All lessons focus on the situation in European Small States involved in this Erasmus+ project. These are, in alphabetical order: Andorra, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, and San Marino.

Country reports for this lesson were presented at the Erasmus+ meeting on 5 April 2019 in Malta.

... let us see if you have ever reflected about the content of this lesson. So we start with a few introductory questions. You will receive answers as the course progresses.

In the following chapters we will go into some aspects of European Small States in more detail. Please note that you will find more details in other lessons.

You can learn more about:

• Population dynamics
• Types of immigration
• Challenges and responses to immigration

At the end of this lesson, we also offer numerous links which you are welcome to select to deepen your knowledge. There you will also find presentations on all our small states with additional in-depth information regarding this lesson.

Demographics are closely connected to several factors, among them also the historical development of a state. Some states have a long history (of independency), while others are (comparably) young. Subsequently, the availability of data is different for our nine small states in Europe.

Estonia is the largest of the nine small states in consideration here. In its eventful history, Estonia's sovereignty status changed several times and with that, the population's composition has had some rather drastic changes. In the late 19^th century, population number grew due to natural growth. During the disastrous WWI, however, that number dropped significantly because of war casualties, deportation and (forced) emigration. After the war, there was a first wave of immigration, mainly workers and military staff from all corners of the former USSR. In the 1960ies, a second immigration wave brought specialists and workers from within the USSR to Estonia due to the fast industrialization of Estonia. The collapse of the USSR then resulted in a sharp population decline: Roughly 80'000 people left Estonia, among others USSR military staff. Like in many other former USSR republics, population number has dropped since, mainly because of low birth rate and emigration to the West.

Cyprus' population has grown slowly, but steadily from roughly 600'000 (1960) to almost 900'000 in recent years. This includes only the Greek part. Estimates for the whole of Cyprus (Greek and Turkish part) fluctuate around 1 million.     

Iceland's population grew dramatically from the 1850ies on, primarily due to improved living conditions. While the Icelandic population was a mere 60'000 in 1850, it grew to 320'000 in 2008.

Liechtenstein's Population grew steadily over the last 150 years: While in 1880, the Ländle numbered only about 7'500 inhabitants, this number grew to over 35'000 in 2018 . The at times even rapid growth of the population is of course closely connected with the economic boom in the 1960ies to 2000.

Luxembourg's population dropped significantly between 1841 and 1900: It is estimated that 72,000 (out of a total population of 212,800 inhabitants in 1891) left the country (http://luxembourg.public.lu). In the 20^th century the population almost doubled from 260.000 to 500.000. This reflects the rise and fall of the steel industry (Luxembourg was at times the 8^th largest steel producer in the world). In more recent decades, it reflects the rise of the banking, funds and insurance sector as well as activities that require highly specialized labor (e.g., IT sector).

Montenegro's population doubled between 1920 and 2010, increasing from roughly 310'000 to 620'000.

San Marino grew spectacularly between 1864 and 2017: from 7.080 to 33'400 inhabitants. In the second half of the XIX century the population increased due to a significant improvement in the living conditions. Between the XIX and XX centuries the pace of growth contracted due to migration flows out of the Republic of San Marino and overseas, to America. In the period between the two world wars, the effects spread over time on the population (delayed civil registry cancellation) caused by the strong emigration abroad occurred in the previous twenty-five years,  slowed down again the population growth. The population curve started to rise again decisively after the Second World War, starting from the 1960s, because of the outgoing migration flows progressively decreased coincident with the start of the economic development of the Republic of San Marino. After that, the inflows of foreign citizens moving to the Republic, above all Italians, increased. In recent years the upward trend of the curve seems to have eased due to the progressive reduction in birth rates.

