Today, there are millions of people, particularly Muslims, with different religion, language and race who migrated to Europe from outside the continent. Why are these people, who left their countries due to different reasons, here? Why have millions of people been leaving their counties since hundreds of years? Can these migration waves be explained by only economic reasons? Or, are there other factors triggering this process? If there are, then, what is the share of Europe in that? Will the current chaos atmosphere experienced in the world, and especially in Africa and the Middle East, play a triggering role for new migration waves?
Well then, how are immigrants treated in Europe? Before anything else, is their security of life and property provided? Do they get similar rights when they become citizens of the countries that they live in? Do they have enough political representation? Can they equally benefit from educational opportunities? Can they be hired at the rate of their knowledge and talents? Can they freely experience their beliefs and express their thoughts? Is it allowed that they live according to their religious and cultural differences? Are they exposed to discrimination in social, political and cultural life?
During our work of report that we as UHİM prepared via pursuing these and similar questions, we visited many European countries. We made interviews with politicians, civil society organizations, academicians and immigrants. While preparing our report, we benefited from the information, document, interview and record of observations that we gathered during out visits. Moreover, in construction of our report, we benefited from many international reports published before by various institutions, and from news taken place in international media regarding the subject.
The main aim of our report is to examine and bring forward the process encountered by immigrants living in Europe. If we would like that currently existing problems will not be experienced in future, this is only possible via eliminating the reasons causing these problems. We hope that our report will help the steps taken in that direction.
UHİM / 2015