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Migrant Integration Policy Index

PRESENTATION

The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) is a unique long-term project which evaluates and compares what governments are doing to promote the integration of migrants in all EU Member States and several non-EU countries.

 

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MIPEX has a dedicated website where you can play with the data and make your charts and maps to compare and improve integration policies.
Click here to visit it.

What is MIPEX?

The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) is a unique tool which measures policies to integrate migrants in all EU Member States, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA.

167 policy indicators have been developed to create a rich, multi-dimensional picture of migrants’ opportunities to participate in society. The index is a useful tool to evaluate and compare what governments are doing to promote the integration of migrants in all the countries analysed.

The project informs and engages key policy actors about how to use indicators to improve integration governance and policy effectiveness.

To that end, the project identifies and measures integration outcomes, integration policies, and other contextual factors that can impact policy effectiveness; describes the real and potential beneficiaries of policies; and collects and analyses high-quality evaluations of integration policy effects.

Thanks to the relevance and rigor of its indicators, the MIPEX has been recognised as a common quick reference guide across Europe. Policymakers, NGOs, researchers, and European and international institutions are using its data not only to understand and compare national integration policies, but also to improve standards for equal treatment.

Building on its ongoing success, the MIPEX project is entering its fourth edition with a new policy strand and additional indicators.

Why use MIPEX?

Integration actors can struggle to find up-to-date, comprehensive research data and analysis on which to base policies, proposals for change and projects to achieve equality in their country. Instead they may find anecdotal, out-dated information and piecemeal statistics that are too disconnected from the real impact on people’s lives to assist in formulating improvements.

The MIPEX aims to address this by providing a comprehensive tool which can be used to assess, compare and improve integration policy. The MIPEX includes 38 countries in order to provide a view of integration policies across a broad range of differing environments.
The tool allows you to dig deep into the multiple factors that influence the integration of migrants into society and allows you to use the full MIPEX results to analyse and assess past and future changes in policy.

Who produces MIPEX?

The project “Integration policies: Who benefits? The development and use of indicators in integration debates” is led by the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), and the Migration Policy Group (MPG). The project conducts a complete review of integration outcomes, policies, and beneficiaries in all EU Member States, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA.

MIPEX history

The Migrant Integration Policy Index was first published in 2004 as the European Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index. It was the first time that the policies of the EU-15 towards migrants had been presented in a concise, transparent and comparable format. The 2004 Index was positively received by target audiences – NGOs, governments, academics, press and European Institutions such as the European Commission and European Parliament. It was launched in Brussels, Madrid and London. The 2004 MIPEX was a collaboration of the British Council, Migration Policy Group, Foreign Policy Centre and University of Sheffield. It was part-funded by the Barrow-Cadbury Charitable Trust and Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

The second edition of the MIPEX, conducted in 2007, measures policies to integrate migrants in 25* EU Member States and Canada, Norway and Switzerland. It uses over 140 policy indicators covering six policy areas which shape a migrant’s journey to full citizenship: Labour market access; Family reunion; Long-term residence; Political participation; Access to nationality and Anti-discrimination. The MIPEX II was launched to the international press in Brussels in October 2007 followed by national events across Europe to stimulate discussions and debate. The MIPEX II partnership was led by the British Council together with MPG and co-financed by the European Community under the European Commission DG Freedom, Security and Justice INTI (Integrating Third Country Nationals) programme.

The third edition of the MIPEX, conducted in 2011, measured policies to integrate migrants in 27 EU Member States and Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, South Korea, Switzerland and the USA. It used over 148 policy indicators covering seven policy areas which shape a migrant’s journey to full citizenship: Labour market mobility; Family reunion; Education; Political participation; Long-term residence; Access to nationality and Anti-discrimination.  The MIPEX III was launched to the international press in Brussels in February 2011 followed by national events across Europe to stimulate discussions and debate. The MIPEX III partnership was led by the British Council together with MPG, was produced as part of the project ‘Outcomes for Policy Change’, and was co-financed by the European Fund for Integration of Third-Country Nationals.


LATEST PRODUCTS

Browse all MIPEX publications


MIPEX WORK IN USE

Integration of migrants in Europe: the need for a pro-active, sustainable and global policy

CoE_PAA report  prepared for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the integration of migrants in Europe calls for a proactive, sustainable and global policy. The rapporteur, Marietta Karamanli from France, looks in particular at the labour market, education, political participation and anti-discrimination and uses extensively our Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) as well as statistical data to describe the current situation. She is making proposals which would improve policies and countries’ MIPEX scores.

Brussels’ premier English-speaking magazine uses MPG’s work for its guide to Belgian citizenship

BelgiumThe Bulletin, Brussels’ premier English-speaking magazine, has published a guide to obtaining Belgian citizenship.

