The freedom to seek a better life - migration and the EU

Nous sommes tous des immigrés, il n'y a que le lieu de naissance qui change.

We are all immigrants. It's just our birthplaces that change. [anonymous, from evene.fr]

A l'immigration subie, je préfère l'immigration choisie.

I prefer chosen migration to imposed migration. [Nicolas Sarkozy, in an interview with Le Figaro, January 2005]

A main source of frustration when exploring policy-making at the EU level is the feeling that the main stakeholders are often left out of the debate. Decisions are elite-driven, policy analysis takes into account the substance of directives and regulations, but only briefly glosses by the consequences on the people they affect.