The Empire Strikes Back. Migration Style

Launched in 2025, the Danube Dialogues - jointly organised by the Liszt Institute Brussels and the Budapest-based Danube Institute - continues this year with a series of high-level professional lectures and discussions.

Across Europe, declining fertility has increased reliance on migration as a response to demographic pressure, yet countries facing similar challenges have experienced very different integration outcomes. This presentation compares the United Kingdom, France, and Spain — three former global empires that have received substantial migration from their former colonies. In the United Kingdom, a multicultural ethos coexists with restrictive immigration policies that have generated tension; France promotes assimilation into a secular republican model but faces recurring conflicts over religious and cultural identity; and Spain has integrated migrants from its former imperial territories comparatively more smoothly, aided by linguistic, cultural, and religious proximity. The talk argues that contemporary integration patterns are deeply shaped by imperial legacies: the nature of past governance and the cultural distance between host societies and migrants continue to influence how European states manage migration and social cohesion today, offering lessons for current demographic and policy debates.

Visiting Research Fellow at the Danube Institute

Juan Soto graduated in Business Administration and Management and Law from the University of Navarra, and in Political Science and Administration from the UNED. He has a master's degree in Political and Legal Theory from University College London (UCL) and is currently doing his doctoral thesis in political science at St. Mary's University, London. In 2015, he founded Fortius Consulting, a strategic consulting firm specialized in think tanks and operating in Europe, America and Africa. He has also held different executive positions in various think tanks, being executive director of the Civismo Foundation (2018-2021) and international director of the Disenso Foundation (2021-2023). He is a social entrepreneur and has founded numerous student and civic organizations, such as Fortius Foundation and Principios, of which he is president. He contributes regularly in Spanish and international media outlets and teaches political theory at the University of Navarra. He is a Visiting Fellow of the Danube Institute.

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