The guide uses MPG’s Immigrant Citizens Survey and Migrant Integration Policy Index to describe how the path to citizenship in Belgium compares with other European countries. It also refers to MPG’s in-depth analysis of the new Belgian National Law went into effect on January 1st 2013.

Extracts from the guide:

Becoming Belgian: there is a will…

For some of us expats, the adventure of living in Belgium has been going on for some time now. And as days turn to months and years, we find ourselves thinking, speaking and acting more like Belgians than ever thought possible. So its not surprising then that, according to the Immigrant Citizens Survey (ICS), 75% of non-EU residents want to celebrate this transformation by becoming Belgian citizens.

…but not always an easy way

Good expat intentions aside, Belgium has not paved the smoothest of roads to Belgian citizenship. For example, the country obtained a score of only 69% in terms of Access to Nationality from the Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) because among others its citizenship procedures were found to be discretionary, changeable, and inefficient.

These critiques are mirrored by comments in The Bulletin’s expat forum, where most complain about the lack of information, unclear requirements and a long wait accompanied by the impossibility of asking for an application status update.

To further complicate affairs for Belgian hopefuls, a new Belgian National Law went into affect on January 1st 2013. While Migration Integration Policy Analyst Thomas Huddleston offers a useful in-depth analysis on how the law differs from former legislation, the main message is this: the path to Belgian citizenship, while clearer, is no less demanding.

MIPEX WORK IN CONTEXT

The first European country to take away the right to vote from immigrants?

A new immigration bill was submitted to the Greek parliament for debate on 14th February. The bill that will be voted in the upcoming weeks, aims to simplify the residence permit application process and facilitate labour market access for migrants. The same document, however, abolishes the right to vote for immigrants.  According to the Interior Minister Yiannis Michelakis, the proposed provisions are enforcing a recent decision by the Council of State. It stipulates that the 2010 citizenship law granting greater voting rights to immigrants is unconstitutional.

Our Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) argues that the new restrictive criteria will undermine the conditions for integration in Greece, undoing most of its major advancements on integration since 2007.

Migrant_Integration_Policy_Index_MIPEXIII_2011-1A major change in Greece’s MIPEX score

Between 2007 and 2010, Greece made significant progress on political participation. It opened political opportunities for migrants that were found to be average for most MIPEX countries and following the trends in other new countries of immigration.  If the envisaged provisions come into force, the political participation rights in Greece would become slightly unfavourable for immigrant integration. The abolition of the right to vote and stand for elections would lower Greece’s MIPEX score on political participation from 40 to 31 and give Greece a score on electoral rights of zero.

The new immigration bill will undo most of the Greece’s major achievements in the past few years. The country would fall below the European standards set by the 1992 Council of Europe “Convention on the participation of foreigners in public life at the local level” (ETS No. 144), which inspired the major reform that led to the adoption of  Law 3838/2010.

Moreover, Greece will be the only European country on record to have abolished the right to vote for immigrants. The only such example found by Kees Groenendijk, one of Europe’s preeminent expert on migration law, was the Swiss canton of Neuchatel all the way back in 1875. Today in Europe it is very hard to find any example of a major political party advocating to disenfranchise immigrant voters, except for Denmark’s far-right Danish People’s Party, which has been advocating this position since 1981.

In contrast, according to MIPEX non-EU citizens have the right to local voting in over half the EU Member States as well as many countries of immigration around the world, from Australia and New Zealand to Japan.

Governments granting voting rights to immigrants are committed to provide equal treatment and thus better conditions for social integration of non-nationals. Letting immigrants participate in local elections also encourages naturalisation at law implementation and maintenance costs. In practice, few of the supposedly negative effects often raised in debates play out in practice – e.g. greater foreign influence, creation of ethnic parties, and radical overturn of status quo.

French government pushes for easier access to naturalisation process

passeportFrench Interior Minister Manuel Valls continues to work on his promise to return naturalisation to its traditional place as a means for integration into the French Republic.

The Minister’s second set of guidelines try to undo the damage done in the last years of the previous government, which decentralised the procedure and instructed prefects to restrict their practice. The new guidelines address several points raised by MPG and its French MIPEX partner, France Terre d’Asile, working together to identify the legal and administrative obstacles to naturalisation and propose solutions for France – see their reaction to new guidelines here.

A EU-funded handbook has been designed specifically for French policymakers and practitioners, both in French and English. A targeted MIPEX report, funded by the French Embassy in the US, detailed the recent changes in French naturalisation policies, their impacts on naturalisation and integration, and the project’s recommendations for reforming French immigration policy.


EVENTS

Are you looking for past news and events related to the Migrant Integration Policy Index?

News and events prior to 2012 are available in our archive.