The legal status of third country nationals resident in the European Union

Abstract:

European integration has had a significant impact on migratory movements in Western Europe. Immigration into the European Community has led to the creation of a number of political statuses within the Member States of the European Community. Each status carries with it a complex scheme of distribution of benefits and entitlements. The benefits and entitlements connected to the status of citizen of the Union and the rights enjoyed by third country nationals prior to the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam are the subject of analysis in this study. The purpose of the study is to establish which steps will have to be taken to secure the position of long-term resident third country nationals within the institutional framework for Visas, Immigration, Asylum, and other Policies related to Free Movement of Persons that has been inserted into the Treaty establishing the European Community by the Treaty of Amsterdam.

The book is split into four parts. Part one, The European Union's response to migration, gives an outline of the points addressed in the various chapters of the thesis and examines the European Union's response to migratory movements within and from outside the European Union. Part two, Third Country Nationals: historical and institutional issues, is composed of three chapters. These chapters focus on the personal scope of the right to free movement of persons in the European Community Treaty, the various legal regimes which have been developed to regulate movement within the European Union by third country nationals in the past, and the institutional framework found in Title IV, Visa, Immigration, Asylum and other policies related to free movement, that has been inserted into the European Community Treaty by the Treaty of Amsterdam, that entered into force on May 1, 1999. Part three, Third Country Nationals: substantive issues, covers the substantive rights given to Member State nationals and third country nationals. Part four, An outlook to the future, concerns legislative measures which will have to be adopted by the Council within the framework of the Immigration Title. It further considers the possibility of redefining the concept of citizenship of the Union.

This book is number 22 in Kluwer's European Monographs Series.