Since the late 1980s we can observe that international migration is an issue of rising importance both at the foreign and the domestic policy agenda of most industrialised nations. In a growing number of European countries migration has a bigger impact on population size and structure than the balance of births and deaths. During the beginning of the 90s the inflow of asylum seekers, labour migrants and family members was growing fast. The geographical structure and the temporal dynamics of the immigration to the EU are the central focus of this paper.

Heinz Fassmann, in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" 2/2004, pp. , DOI: