What is the Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index?

Citizenship and inclusion have become key issues in European political debate. All Member States have made a commitment to move towards common standards in these areas. At the same time, national approaches and policies still vary widely.

The European Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index presents Member States policies in a concise and innovative format which allows for quick comparisons, from policy area to policy area, from one Member State to another and also against a normative framework of European standards.

Five policy area are covered:  1. Labour Market Inclusion, 2. Family Reunion, 3. Long Term Residence, 4. Naturalisation and 5. Anti-Discrimination. In each of these five areas, Member States are scored against a number of specific policy indicators. The ultimate benchmark is granting immigrants rights and obligations comparable to EU citizens.

1. There is a lack of data collected by Member States in the area of immigrant inclusion and citizenship
2. The Member States implement their common commitments in diverse ways
3. Member States tend to score consistently across the five areas
4. There are no major differences between countries with long and short migration histories
5. Although statuses for immigrants are relatively difficult to acquire and weakly protected, they have significant rights associated with them
6. Although comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation has been adopted, its implementation is lagging behind and discrimination based on nationality is badly covered
7. Naturalisation remains one of the most problematic areas for Member States. This reflects the ongoing debate over whether migration should be seen as a long-term or temporary phenomenon.