By population dynamics, we primarily mean the population's composition with regards to immigration. There are several measures available. Each one of them highlights a different aspect of immigration and/or ethnicity. And, moreover, each one of them helps to answer a different question with regards to immigration. One often used statistic is the share of foreign nationals in a country (see table below). Usually, foreign nationals are defined as residents of a country not holding that country's passport or citizenship – regardless whether that person was born in that country or not. Another statistic is the proportion of immigrants in a state – usually defined as individuals who weren't born in that country. There is also a statistic which measures ethnicity. Clearly that measure has sometimes little to do with citizenship. As an example: In Montenegro, one of the main political cleavages is between those who identify as Montenegrins and those who identify as Serbs. But both of them are Montenegrin citizens, holding a Montenegrin passport. Thus, looking at the proportion of foreign nationals or immigrants doesn't tell you anything about this country's virulent cleavages and political conflicts. In Liechtenstein and Luxembourg for example, the situation is different: Both countries have a large number of commuters from neighbouring countries. But again, a table showing foreign nationals as a share of the total resident population won't tell you anything about that. Thus, a single table showing a given descriptive measure will never tell the whole story. Nevertheless, we presented a table showing the proportion of foreign nationals in each of the nine small states.   

San Marino's population amounts to 34'590 (as of 31 December 2018), of which 6'599 are foreign nationals. Most of the foreign citizens are Italians (79%). Because of the high cultural proximity (same language, ethnic origins, etc.) and the fact that most of the Italian foreigners in San Marino are actually not just Italians, but coming from the neighbouring provinces, there is kind of an "osmotic" exchange of population between San Marino and the surrounding Italian area.  

Luxembourg has one of the highest proportions of non-nationals (47.3%). The share of foreign residents has increased almost every year in recent decades. The vast majority of foreign residents come from Europe, although the share of non-Europeans is growing. In addition to the foreign residents almost 200.000 commuters who live in the surrounding countries, work in Luxembourg. 

The number of foreigners living and working in Malta stood at 69,919 as of September 2020. The number of foreigners working has almost quadrupled since 2013. Meanwhile, the number of non-EU-nationals is higher than those of EU nationals.

Both immigration and emigration in Iceland are closely associated with the state of the economy. Before the 1990s, the level of immigration to Iceland was low; the labor market was homogeneous, and most foreign citizens were from the Nordic countries. EEA membership then made the labor market very flexible. Thus, after 1990, there was a large influx of immigrants from other European countries, mainly from Poland and Lithuania, and from some Asian countries as well, mainly the Philippines. In 2015, 9.3 per cent of the workforce in Iceland came from abroad – at the height of the last boom and before the crash, the figure rose to about 10 per cent. Interestingly though, more people migrated from Iceland than to Iceland in the two years following the 2008 crash.

The situation in Cyprus is hard to estimate because of the country's division since 1974. Greek Cypriots make up roughly 75-80% of the population, while the Turkish Cypriots' share is around 20%.

Liechtenstein's population is made up pretty much by two-thirds Liechtenstein citizens and one third of foreigners. The largest immigrant group are Swiss (9.6% of the whole population), which, of course, has to do with the fact that both countries are closely intertwined (e.g., customs treaty between Liechtenstein and Switzerland). Interestingly, the ratio between Liechtenstein residents (not necessarily Liechtenstein citizens) and commuters among the employees working in Liechtenstein is in favour of the latter: 55% of Liechtenstein's workforce are commuters (mostly from Switzerland and Austria), while roughly 45% are Liechtenstein residents. Another astonishing fact is that roughly 20'000 employees are commuting from abroad to Liechtenstein every day – a number which amounts to more than half of Liechtenstein's resident population. Thus, more than half of the employees are commuters.

Estonia's population consists of roughly 70 percent ethnic Estonians. There is a strong minority of ethnic Russians (25%) living in Estonia and holding an Estonian passport. Naturally, there are other, however rather small communities from the former USSR living in Estonia. An astonishing 15% of all Estonians live abroad, mainly in neighbouring Russia, Finland and Sweden. 85% percent of the Estonian residents are holding an Estonian passport, while 6% are Russian citizens and another 6% have an undefined citizenship.

Montenegro's population is rather heterogeneous: An estimated 45% consider themselves as Montenegrin, while 29% identify as Serbians, 9% as Bosnian, 5% as Albanian and 3% as Muslim. A majority of the population is of Eastern Orthodox denomination (72%), with a strong minority of Muslims (19%).

