During the 2000s, the European Union has witnessed a significant change in terms of integration policies for immigrants. Countries like Sweden and the Netherlands, who were both pioneers of multicultural policies in Europe both significantly limited such policies in the late 1990s.

Le traité d'Amsterdam communautarise les matières relevant des visas, de l'asile et de l'immigration. Le traité attribue donc compétence à la Communauté européenne pour adopter des règles qui prennent la forme d'une politique commune de l'immigration. Seulement, le basculement de matières régaliennes dans l'orbite communautaire a été difficile. Les États membres, pour conserver la maîtrise du domaine, ont notamment accompagné cette communautarisation d'aménagements importants. Dans ces conditions, la question se pose de savoir dans quelle mesure une politique migratoire de l'Union européenne peut émerger, voire exister. L'analyse du cadre d'action et des actes adoptés dans le domaine au cours des dix années suivant l'entrée en vigueur du traité d'Amsterdam permet d'y répondre. Elle fait apparaître l'émergence d'une politique migratoire de l'Union européenne aux caractéristiques singulières. D'une part, la politique a fait l'objet d'une structuration particulièrement complexe préservant la mainmise des États membres sur sa mise en oeuvre. D'autre part, cette politique connaît de sérieux déséquilibres, volontairement organisés par les États membres, qui ont donné priorité à certains de ses éléments tels que la gestion opérationnelle des frontières extérieures et la lutte contre l'immigration irrégulière au détriment de l'asile et de l'immigration légale.

This Policy Paper by Yves Pascouau examines the functioning of the 'Schengen area', which is based on solidarity mechanisms between its Member States and implies a high level of mutual trust. Yves Pascouau analyses the consequences of the 'Arab Spring' and of the arrival of Tunisian nationals on the island of Lampedusa, as well as the follow-up given to the request formulated by France and Italy aimed at changing the Schengen rules in order to enlarge criteria to reintroduce internal border controls. He also touches on other fields linked to the European area of free movement (e.g. asylum policy), whose management is also under suffering from tensions that have arisen in recent years. In each case, he tries to determine if and to what extent solidarity and mutual trust are giving way to a form of mistrust that could jeopardise the freedom of movement of persons within the 'Schengen area'. Although this paper illustrates the fact that signs of mutual mistrust are indeed tangible, their impact seems to remain limited as yet. Yves Pascouau emphasises, however, that maintenance of freedom of movement is not yet a given, and that its preservation requires that the European institutions act in their official capacity in order to ensure its protection.

" ... this document seeks an answer to this problem's Gordian knot: what must be done to overcome the intra-European conflict and achieve a balance that produces common ground allowing for a political and social consensus on migration? This option has a political meaning, reflecting the conscience that this crisis is, first and foremost, a crisis of the values of solidarity between member states -- with serious humanitarian situations -- and of the "unity in diversity" principle. This isn't just an exogenous crisis, with external origins and inside effects. It is us Europeans who are in crisis, and only we will overcome it."--Page 5.