The connection between immigration, welfare states and labour markets is a much debated topic among social scientists, from political scientists and sociologists to economists. Grand controversies, such as whether European welfare states can withstand immigration or not, dominate in this literature.  But there are many, more complex and subtle ways in which immigration patterns and welfare states features may be connected. These connections also often involve labour market variables, from the kind of labour immigration that is considered desirable, to the  labour market strategies pursued by immigrants in different European states.  This panel brings together a number of sociologists and political scientists from Europe and the United States whose work centers on some of these complex aspects of the relationship between immigration, labour markets and welfare states in Europe. It's intention is to draw out some of the subleties of how welfare state and labour market features impact the way in which immigration is perceived and feed back into the behavior that immigrants may display.  The panel features five papers, two of which rely on quantitative cross-national European data and another three that develop particular case studies with more qualitative methods.