Demographic pattern of international immigration in the European Union

Anne Herm, Eurostat

The Eurostat database on international migration even if not yet complete in terms of coverage and not fully harmonised in terms of definitions, already includes a lot of useful information on international migration. The pattern of international immigrations in the European Union is described by using data collected on years 2002-2006 with some necessary adjustments and estimations. We take a look on composition of immigration flows in the EU considering age, sex and country of citizenship of immigrants. Immigrants to the EU Member States are grouped as nationals, other EU citizens and non-EU citizens. We will try to show what the EU data reveal on the international immigration of these citizenship groups and we will conclude that the overall pattern of immigration in the EU is the result of rather different patterns of immigration to every Member State as well as different characteristics of immigrants of different country of citizenship.