Kosovo's Refugees in the European Union

Once the sound of NATO bombing campaigns on Serbia died away, Europe was left with the problem of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict, both from Kosovo and from Serbia. Whatever Western governments say about the need for swift repatriation, in practice it is a long and difficult process. The situation became a testing ground for the EU's asylum and immigration laws which came into force in May 1999 with the Treaty of Amsterdam. This book describes and analyzes the vacillations of EU Member states concerning the management of the Kosovo refugee crisis. Contributors looks at seven states - Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom - writing from the standpoints of law, political science, international relations and geography, and addressing key themes: the lessons to be learnt from the reception of refugee Bosnians; the national debates on asylum and immigration within which this crisis took place, and which influence policy making; the wider theortical issues; and the way EU integration impacts on national policy making.