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Migration in the European Union

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Since the late 1950s Europe has been growing due to political debates, conventions and treaties that have made easier the settlement and movement within the European Union. During this period of time, a lot of countries that today are known as European countries were under fascist ideologies (Italy, Spain), therefore the idea of a union in which a large group of countries would participate and set common policies and even a common currency, sounded good to a lot of people that were not in favor of this view. The first wave of migration occurred around the 1950s and 1960s when a large number of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian people joined the union and migrated to the core countries. Before going any further it is important to distinguish the two main types of migration in the European Union or Europe in general. First of all, the external migration involves people migrating from outside European borders, into the continent. The majority of these immigrants are often migrating illegally and risk their lives in order to find better living conditions abroad their home countries, such as employment. Second of all internal migration is referred to migration within the European Union, meaning that these borders would not be crossed. The vast majority of people in this group are migrating legally due to job opportunities and other push and pull factors that we will be analyzing later. With these two types of movement having an impact on Europe, eventually it formed as a large single market community in which countries shared ideas, currency and lastly, the common foreign policy. After the treaties of Rome (EEC and EURATOM) singed by Germany, Italy, France and the Benelux in 1957, 25 years later the Schengen agreement was singed basically to propose a border-less Europe, in other words, free movement of goods and people which led to a boost of internal migration. However, external migration was still influencing the European Union and still is nowadays. As an example we could mention the United Kingdom, which historically has been one of the countries with a really high rate or people entering the country coming from countries such as India, Pakistan and Bulgaria. Throughout the history, the United Kingdom’s population has been increasing enormously and to justify this it is just needed to look at statistics that tell us that, from 1961 to 2011, the British population has increased a 35% in which foreign migrants represent a 30% of the total population. Migration is a concept that has obviously been experiencing changes throughout history, meaning that it has evolved and modernized. The main factor that has influenced migration positively is technology and in order to analyze and justify the above mentioned point, it is simply needed to imagine a situation in which a family with a bad financial situation migrates to a country in the European Union in the year we are currently living in and comparing it to the exact same example but 50 years ago. We are able to see a colossal contrast between the two and this is what we call modern migration. Fifty years

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