Monitoring integration leads to new policy in half of EU countries

Monitoring the integration of migrants from non-EU/EFTA countries (third country nationals) can lead to policy changes at national level. This is the case in half (12 of 25) of the EU Member States and the EMN Observer Countries. Estonia, the Netherlands and Serbia even allow their current integration strategy to be strongly influenced by the monitoring results. Administrative data and surveys form the basis for monitoring, and some countries also take into account the experiences of migrants from non-EU countries themselves.

> Read the full EMN study (comparison between 25 European countries*) and the EMN Netherlands two-pager (analysis from a Dutch perspective)

The EU has no legislative competences in the field of integration. However, there are EU initiatives aimed at improving the integration of migrants from countries outside the EU and the Schengen Area, such as the Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion. National policy on (monitoring) integration is shaped by the individual Member States themselves.

Most countries monitor integration

Of the 25 countries that participated in the study, 22 monitor the integration of migrants from countries outside the EU and the Schengen Area. Sixteen of these countries have a national policy or national strategy for this purpose (AT, BG, CY, CZ, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, IT, LT, LV, NL, PT, SE; ME). The main themes monitored by countries are education, labour market participation, housing, health, social benefits/social assistance, language proficiency and civic participation. This also applies to the Netherlands.

Impact on integration policy

In almost half of the countries (BE, DE, EE, FI, FR, IE, LV, NL, PT, SE, ME; RS), monitoring the integration of migrants from non-EU countries leads to policy changes at national level. Estonia, the Netherlands and Serbia even allow their integration strategy to be significantly influenced by monitoring. In the Netherlands, this has, for example, resulted in the Civic Integration Act 2021 (Wet inburgering 2021) and the programme ‘Further Integration into the Labour Market’ (Verdere Integratie op de Arbeidsmarkt/VIA).

Data collection

Most countries (AT, BE, BG, CY, CZ, ES, FI, FR, HR, IE, IT, LT, LV, NL, PT, PL, SE, ME; RS) use administrative data to monitor the integration process. A smaller number of countries combine this with surveys (AT, BE, EE, ES, FI, FR, HR, NL, PT; RS). Ireland and Estonia are the only countries that rely mainly on this. The Netherlands mainly obtains the necessary data from Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau Statistiek/CBS). For this purpose, CBS uses the System of Social Statistical Datasets (Stelsel van Sociaal-statistische Bestanden/SSB), which contains interlinked data on persons, benefits, jobs, income, education, households, housing and spatial classifications.

Public opinion on integration

A minority of countries (AT, BE, EE, FI, FR, HR, IE, NL, PT, SE) also survey the people concerned themselves about their own integration process. The Netherlands, for example, does this through a survey (the Survey Integration Migrants/SIM). The Netherlands and 9 other countries (AT, BE, CZ, EE, ES, FI, PT, ME; RS) also take into account public opinion on the integration of migrants from countries outside the EU and the Schengen Area when monitoring through surveys.