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Migration routes, asylum, residence and work rights, integration and the diaspora: analysis and guides for those building a new life in Europe.
For a long time Germany did not define itself as a country of immigration, but its laws said otherwise. The basic rules on work, study, family reunification and permanent residence in Germany’s Residence Act and in Dutch migration law.
In Europe deaths outnumber births; it is migration that keeps the population going. Contrary to populist rhetoric, the figures for Germany and the Netherlands show how dependent these countries are on migration.
People who migrate to Europe are subject not only to national laws but also to the EU’s common rules. The core EU legislation, from the ECHR and Schengen to the common asylum system and the migration directives.
The international framework everyone interested in migration should know: the 1951 Geneva Convention, the 1967 Protocol, the migrant workers convention and the Global Compact for Migration.
One in every thirty people in the world is a migrant; forced displacement fell in 2025 for the first time in a decade but still stands at nearly 118 million. Europe is at the centre of this movement: first residence permits issued by the EU reached a ten-year high in 2023.
Migrant, irregular migrant, refugee, asylum seeker, conditional refugee… These concepts are used interchangeably in everyday language, yet in law they mean different rights and obligations.
The history of humanity is the history of migrations. From the journey of the Jewish people from Babylon to Europe to the Hijra and the migration of the Turks to Anatolia, every migration breaks the shell of the old identity and begins a new birth.
The first step to understanding migration is mastering its concepts. Basic terms such as country of origin, transit and destination, brain drain and brain gain, and what they mean in everyday life.
The reasons that push people to migrate and make a country attractive: economic opportunity, education, political oppression, demography and climate. Emigration from Turkey has also risen markedly in recent years.
The human story of migration begins at birth and ends at death. The first article in the “Introduction to Migration” series looks at the definition and types of migration: internal and external, voluntary and forced, permanent and seasonal.
Among the Eastern Jews who emigrated to Israel from the Middle East, the Kurdish Jews were a small community with a large influence. The regional knowledge they brought from the mountains left a lasting mark on Israel’s security thinking and its relationship with the Kurds.
In 1948 world Jewry was associated with the suffering of Europe. In the same years, hundreds of thousands of Jews who had lived in the Arab world for centuries also migrated to Israel; this silent migration still shapes Israeli society today.
Integration is not assimilation; keeping your identity does not stop you from taking part in the society you live in. Germany’s definition and suggestions from everyday life on what integration is and is not.
From the “barbarian” of ancient Greece to today’s hostility towards migrants: what feeds the fear and hatred of strangers, and how is it intertwined with nationalism and racism?
Thousands of specialist posts opened by the Ministry of Health remain vacant, and in the earthquake-hit provinces there are almost no applicants. The emigration of doctors from Turkey is reaching ever more serious proportions.
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