Immigration has been at the center of much European politics over the last few decades and this tendency has been accentuated by the economic crisis. Immigrants are often blamed for being burdens on the welfare state and for creating labor market competition for natives.  This panel brings together a series of papers that look at a different set of angles on the relationship between welfarer states, labor markets and the political economy of immigration in Europe.  Sofia Perez' paper asks whether there are reasons to expect that states with different types of welfare state features will pursue different  immigration policies based on the premise  that  welfare state features can shape social preferences regarding immigration and that immigration can serve to complement welfare state shortfalls and  labor market dynamics as postulated by segmented labor market theory.   Christel Kesler's paper looks at the ways in which home-country institutions - and not just immigrant characteristics - shape labor market participation by female immigrants and how this in turns  impacts immigrant family poverty and integration. Hilary Silver's paper uses harmonized LIS (and EULFS) data to estimate the earnings differential that can be attributed to being an immigrant from the Middle East or  North Africa in  European countries. Javier Polavieja's paper revisits the debate on whether and how attitudes towards immigration relate  to labor market competition.  Martin Schain's paper explores the tension between the need for more open borders to serve  the movement of goods and services; and the need for stronger border controls for people.