Immigration to Europe has a long history, but increased substantially after World War II. Western European countries, especially, saw high growth in immigration post 1945, and many European nations today (particularly those of the EU-15) have sizeable immigrant populations, both of European and non-European origin. In contemporary globalization, migrations to Europe have accelerated in speed and scale. Over the last decades, there has been an increase in negative attitudes towards immigration, and many studies have emphasized marked differences in the strength of anti-immigrant attitudes among European countries.
Beginning in 2004, the European Union granted EU citizens freedom of movement and residence within the EU, and the term "immigrant" has since been used to refer to non-EU citizens, meaning that EU citizens are not to be defined as immigrants within EU territory. The European Commission defines "immigration" as the action by which a person from a non-EU country establishes their usual residence in the territory of an EU country for a period that is or is expected to be at least twelve months. Between 2010 and 2013, around 1.4 million non-EU nationals, excluding asylum seekers and refugees, immigrated into the EU each year using regular means, with a slight decrease since 2010.
History
The Yamnaya, a Bronze Age pastoralist culture from the Pontic–Caspian steppe (modern Russia/Ukraine), migrated into Europe around 3000 BC, drastically transforming its genetic, linguistic, and cultural landscape. This migration is considered the third major prehistoric migration event in Europe, following the initial settlement by hunter-gatherers and the arrival of early farmers from Anatolia. The Yamnaya migration in particular showed a strong, sex-biased, male-driven replacement, with newcomers replacing local male lineages while marrying local women.
Historical migration into or within Europe has mostly taken the form of military invasion, but there have been exceptions; this concerns notably population movements within the Roman Empire under the Pax Romana; the Jewish diaspora in Europe was the result of the First Jewish–Roman War of AD 66–73.
With the collapse of the Roman Empire, migration was again mostly coupled with warlike invasion, not least during the so-called migration period (Germanic), the Slavic migrations, the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, the Islamic conquests and the Turkic expansion into Eastern Europe (Kipchaks, Tatars, Cumans). The Ottomans once again established a multi-ethnic imperial structure across Western Asia and Southeastern Europe, but Turkification in Southeastern Europe was due more to cultural assimilation than to mass immigration. In the late medieval period, the Romani people moved into Europe both via Anatolia and the Maghreb.
There were substantial population movements within Europe throughout the Early Modern period, mostly in the context of the Reformation and the European wars of religion, and again as a result of World War II.
From the late 15th century until the late 1960s and early 1970s, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom were primarily sources of emigration, sending large numbers of emigrants to the Americas, Australia, Siberia and Southern Africa. A number also went to other European countries (notably France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium). As living standards in these countries have risen, the trend has reversed and they were a magnet for immigration (most notably from Morocco, Somalia, Egypt to Italy and Greece; from Morocco, Algeria and the Americas to Spain and Portugal; and from Ireland, India, Pakistan, Germany, the United States, Bangladesh, and Jamaica to the United Kingdom).
Mobility within Europe after the 1985 Schengen Agreement
Article 17 of the Schengen Agreement aims at moving internal borders to external borders.
Mobility or mobility of workers is the name given to ease people from one EU country to work into another EU country. The Maastricht treaty name it "the free movement of persons". This is one of the key principles of the European Union.
As a result of the Schengen Agreement, signed on 14 June 1985, there is free travel within part of Europe — known as the Schengen area — for all citizens and residents of all 27 member states; however, non-citizens may only do so for tourism purpose, and for up to three months. Moreover, EU citizens and their families have the right to live and work anywhere within the EU; citizens of non-EU or non-EEA states may obtain a Blue Card or long-term residency.
A large proportion of immigrants in western European states have come from former eastern bloc states in the 1990s, especially in Spain, Greece, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom. There are frequently specific migration patterns, with geography, language and culture playing a role. For example, there are large numbers of Poles who have moved to the United Kingdom and Ireland and Iceland, while Romanians and also Bulgarians have chosen Spain and Italy.
With the earlier of the two recent enlargements of the EU although most countries restricted free movement by nationals of the acceding countries, the United Kingdom did not restrict for the 2004 enlargement of the European Union and received Polish, Latvian and other citizens of the new EU states.
Spain was not restricted for the 2007 enlargement of the European Union, when 9 countries entered Schengen area in 2007, and received many Romanians and Bulgarians as well other citizens of the new EU states.
Many of these Polish immigrants to the UK have since returned to Poland, after the serious economic crisis in the UK. Nevertheless, free movement of EU nationals is now an important aspect of migration within the EU, since there are now 27 member states, and has resulted in serious political tensions between Italy and Romania, since Italy has expressed the intention of restricting free movement of EU nationals (contrary to Treaty obligations and the clear jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice).
