Key Findings
Best practice (100% score)
Fields of application of anti-discrimination law
Unfavourable
Eligibility for family reunion
Eligibility for labour market access
Policies for political participation
Security of nationality
Critically unfavourable (0% score)
Electoral rights, consultative bodies and implementation policies for political participation
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Overview
Cyprus is one of only five EU Member States where the majority of non-nationals are from other EU countries; 5.7% of the total population is from outside the EU. Asylum seekers and international students make up a large part of the immigration flows. Integration policies have remained underdeveloped in Cyprus, with no lead or coordinating ministry tasked with integration (1). Legislative action has revolved around the late transposition of the EC Directives on family reunion and long-term residence, as well as a bill to transpose article 8 (1) on the shift in the burden of proof from the EC Directive on Racial Equality.
Anti-discrimination is the strongest of the six areas of integration policy measured by MIPEX, although it is still a full 40 percentage points away from best practice. Political participation scores unfavourably, with several critically weak policy dimensions. Even with the late transposition of the EC Directives on family reunion and long-term residence, Cyprus has the worst score on family reunion out of the 28 MIPEX countries, and the second worst on long-term residence, and the fourth worst on labour market access.
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Integration Policy Timeline
2005
Ombudsman called for ratification of Council of Europe Convention on the participation of foreign residents at the local level
08/2006
Bill to transpose article on shift in burden of proof from EC Directive on Racial Equality
14/02/2007
After criticism from Parliament, UNHCR and NGOs for late transposition and limited stakeholder consultation, Law passed to transpose EC Directive on family reunion and long-term residence
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Migrant Profile
Footnotes
1 Niessen and Huddleston, Setting up a System of Benchmarking to Measure the Success of Integration Policies in Europe (European Parliament, 2007)
2 Eurostat (non EU-27, estimates on nationals' and non-nationals' distribution from previously published figures )
3 Cyprus Statistical Service, Census 2001
4 Eurostat (non EU-27, rough estimates based on available information (last census and assumptions on trends up to 1.01.2005)
5 Urban Audit (non EU-15)
6 Cyprus Statistical Service, Census 2001
7 Eurostat (non EU-15)
8 MPG, Migration News Sheet, April 2007 (data excludes repeat applications)
9 Cyprus Statistical Service (for the academic year 2004-2005)
10 Unreliable data
11 Unreliable data
12 Eurostat (includes EU nationals)
13 Eurostat (non EU-25)
