ABSTRACT
Introduction Since the end of the Second World War Western Europe has actively accepted asylum-seekers and immigrants for economic or political reasons. On the one hand, immigrants have contributed towards Europe’s economic development but on the other hand, this increase in the number of immigrants from the former colonies of Great Britain and France and the Gastarbeiter (guest workers) from Turkey has provoked racial prejudice and social tension in European society. As a consequence, negative feeling against the migration has arisen. At the same time immigrants’ civil status became the subject of controversy. The issue of whether or not immigrants should be accepted with a civil status equal to that of the European population has been a concern in Western Europe for a long time.
