonal workers, but also illegally employed foreigners. Foreign workers are often young, unqualified people with little opportunities in their home countries (economic refugees) but partly also qualified personnel that helps to compensate more or less temporary shortages in their host country’s labour market. The emigration of these high potentials from developing countries is called brain drain.

This term does not have a final definition yet. It includes a lot of different circumstances like genital mutilation, forced abortion and forced marriages. It embraces circumstances that only affect women as well as gender specific violations of human rights, e.g. indecent assaults.

Country in which a person stays without being a national.

Foreigner who flees on other ways than those provided by law into a country or immigrates without possessing the necessary documents (travel documents or residence permit), or whose residence permit is not valid anymore and who still remains in the country. For example: Workers without a residence or work permit, tourists and students who still stay in the country after their visa has expired, relatives without a claim of family reunification, partners of bi-national marriages who do not have a residence permit after a divorce, and victims of  human trafficking.

inclusion or incorporation of a migrant into the host country’s society. Integration means equal participation and at the same time preservation of one’s own identity, religion and culture. The will to integrate on part of the immigrant and receptiveness on part of the receiving society are essential for integration. Integration includes an agreement on common values and is fundamental for the coherence and the stability of a society. Nationality can be one "objective" criteria for integration; the "subjective" sensation of integration though can differ significantly from that.

People who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of, armed conflicts, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.

The not-crossing of an international border deprives those IDPs who otherwise correspond to the Geneva Convention of the right to protection provided by the international community.

Situation of individuals who hold a position "on the edge" of a social class or society. Marginalized people often find themselves in the borderland between two groups, classes or societies with big differences in norms and values that the individual’s personality can’t cope with. These people (immigrants for example) are affected by role conflicts, alienation, inferiority feelings and disorientation. They feel like belonging to the new reference group, but on the one hand they can’t give up the social orientation of the former reference group and on the other hand they are not yet fully included or  integrated into the new one. The number of marginalized people is growing with the increase of social and geographical mobility and social change.

The movement of people from one place to another. Migration is divided into two major types: International migration involves movements between countries or continents, internal migration occurs within the boundaries of a given country.

Migration may be voluntary or forced. Voluntary migration occurs when migrants act by personal volition in response to migration-stimulating factors. Forced migrations occur when governments deport individuals or groups as a matter of policy.

Some writers also distinguish between voluntary and coercive migrations. Most migrations are a voluntary response to an expectation that removal will lead to an increase in overall gratification or a diminution of deprivation. But there are also migrations of those who are refugees from religious or political persecution. Having been coerced into emigration the latter sometimes find themselves unable to complete the process by becoming acceptable immigrants in another country. They are then compelled to remain in camps for displaced persons under international supervision. In this respect emigration and immigration are not merely the same phenomenon seen from different points of view, but may involve „incomplete migration"

Migration to another country with the objective to achieve a better or higher education or training.

Refugees who leave on grounds of natural catastrophes and ecocide (e. g. desertification, erosion, drought)

Part of the population characterized by specific ethnic, religious, cultural, social or other personal attributes that is outnumbered by another part of the population. (Which attributes are considered significant in this context depends basically on the majority’s norms and values.) Minorities are regarded or regard themselves as inherently different from the rest of the population and show a sense of solidarity that aims at the preservation of their cultural identity.

Minorities often suffer from discrimination (negative or stereotyped judgement on part of the majority, economic and occupational disadvantages, cultural or political oppression). In extreme cases they are persecuted, displaced or even threatened of systematic extermination.

Non-governmental organisation; an association of people who are working on a non-profit basis, that means without pursuit of profit or political power, in social sectors where actual or anticipated problems are not satisfyingly solved by the government. NGOs give support to or organise support for special parts of the population and try to influence the formation of public opinion or political decisions by means of counselling, lobbyism or public relations work. They are formally independent of the state and work in their own right. However, they can in coordination with the authorities execute public programmes, and their work can not only be financed by donations, membership fees and grants but also by public funds. NGOs work on local, national and international level. Some of the big international NGOs have a consultative status at the UN, the EU and other international institutions as well as at some national parliaments. NGO’s fields of activities are for example environment protection, human rights, humanitarian aid and development aid.

Persecution is considered non-governmental when it does neither emanate directly nor indirectly from the state. This is the case when a state is not able to protect its citizens from encroachments because the administrative structures are not existing anymore in parts of or in the whole territory, or when the state as such is still existing, but does not have sufficient power to grant protection.

