ABSTRACT
In recent decades, international migration has become a major phenomenon worldwide. Europe has received a significant share of it. According to the Organ isation for Economic Co-operation and Development (o e c d ), more than 20 mil lion foreigners were living in the countries of the European Economic Area at the end of the twentieth century (o e c d 2001:12). That amounted to 5.3 per cent of the total population, and it included neither naturalised immigrants, undocumented immigrants nor those waiting for political asylum. A recent report of the Inter national Organization for Migration, apparently using broader criteria, estimates the 'migrant stocks’ on the European continent at more than 56 million, or 7.7 per cent of the population (i o m 2003: 29).
