On 7 December 2011 the Migration Policy Group held a webinar ‘How to Respond to the EU Family Reunion Consultation‘ where Thomas Huddleston, MPG Policy Analyst and Central Research Coordinator of the MIPEX, presented the four MPG Briefings on Family Reunion and the relevant MIPEX data to assist organisation in drafting their own responses to the EU Consultation. (N.B. The deadline for responses to the Green Paper is 1 March 2012)
The webinar recording is available in two parts. Part 1 is a recording of the presentation by Thomas Huddleston outlining the questions from the EU consultation one by one, as well as presenting data relevant to the consultation.
During the webinar a series of questions were put to the participants, and the results of these are listed below.
Part 2 is a recording of the Question and Answer session.
Alternatively, you can also view the slides of the presentation at the bottom of this post.
How to Respond to the EU Family Reunion Consultation Part 1:
How to Respond to the EU Family Reunion Consultation Part 2
During the webinar we took polls to gather feedback from the participants. Here were the final results:
Which of these two options would you recommend to the European Commission?
Member States should better implement the existing Directive: 25%
European Commission should propose changes for negotiation: 29%
Don’t know: 46%
Non-EU family reunion is how most immigrants come to my country.
True: 27%
False: 66%
Don’t know: 7%
Which type of proposals do you think your national government would support?
More restrictive conditions: 61%
More flexible conditions: 23%
Don’t know: 16%
Should newly arrived immigrants have to wait 1-2 years and have prospects for permanent residence before they can reunite?
Yes: 23%
No: 61%
Don’t know: 16%
In all European countries, 18 yr-olds can marry. Should a migrant have to be older than 21 to reunite with his/her spouse?
Yes, it helps fight forced marriages and promote integration: 10%
No, it does not help: 77%
Don’t know: 13%
All immigrants have the right to apply for their nuclear family. Is that adequate?
Yes, nuclear family is most important: 18%
No, should include dependent parents, grandparents, adults: 34%
No, they should have the right to all other dependents: 22%
Don’t know: 26%
Which integration measures do you think are effective for immigrant families’ language learning and integration? (multiple answers allowed)
Only courses in the EU country: 42%
Courses in the EU country or non-EU country of origin: 52%
Tests in the EU country: 13%
Tests in the EU country or non-EU country of origin: 14%
Don’t Know: 12%
To view the slides of the presentation without audio, see below:
