Introduction and conceptual framework

International migration in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is not a new phenomenon. Nevertheless, as late as the beginning of the 1990s, it began evolving into a more important topic for scientists and researchers, who started to look at international migration movements from various angles and perspectives. A missing key component, however, was a more systematic comparative perspective that could anchor the issue within a broader conceptual and theoretical framework (see also the Introduction in this volume). These very aspects were a primary focus of the IDEA project, which sought to compare the migratory experience of three groups of countries – Western European, Southern European and CEE – using the perspective of the IDEA conceptual framework and its key concepts within the European migration cycle (see chapters 1, 2 and 3 in this volume). By making use of the historical experience Western Europe has had in migration developments, one can more aptly identify the positioning of the CEE countries within the migration cycle and, more specifically, within its transition phases. It then becomes possible to make detailed observations of similarities and differences, both within the region and relative to the concept.

The underlying premise of the migration cycle concept is that, in the course of time, and in step with modernisation processes overall, European countries undergo a migration transition process from countries of emigration to countries of immigration. During this cycle, countries experience specific phases (see chapter 3). The main drivers of these developments are perceivable in the demographic and economic developments of both sending and receiving countries, as well as in the paradigms of migration and migration control policies (Fassman & Reeger 2008). A general condition sine qua non is that of a democratic regime (with open borders and free market economy), under which a migration transition can freely take place. The transition from an emigration country to an immigration country is typically composed of several characteristic stages. These stages differ in the features of the migration flow itself, by the socio-economic circumstances in the sending and receiving countries and by the transformation of the dominant migration regime (see chapters 1 and 3; also Fassman & Reeger 2008).