Amid high attention on migration in the EU, recent political debates have focused on the integration and inclusion of newcomers across member states. Diverse regional experiences with integrating third-country nationals suggest different levels of support for more liberal or more restrictive immigration policies. While Western European models have commonly explained immigration attitudes through left–right ideological stances, recent research on public attitudes suggests that such frameworks do not translate seamlessly into Central and Eastern European contexts. Rather, restrictive attitudes tend to vary due to political environments, historical immigration trajectories, social determinants and dominant migration narratives.

  
With political debates on migrants and their integration into host societies often guided by simplified narratives and assumptions, what role can public attitudes play in informing policymaking on this topic, both at EU and national levels? This Policy Dialogue marks the launch of a new policy paper by Lenka Dražanová, MIDEM Visiting Fellow 2025 and Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute’s Migration Policy Centre, which examines how generalisable the explanations commonly used to understand immigration attitudes in Western Europe across different European contexts are. The discussion will explore how policymakers can move beyond one-size-fits-all approaches and develop more context-specific strategies to integrate newcomers focused on social inclusion, fairness and constructive public engagement.

This event welcomes the participation of EPC members, Connecting Europe Partners, media and EU officials.

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