Migration poses a complex set of challenges and opportunities to the European countries. This chapter starts by discussing definitions of who is a migrant and how and when migrants can become citizens. It puts recent migration trends into historical perspective, looking at the impact that a series of crisis events have had on immigration into Europe (including the 2008 economic crisis, the Arab Spring, and refugee emergency of the 2010s, and the Covid-19 pandemic). European countries are presented, organized into four groups in relation to the length and nature of their migration experience, as countries of destination, origin, or transit. The chapter highlights the interplay between migration policies and the politics of migration in approaches towards migrant integration.
