ABSTRACT
Throughout the twentieth century, Austria was a country of both immigration and emigration. However, its migration history in the twentieth century is characterized by several major breaks, all of which led to important reconfigurations of the patterns of migration and the emergence of completely new migratory phenomena. Until the early 1990s, Austria designed its migration policy exclusively on the basis of economic considerations. Indeed, the government left the determination of migration levels largely to the 'social partners' comprised by organized labour and employers. In contrast to immigration policy, citizenship policies had largely remained at the margins of political debates. A modest reform of nationality law in 1998 introduced 'integration' as a guiding principle in respect of naturalization, but upheld most other provisions of nationality legislation. Public discourse on migration is characterized by anti-immigrant attitudes and outright xenophobia, and highlights the negative implications of migration.
