Civic Integration as Symbolic Politics: Insights from Austria
In: European Journal of Migration and LawSearch for other papers by Julia Mourão Permoser in
Current site
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Abstract
This article draws insights from Austria in order to analyze if civic integration policies constitute an exclusionary tool of migration control and acculturation. In order to do so, the article presents an analytical framework operationalizing the notion of exclusion for civic integration policies, and applies this framework to systematically collected data on the agenda-setting, legal formulation, implementation, and outcomes of civic integration conditions in Austria. The findings show that civic integration in Austria has thus far not been primarily used as an exclusionary tool. Rather, integration conditions on the acquisition of membership rights can be understood as an instance of symbolic politics, where the primary aim of the policy is to send the restrictive message that the government is controlling and reducing immigration and promoting assimilation, albeit the policy was not designed to achieve these material effects.
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Groenendijk, Kees (2011). ‘Pre-departure Integration Strategies in the European Union: Integration or Immigration Policy?’, European Journal of Migration and Law 13, pp. 1–30.
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See: Carrera, Sergio and Anja Wiesbrock (2009) Civic Integration of Third-Country Nationals: Nationalism versus Europeanisation in the Common EU Immigration Policy, Brussels, ENACT Report (Enacting European Citizenship); Groenendijk, Kees (2011) ‘Pre-departure Integration Strategies in the European Union: Integration or Immigration Policy?’, European Journal of Migration and Law 13, pp. 1–30. This only applies to family reunification by own nationals who have not exercised their freedom of movement or by third-country nationals wishing to be joined by a third-country national.
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Groenendijk, Kees (2004) ‘Legal Concepts of Integration in EU Migration Law’, European Journal of Migration and Law 6, pp. 111–126; Böcker, Anita and Tineke Strik (2011) ‘Language and Knowledge Test for Permanent Residence Rights: Help or Hindrance for Integration?’, European Journal of Migration and Law 13, pp. 157–184.
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Groenendijk, Kees (2007) ‘The Long-Term Residents Directive, Denizenship and Integration’, in: Anneliese Baldaccini, Espeth Guild and Helen Toner (Eds.), Whose Freedom, Security and Justice? EU Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy, Oxford: Hart Publishing; Besselink, Leonard F.M. (2009) ‘Integration and Immigration: The Vicissitudes of Dutch “Inburgering”’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), Illiberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 241–258; Carrera, Sergio and Anja Wiesbrock (2009), Civic Integration of Third-Country Nationals: Nationalism versus Europeanisation in the Common EU Immigration Policy, Brussels, ENACT Report (Enacting European Citizenship); Guild, Elspeth, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (2009) ‘Understanding the Contest of Community: Illiberal Practices in the EU?’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), lliberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU. Farnham, Ashgate, pp. 1–28; Wiesbrock, Anja (2009) ‘Discrimination instead of Integration? Integration Requirements for Immigrants in Denmark and Germany’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), Illiberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 299–314; Kostakoupoulou, Theodora (2010) ‘The Anatomy of Civic Integration’, The Modern Law Review 73(6), pp. 933–958; Böcker, Anita and Tineke Strik (2011) ‘Language and Knowledge Test for Permanent Residence Rights: Help or HIndrance for Integration?’, European Journal of Migration and Law 13, pp. 157–184.
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Groenendijk, Kees (2004) ‘Legal Concepts of Integration in EU Migration Law’, European Journal of Migration and Law 6, pp. 111–126; Mourão Permoser, Julia (2010) Redefining Membership: European Union Policy on the Rights of Third-Country Nationals, PhD Thesis, Department of Political Science, Vienna: University of Vienna.
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Joppke, Christian (2007) ‘Beyond National Models: Civic Integration Policies for Immigrants in Western Europe’, West European Politics 30(1), pp. 1–22.
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Besselink, Leonard F.M. (2009) ‘Integration and Immigration: The Vicissitudes of Dutch “Inburgering”’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), Illiberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 241–258; Carrera, Sergio and Anja Wiesbrock (2009) Civic Integration of Third-Country Nationals: Nationalism versus Europeanisation in the Common EU Immigration Policy, Brussels, ENACT Report (Enacting European Citizenship); Wiesbrock, Anja (2009) ‘Discrimination instead of Integration? Integration Requirements for Immigrants in Denmark and Germany’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), Illiberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 299–314; Bonjour, Saskia (2010) ‘Between Integration Provision and Selection Mechanism: Party Politics, Judicial Constraints, and the Making of French and Dutch Policies of Civic Integration Abroad’, European Journal of Migration and Law 12, pp. 299–318.
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Human Rights Watch (2008). The Netherlands - Discrimination in the Name of Integration: Migrants’ Rights under the Integration Abroad Act, http://www.iot.nl/files/upload/File/netherlands0508.pdf; Besselink, Leonard F.M. (2009) ‘Integration and Immigration: The Vicissitudes of Dutch “Inburgering”’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), Illiberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 241–258.
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Human Rights Watch (2008), ibid.; Guild, Elspeth, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (2009) ‘Understanding the Contest of Community: Illiberal Practices in the EU?’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), lliberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 1–28; Wiesbrock, Anja (2009) ‘Discrimination instead of Integration? Integration Requirements for Immigrants in Denmark and Germany’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), Illiberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 299–314.
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Joppke, Christian (2007) ‘Beyond National Models: Civic Integration Policies for Immigrants in Western Europe’, West European Politics 30(1), pp. 1–22.
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Carrera, Sergio (2009b) ‘Nationality, Immigration and “the Republican Integration” in France: Normativisation, Expansionism and Externalisation’, in: Elspeth Guild, Kees Groenendijk and Sergio Carrera (Eds.), Illiberal Liberal States: Immigration, Citizenship and Integration in the EU, Farnham: Ashgdate, pp. 315–336; Carrera, Sergio (2009a) In Search of the Perfect Citizen? The Intersection between Integration, Immigration and Nationality in the EU, Leiden: Martinus Nijhof Publishers.
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Carrera, Sergio and Anja Wiesbrock (2009) Civic Integration of Third-Country Nationals: Nationalism versus Europeanisation in the Common EU Immigration Policy, Brussels, ENACT Report (Enacting European Citizenship).
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Hollifield, James F. (1992) Immigrants, Markets and States: The Political Economy of Postwar Europe, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. See also: Freeman, Gary P. (1995) ‘Modes of Immigration Politics in Liberal Democratic States’, International Migration Review 24(4), pp. 881–902; Joppke, Christian (2001) ‘The Legal Domestic Sources of Immigrant Rights: The United States, Germany, and the European Union’, Comparative Political Studies 34(4), pp. 339–366; Joppke, Christian (2005) Selecting by Origin: Ethnic Migration in the Liberal State, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
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Civic Integration as Symbolic Politics: Insights from Austria
In: European Journal of Migration and LawSearch for other papers by Julia Mourão Permoser in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This article draws insights from Austria in order to analyze if civic integration policies constitute an exclusionary tool of migration control and acculturation. In order to do so, the article presents an analytical framework operationalizing the notion of exclusion for civic integration policies, and applies this framework to systematically collected data on the agenda-setting, legal formulation, implementation, and outcomes of civic integration conditions in Austria. The findings show that civic integration in Austria has thus far not been primarily used as an exclusionary tool. Rather, integration conditions on the acquisition of membership rights can be understood as an instance of symbolic politics, where the primary aim of the policy is to send the restrictive message that the government is controlling and reducing immigration and promoting assimilation, albeit the policy was not designed to achieve these material effects.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 533 | 154 | 16 |
| Full Text Views | 273 | 16 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 192 | 35 | 0 |