People migrate or settle in a foreign country for many different reasons: Marriage or partnership is, of course, the most "romantic" of these reasons and quite important for small countries where the "marriage market" is small. Economic reasons, of course, have always played a very significant role in the decision to leave one's country of birth. Either the economic situation has worsened significantly in one's country or the economic prospects are significantly better in a different country. Seeking asylum or leaving one's country of birth because of war or persecution is another reason. Some of the factors are so-called pull-factors, others are push-factors. In some countries, we can identify specific pull-factors, in others some specific push-factors, while in yet other countries there might be both, push- and pull-factors.

Liechtenstein is cautious in granting residence permits due to the scarce resource of land. Thus, many EU citizens from Germany or Italy also settle in the immediate neighbourhood (Switzerland, Austria) in order to be able to work in Liechtenstein. A major pull factor is the booming economy and a high wage level attracting even Swiss employees. Residence permit is often given for family members. Indeed, the (necessarily small) Liechtenstein "marriage market" often "expands" to Austria and Switzerland leading to many inter-national marriages. Overall, the number of refugees has increased only a bit over the years, but in relation to the population number, Liechtenstein's rate (18.9 immigrants per 1000 inhabitants) ranks fairly high among EU states.  

Most immigration to Luxembourg is employment-related. The economy has outgrown the national supply of employees for decades. In the first half of the 20^th century and until the steel crisis, the steel industry was one of the major pull-factors and fuelled particularly Italian and Portuguese immigration. After the steel crisis, family reunification and the presence of a large minority still acted as pull factors for Portuguese migration. From the 1980s onwards, the financial sector and later the IT sector fuelled demand for high-skilled workers from around the world. Many immigrants from the early waves remained in Luxembourg, but the migrant population is nevertheless in considerable flux. Thus, in 2018, 24.644 people arrived in the country, while 13.985 left.

In Estonia, immigration has so far been predominantly driven by economic reasons and came mainly from former USSR republics (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus). They are mostly active in the construction, agriculture and manufacturing sector. Recently, Estonia has also seen an influx of highly-skilled IT-specialists. Asylum seekers and refugees from other parts of the world (e.g., Middle East) have only very recently come to Estonia, mainly on a transit route to other countries within the EU. Illegal immigration (mostly from Ukraine and Belarus) has doubled since 2016.  

Immigration to Cyprus has been rather modest in the past. There was, however, a wave of immigration following the refugee crisis in 2015/2016: Several thousands (2016: 2'871; 2017: 4582; 2018: 7'761) refugees from various, mostly Asian countries claimed asylum, with the rejection rate being at 51%. In 2019, Cyprus had the third highest immigrant per inhabitant rate in the EU (29.67 ‰; see Eurostat).[1] By far the largest category of immigrants, however, is domestic (mostly) female workers from Asia. They face rather harsh working conditions: Discriminatory governmental policy and no inspections.  

Historically, Danish-born immigrants were the largest immigrant group in Iceland, ranging between 0.3% and 1.1% during the 20th century. The Danish immigrants tended to be well-off, and were prominent in the Icelandic upper classes (e.g., business people). Recently, Polish make up the largest immigrant group (39%), followed by Lithuanians and Philippines.

Immigration to Montenegro is mostly related to economic reasons and mainly coming from the former republic of SFR Yugoslavia. The number of refugees and asylum seekers has grown over the recent years mainly due to the fact that Montenegro is on the route to EU.

Challenges to immigration are somewhat twofold in Estonia. On the one hand, there is a shortage of high-skilled labour force and thus, form an economic perspective, a need to involve foreign workers. On the other hand, attitudes towards immigrants have worsened. The language barrier is hindering the integration of Ukrainian and Belorussian immigrants in particular.

Economic growth and population growth led to a high density of Luxembourg's population and high property prices. A growing number of Luxembourgers now move to the surrounding countries and commute to Luxembourg (from 3.300 in 2010 to 7.800 in 2017). For a number of decades, governments have failed to plan ahead and upgrade infrastructures (road, rail) and ensure an appropriate increase in the available housing. Thus, the main problems associated with migration lie in the socio-economic domain. Despite the high proportion of migrants and cross-border workers, the population coped with migration relatively well. This is probably due to the fact that many migrants come from culturally similar environments. However, the almost 50% of foreign residents combined with the almost 200.000 cross-border workers have led to fears that Luxembourgish (the first language of most Luxembourgers) might become marginalized.