Art. 33 of the Geneva Convention states the principle that none of the contracting states is allowed to reject or to deport a refugee into an area where his/her life or freedom is in danger on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

Migration may occur in response to (changing) economic, social, environmental or political conditions. Push factors are conditions in sending populations that impel or stimulate emigration. Conditions that attract immigrants are classified as pull factors. Declining economic opportunities or political instability may stimulate emigration. Expanding economic opportunities and potential for advancement tend to attract migrants. Rural communities with high birth rates and regions with limited opportunities are areas of high out-migration, whereas urban, industrial regions and communities with expanding opportunities have had high in-migration.

A quota refugee comes to a country through the refugee quota.

The refugee quota is primarily intended for refugees according to the Geneva Convention (refugee). But the refugee quota may include others besides refugees. The government may decide to apply different criteria in the selection process. Refugees for the quota are selected either on the spot via selection missions or via dossier submissions. Dossier submissions involve a decision on the basis of a case study performed by the UNHCR.

According to Art. 1 A No. 2 of the Geneva Convention a refugee is a person who "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

Many states refer to the Geneva Convention in their national definition of the term "refugee". However, this definition does not include special groups like internally displaced persons, economic refugees or migrants on grounds of environmental circumstances. Besides, the interpretation of the definition is controversial in regard to some aspects like non-governmental persecution.

The OAU-convention in Africa as well as the refugee declaration of Cartagena in Central America have therefore extended this definition to also grant the refugee status to persons who flee from situations of considerable breach of the peace, for example as a result of armed conflicts and riots.

Re-inclusion or re-incorporation of a person into a group or a process, e. g. of a migrant into the society of his  country of origin or of a disabled person into professional life, with the objective to enable these people to help themselves.

Re-adoption on part of the returning migrant of the values, way of living, language, moral principles, ideology, traditions, etc. of the country of origin’s society.

Reintegration of a migrant into the economic system of his country of origin. The migrant shall be enabled to earn his/her own living. Under development aspects economic reintegration also aims at using the know-how which was acquired in the foreign country to promote the economic and social development in the country of origin.

Re-incorporation of a migrant into the social structures of his/her country of origin. This includes on the one hand the creation of a personal network (friends, relatives, neighbours) and on the other hand the development of civil society structures (associations, self-help-groups and other organisations).

Promotion of migrants’ return and reintegration into the country of origin. The measures classed under the term reintegration programme depend on the target group ( refugees, asylum seekers, foreign workers etc.) and the situation in the country of origin. They are very heterogeneous and reach from mine clearance and reconstruction of local infrastructure in former combat areas to allowances to travel- and transport costs to employment services, internships, vocational training and credits for start-ups.

In German, repatriation is a term that refers to international law. It means the return of foreign nationals (prisoners of war, evacuees, refugees) from a host country to their country of origin after the end of a war and is regulated in the Geneva convention.

In English, the term repatriation also equals the German word "Rückführung" (compare the definition of "voluntary return")

means any permit or authorisation issued by the authorities of a state (and taking the form provided for in that State’s legislation,) allowing a foreign or a stateless person to reside on its territory

German: Fachkräfteprogramm, instrument of the development aid that aims at promoting the economic and social development of a country by mobilizing emigrants who have lived and worked abroad and who are willing to return and turn their know-how to good account for the sake of their home countries. The main emphasis of a "return of talents" programme can be the  reintegration of migrants or the promotion of development. It contains measures like allowances to salaries and breaking-in periods or support for start-ups.

on the one hand (in international law) the right of a state to grant asylum to a persecuted national of another state. On the other hand, the legal claim of a persecuted person against a foreign state to protection from persecution.

means a procedure of exceptional character to provide, in the event of a mass influx or imminent mass influx of displaced persons from third countries who are unable to return to their country of origin, immediate and temporary protection to such persons, in particular if there exists also a risk that the asylum system will be unable to process this influx without adverse effects for its efficient operation, in the interests of the persons concerned and other persons requesting protection; (e.g. civil war refugees)

means the recruiting of people through deceit, menace or violence who are brought into a foreign country where they are induced or forced to start or continue the furnishing of sexual services that are exploitative or slavery-like, that is acts that violate these peoples human rights. Victims of trafficking are usually women who are forced to work as prostitutes.

unlike deportation, the voluntary repatriation into the country of origin organised by the host country

people who leave their country to escape from the effects of armed conflicts (direct effects of fighting, assaults of combat troops, displacements etc.).

official permission that allows a foreign person to start and carry on an employment against payment. In EU countries a work permit for citizens of other EU member states is not necessary.