Integrating Islam: A New Chapter in “Church-State” Relations
By Jonathan Laurence, Boston College, October 2007
With at least 15 million Muslims now residing in Europe, Islam is Europe’s second largest religion. A new report provides a roadmap for how European governments can best engage Muslim communities on issues related to religious practice and integration. The primary challenges for European governments are to safeguard religious freedoms and to ensure a voice for Muslim populations, while combating extremism and adapting European societies to diverse religious communities. Drawing on examples from throughout the European Union, the report provides a framework for establishing dialogues that can play a critical role in integrating newcomers of various faiths, many of whom still have foreign nationality.
Full Report | Press Release

The children that Europe forgot
By Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Werner Weidenfeld,
Co-Chairs, Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration and Integration
Op-Ed in the European Voice, September 20, 2007

New Policy Solutions for Closing Educational Gaps for Immigrant Children
Three new studies present policymakers with ideas for how best to close achievement gaps between native-born students and immigrant students or the children of immigrants across European countries. Written by internationally renowned education policy experts, the reports recommend that lawmakers focus on policies that bring children of immigrants into the education system by the age of three, immerse them in the language of their host countries, provide language support through both primary and secondary school within a clear framework, and afford more flexibility to move between academic and vocational education.

Early Education for Immigrant Children
By Paul Leseman, Utrecht University

Pathways to Success for the Children of Immigrants
By Maurice Crul, University of Amsterdam

Language Policies and Practices for Helping Immigrants and Second-Generation Students Succeed
By Gayle Christensen, Urban Institute, and Petra Stanat, Free University of Berlin

European Immigration and the Labor Market
By Walter Nonneman, University of Antwerp
July 2007
In a new MPI report, Walter Nonneman finds that structural employment in the EU has little to do with immigration. Rather, it is related to factors including excessive regulation, EU worker immobility promoted by the welfare system and other policy measures, and agreements between employers’ organizations and labor unions that set wages. Dr. Nonneman finds that immigrants and non-EU citizens add needed flexibility to the European labor market and promote economic growth. He recommends that rather than relying on a closed-door approach to immigration, policymakers should undertake labor market and social security reforms.

The Age of Mobility: How to Get More Out of Migration in the 21st Century
By Demetrios G. Papademetriou
This is the first paper for the Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration and Integration. Prepared for the launch of the Task Force on March 23 in Berlin, "The Age of Mobility” lays out the future of migration in developed countries, the new context in which it takes place, and the opportunities and challenges that migration poses for Western societies.