Cyprus has several challenges to face: Poor working conditions and no integration policies leading to long-term residence and citizenship. Moreover, the migration issue has secured far right parties a doubling of their electoral share in the past 3 years.   

Because of its size and high wage level, Liechtenstein was granted an exceptional rule regarding immigration and free movement of persons. Some typical challenges of immigration (pressure on housing markets) are somewhat "outsourced" (employees commuting from Switzerland and Austria). Moreover, there are quite high hurdles for naturalisation (30 years of residence, integration test, no dual citizenship). Thus far, however, there haven't been parties or movements with an outspoken anti-immigrant rhetoric. This has also to do with the fact that the booming economy is highly dependent on immigration and commuters.

In Iceland, challenges to immigration are similar to elsewhere: labour standards are reportedly dubious, there is (seemingly) discrimination in the housing market and the rise of parties with anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Luxembourg adopted several strategies/policies in order to face the immigration challenges: On the one hand, the state relaxed the law on citizenship to make it easier for foreign residents to obtain Luxembourgish citizenship. On the other hand, in order to encourage better integration and to alleviate fears that Luxembourgish might become marginalized, the state has also expanded the provision of language courses. The use of Luxembourgish in playschools and kindergartens has been strongly encouraged to facilitate the integration of the children of migrants, as well as the teaching of Luxembourgish in European and international schools. After decades of ignoring the consequences of population growth surpassing the growth in the housing sector and its impact on infrastructures (e.g., streets, public transport etc.), the state has tried to increase the availability of housing to counteract the steep increase in property prices and rents. But so far this has not prevented a rapid growth in property prices.

Liechtenstein's response to immigration challenges Immigration have been manifold in the last 50 years: On the hand, Liechtenstein has imposed restrictions (since 1970s) and allowed less immigration, while increasing cross-border commuting (since 1960s). On the other hand, new laws regarding the integration process have been issued (2008) and NGOs stated to offer integration services (language courses etc.). The refugee crisis has not impacted Liechtenstein that much as Liechtenstein is no country of first entry. Refugees have been admitted voluntarily though.

In order to confront the workforce shortages, Estonia has developed new integration programmes such as "Language Houses" for those willing to learn the language and welcoming programmes for students, specialists, etc. Additionally, there is a discussion about loosening the quota of immigration and the conditions for obtaining working or residence permits. The European migration and refugee crisis in 2015/2016 had quite an impact on Estonia too. Estonia agreed to voluntarily accept 570 refugees during 2016-2018. Many of them meanwhile left the country. Nevertheless, the topic of asylum seekers and refugees became a highly salient issue and escalated quickly in political debates and the media and has impacted the elections.

The situation and the challenges in the various European small states are quite different. Migration within Europe largely follows economic requirements and the need for employees. Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Andorra stand out in particular. This is also reflected in the high proportion of foreigners there. In terms of integration and naturalisation, however, these countries follow different paths. European small states are also affected differently by recent refugee flows from Asia and Africa. First of all, the Mediterranean countries are affected - Malta and Cyprus as points of refuge, Montenegro as a state on a transit route. Within the framework of international agreements or their own humanitarian priorities, however, the other European small states are also concerned with refugees.

In a lot of small states, though, there is an increasing pressure to change the current migration policy and adopt a more strategic approach. A lot of small states have an evident shortage of labour force, but at the same time there are still rather strict requirements and criteria for obtaining working permits or long-term residence permits. Moreover, mostly specific types of immigrants are preferred, e.g. high-skilled specialists, while asylum seekers, refugees and low-skilled people are seen as a problem.

Okay. Then let's see what you could remember from this lesson. Please tick the appropriate answer and you will see whether you are right or wrong.

Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein
Government of Liechtenstein
Statistics
Refugees Help