Acculturation in an enlarged European context.

Immigration and ethnic minority issues pose major social, political and intellectual challenges to contemporary Europe. European states and societies are coping with very unevenly spread, rapidly diversifying and most often increasing incoming migration streams. New arrivals include asylum seekers, refugees, sojourners and documented or undocumented immigrants from all parts of the world. In addition, growing numbers of European transmigrants, students and highly qualified professionals, the so-called “free movers,” are living and working outside their countries of origin within the European Union (Favell, 2003). At the same time, national destinations of south–north and east–west migration streams have spread from the economically most developed North-West to the South and Center of the European continent (European Commission, 2003). Meanwhile, the children of post-1965 immigrant workers in the north-west of Europe are coming of age (Haug, 2002). Theways in which they are able to negotiate multiple identities and cultures are crucial for the success of immigrant incorporation in European societies (Crul & Vermeulen, 2003).