ABSTRACT
In the past decade, significant changes have occurred concerning migration patterns into the EU. In particular, there has been a tremendous increase in migration flows from SMCs to the EU, especially Southern Europe. For example, the EU has faced a rise in migration flows by 1.5 million in 2006; Spain itself has attracted 3.6 million migrants from 2001 to 2006, mainly from SMCs. Consequently, Spain, which was traditionally a country where net immigration was negative (with outflows greater than inflows) has recently experienced a situation with positive net immigration. It must also be said that this country is facing significant illegal migration flows from SMCs, together with Italy and France to a lesser extent. In this regard, policy-makers have implemented massive regularization policies. This concerned, for example, 600,000 migrants in Spain in 2005. Overall, the total number of migrants originating from SMCs and living in the EU is estimated to be about 15 million people (FEMISE, 2007).
