13 million EU residents in the EU-15 member states are non-naturalized immigrants. If Europe is to meet its Lisbon targets on employment and jobs; maintain cohesive, healthy societies; and live up to its founding values of equality and openness, then it must take a close look at its policies governing inclusion and civic citizenship.

What is the European Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index?
The European Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index addresses a knowledge gap on citizenship and inclusion policies at a European level. It is important for Member States to think about issues of immigrant inclusion in a European perspective, in order to keep up with the reality of EU-level policymaking, and the rapidly emerging EU Common Space of Justice, Freedom and Security. This is the first attempt to present the EU’s policies governing civic citizenship and inclusion in a concise and comparable format.

What does the Index aim to do?
The Index aims to:

• present data on civic citizenship and inclusion policies in the EU in a way that allows for comparison between Member States and against EU averages
• enable monitoring of the extent to which Member States are implementing principles of civic citizenship and inclusion agreed to by all of them
• identify examples of good practice amongst Member States
• allow for comparison over time by updating the Index annually.

What aspects of inclusion and citizenship does the Index cover?
Our research examined around 100 different policy indicators in five broad policy areas, comparing them to a normative framework of standards that sets out policy conditions most favourable for immigrant inclusion.

1. Labour Market Inclusion
   Lack of access to employment on an equal footing has been identified in the majority of countries as the most important barrier to integration and therefore the most urgent political priority for national integration policies. Restricting access to employment is exclusionary, hinders mobility, and leads to a loss of skills to the economy.
2. Family Reunion
   Family Reunion is a basic human right and is vitally important for immigrants’ life and life planning. It also contributes to family stability and thus to cohesive societies. An immigration policy that is partly based on family migration may also help to address the age imbalances of Europe’s population.
3. Long Term Residence
   Long-term Resident status grants immigrants as equal treatment as possible with EU citizens. This status enables immigrants to contribute to society whilst maintaining their links with their country of origin and, in fairness to move freely within the EU.
4. Naturalization
   Naturalization puts immigrants on a par with EU citizens in terms of rights and obligations, allowing them to become active citizens.
5. Anti-Discrimination
   Anti-Discrimination promotes equality, a basic human right common to all Member States.

For more information on the indicators download European Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index (PDF 1MB)

The second edition of the Index will cover more countries and include more indicators. Find out more about the European Inclusion Index - 2nd edition

So what are the results?
The results of the European Citizenship and Inclusion Index show that:

• there is a glaring lack of data collected by Member States in the area of immigrant inclusion and citizenship.
• Member States implement their common commitments in diverse ways
• Member States tend to score consistently across the five areas.
• there are no major differences in policy between countries with long and short migration histories.
• although statuses for immigrants are relatively difficult to acquire and weakly protected, they have significant rights associated with them.
• naturalization remains one of the most problematic areas for Member States. This reflects the ongoing debate over whether migration should be seen as a long-term or temporary phenomenon.

Commitments
The fifteen Member States included in this research made commitments to the principle of comparable equivalent rights for migrants in EU declarations, including Tampere (1999) and Lisbon (2000). Member States are also committed to the five-year programme towards common principles for the integration of migrants agreed in at The Hague summit in 2004. Member States have also committed to implementing EU Directives on asylum, irregular migration, family reunion, long-term residence and anti-discrimination.

Project Partners
The European Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index was conceived and managed by British Council Brussels, Foreign Policy Centre and Migration Policy Group. The research was designed and co-ordinated by Professor Andrew Geddes (University of Sheffield) and Jan Niessen (Migration Policy Group), and carried out by the Europe in the World Centre (University of Liverpool), and Migration Policy Group. The project has been financed by the Barrow-Cadbury Charitable Trust, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the British Council.

The second edition of the Index will involve a different and larger group of partners. Find more information on the partners for the European Inclusion Index - 2nd edition