Spotlight on Europe

During the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, European countries were a source of many more migrants than they received. After World War II, however, the pattern began to change. As Europe, and particularly Western Europe, began a period of great economic growth, fewer people on the continent felt the need to emigrate. The dismantling of the colonial system in Africa and Asia also reversed the flow of migrants, who began to move in sizable numbers from former colonies to Europe. By the 1960s, booming economies in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other European countries were attracting job seekers from North Africa, Asia and elsewhere. More recently, countries in Southern Europe, such as Spain and Italy, also have become important destinations, experiencing rapid immigration in the past decade or so.¹⁴ 

In a number of ways, the scale of immigration in the European Union now is remarkably similar to the scale of immigration in the United States:

• The U.S. has an estimated 43 million immigrants; the E.U.’s 27 member states collectively have 47 million.
• About 13% of the U.S. population was born abroad; many Western European countries (such as Spain and Germany) have a similar percentage of foreign-born residents.
• The estimated number of Muslim immigrants living in the E.U. (nearly 13 million) is about the same as the estimated number of Mexican immigrants residing in the U.S. (more than 12 million).

Movement within Europe also has become more like movement within the United States. Since 1985, with the signing of the Schengen Agreement on freedom of movement in Europe, a growing number of people in the E.U. and a few other countries have been able to travel to – and reside permanently in – other member states without an immigrant visa.¹⁵ 

This report defines an international migrant as a person residing outside the country in which he or she was born. So when someone from one European country, such as France, moves to another European country, such as Italy, is that person an international migrant? For the purposes of this report, the answer is yes.

Using this “foreign-born rule” – that is, counting everyone who has moved from one European country to another as an immigrant – the religious composition of the E.U.’s immigrant population is heavily Christian (56%), albeit with a substantial Muslim minority (27%).¹⁶ 

But what if internal migration within the European Union was excluded and only people born outside the 27 E.U. countries were counted as immigrants? In that case, the share of Christian immigrants (42%) and the share of Muslim immigrants (39%) in the E.U. are much closer, though Christians still outnumber Muslim immigrants by nearly 1 million.¹⁷ (Other religious groups besides Muslims and Christians remain at about the same percentage whether or not internal migration within the E.U. is excluded. About one-in-ten migrants have no religion in particular, and the remainder belong to a variety of smaller religious groups.)

When internal migration is excluded, the main origins of Christian immigrants to the E.U. include Russia (1.3 million), Ukraine (1 million) Albania (640,000), Serbia (580,000), Ecuador (580,000), Brazil (460,000), Colombia (440,000), the United States (430,000) and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Top origins for Muslim immigrants are Turkey, Morocco, Algeria and Pakistan. Hindu immigrants are mostly from India, and the religiously unaffiliated have mostly come from Russia and China. The vast majority of Buddhist immigrants in Europe have come from Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Thailand.

Footnotes: 

14 For more information on European immigration, see Anna Triandafyllidou and Ruby Gropas, editors. European Immigration: A Sourcebook, Ashgate Publishing, 2007. (return to text) 

15 The borders of the Schengen Area and the E.U. overlap but are not identical. Signatories to the Schengen Agreement include some non-E.U. countries, such as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. At the same time, some E.U. countries either have not fully come on board with the agreement (the United Kingdom, Ireland) or have not yet fully become part of it (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania). (return to text) 

16 Those who have moved from one E.U. country to another are overwhelmingly Christian. Of the nearly 16 million people who have migrated within the E.U., more than 13 million (more than 80%) are Christian. The second-largest group is the religiously unaffiliated (more than 2 million). (return to text) 

17 The borders of Europe can be defined in numerous other ways as well. Each definition affects both the number and the religious breakdown of the immigrant population. For example, if one were to look just at Western Europe – sometimes defined as the original 15 E.U. countries plus Norway and Switzerland – it has an estimated 46 million immigrants, including 56% Christians and 28% Muslims. If, further, one were to take this definition of Western Europe and exclude internal migration, then it would have an estimated 36 million immigrants, including 49% Christians and 35% Muslims. (return to text)