Immigration and Foreign Policies: Bilateral Voluntary Agreements

The focus of this research is on exploring immigration policies in Europe, specifically focusing the attention on the voluntary bilateral agreements developed between certain countries, which in this case are the countries of Italy and Libya, and the United States and Cuba and Mexico. I explore the assumption that migration and refugee decisions countries make, have implications for other states. I examine how migration has a fundamental part in negotiations with other states and try to explain how migration perceived in the domestic arena, affects foreign policy orientations significantly. Migration in most cases is able to benefit the receiving country, the sending country and the migrating individuals themselves from a developmental point of view; even industrialized countries have viewed migration as being vital to their economic and social growth. Nowadays though, migration especially in Europe, has become a problem and is now seen as a key international security issue and many policies have been formulated to prevent migrants from reaching Europe or to deter them from settling in.