Another migration trend has been that of Northern Europeans moving toward Southern Europe. Citizens from the European Union make up a growing proportion of immigrants in Portugal, Spain, South of France, Italy and Greece.
In 2023 and 2024, 3 new countries entered the Schengen area, including Romania and Bulgaria.
Immigration from outside Europe since the 1980s
Many immigrants and their descendants have ancestral origins outside the continent. For the former colonial powers France, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal, most immigrants and their descendants have ties to former colonies in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. In addition, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium recruited Turkish and Moroccan guest workers beginning in the 1960s, and many current immigrants in those countries today have ties to such recruitment programs.
Moroccan immigrants also began migrating substantially to Spain and Italy for work opportunities in the 1980s. In the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, the bulk of non-Western immigrants are refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East, East Africa, and other regions of the world arriving since the 1980s and 1990s. Increasing globalization has brought a population of students, professionals, and workers from all over the world into major European cities, most notably London, Paris, and Frankfurt. The introduction of the EU Blue Card in May 2009 further increased the number of skilled professional immigrants from outside of the continent.
Irregular immigration and asylum-seeking in Europe from outside the continent have been occurring since at least the 1990s. While the number of migrants was relatively small for years, it began to rise in 2013. In 2015, the number of asylum seekers arriving from outside Europe increased substantially during the European migrant crisis (see timeline). However, the EU-Turkey deal enacted in March 2016 dramatically reduced this number, and anti-immigrant measures starting in 2017 by the Italian government further cut irregular migration from the Mediterranean route.
Scholars say that the increase in immigration flows from the 1980s is due to global inequalities between poor and rich countries. quote:
In 2017, approximately 825,000 persons acquired citizenship of a member state of the European Union, down from 995,000 in 2016. The largest groups were nationals of Morocco, Albania, India, Turkey and Pakistan.
2.4 million non-EU migrants entered the EU in 2017. In addition, cheaper transportation and more advanced technology have further aided migration.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the EU Asylum and Migration Pact as a "huge achievement for Europe". The provisions of the EU Asylum and Migration Pact apply to migrants caught illegally crossing an external EU border, such as those reaching the shores of Greece, Italy or Spain via the Mediterranean Sea or Atlantic Ocean on boats provided by smugglers; estimated at 300,000 migrants in 2023. Provisions do not apply to legal migrants to the EU (~3.5 million in 2023) and migrants who arrived legally but overstayed their visas (~700,000 in 2023).
In January 2026, India and the European Union signed a mobility and migration partnership agreement alongside a free trade agreement to substantially expand and simplify legal pathways to the EU for Indian students and skilled workers.
Immigrants in the Nordic countries in 2000–2025
The Nordic countries have differed in their approach to immigration. While Norway and Sweden used to have generous immigration policies, Denmark and Finland had more restricted immigration. Although both Denmark and Finland have experienced a significant increase in their immigrant populations between 2000 and 2020 (6.8% points in Denmark and 5.0% in Finland), Norway (11.9%) and Sweden (11.0%) have seen far greater relative increases.
From 2020 to 2025, Iceland saw the highest increase in their immigrant population (+6.1% points), followed by Finland (+3.8%), Norway (+3.6%) and Denmark (+2.9%), while Sweden saw the lowest increase (+2.2%). In 2024, the Swedish Government reported that, owing to their more restrictive immigration policy, more were leaving Sweden than arriving. This was disputed by the source of their data, Statistics Sweden.
The table below shows the percentage of the total population in the Nordic countries that are either (1) immigrants or (2) children of two immigrant parents:
+ First and second generation immigrants Nr Country 2000 2010 2015 2016 2017 2020 2025 1 14.5% 19.1% 21.5% 22.2% 23.2% 25.5% 27.7% 2 6.3% 11.4% 15.6% 16.3% 16.8% 18.2% 21.8% 3 3.2% 8.9% 10.0% 10.8% 12.0% 15.6% 21.7% 5 2.9% 4.4% 6.2% 6.6% 7.0% 7.9% 11.7% 4 7.1% 11.6% 12.3% 12.9% 13.9% 16.8%
Denmark
For decades, Danish immigration and integration policy were built upon the assumption that with the right kind of help, immigrants and their descendants will eventually tend to the same levels of education and employment as Danes. This assumption was doubted by a 2018 study by the Danish Immigration Service and the Ministry of Education. There are only small differences between children of descendants, descendants and immigrants (arrived in Denmark as 0-12 year olds) of non-Western origin in terms of labor market attachment and education. One of the reasons was that second-generation immigrants from non-Western countries marry someone from their country of origin and so Danish is not spoken at home which disadvantages children in school. Thereby the process of integration has to start from the beginning for each generation.
Norway