Immigration and Membership Politics in Western Europe

This book examines why Western European states have recently introduced citizenship tests, integration courses, contracts, and oath ceremonies.

Sara Wallace Goodman (Author)

9781107635852, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 February 2017

284 pages, 14 b/w illus. 23 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.42 kg

'This book argues convincingly that the new civic integration policies for immigrants in Western Europe are not all of one cut but vary in their scope, sequencing, and - above all - purpose, being restrictive in some countries but more inclusive in others. This is the most complete, methodologically elaborate, and theoretically imaginative account of civic integration that exists today. Conversation around these issues will continue at a new level with the help of this impressive work.' Christian Joppke, Universität Bern, Switzerland

Why are traditional nation-states newly defining membership and belonging? In the twenty-first century, several Western European states have attached obligatory civic integration requirements as conditions for citizenship and residence, which include language proficiency, country knowledge and value commitments for immigrants. This book examines this membership policy adoption and adaptation through both medium-N analysis and three paired comparisons to argue that while there is convergence in instruments, there is also significant divergence in policy purpose, design and outcomes. To explain this variation, this book focuses on the continuing, dynamic interaction of institutional path dependency and party politics. Through paired comparisons of Austria and Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands and France, this book illustrates how variations in these factors - as well as a variety of causal processes - produce divergent civic integration policy strategies that, ultimately, preserve and anchor national understandings of membership.

Introduction
1. Membership matters: concept precision and state identity
2. Identifying empirical variation in civic-integration policies
3. Explaining civic-integration diversity: citizenship and government orientation
4. Examining context: Austria and Denmark
5. Examining politics: Germany and the UK
6. Examining interactions and processes: the Netherlands and France
7. External dimensions of civic integration: requirements for entry
Conclusion: the anchoring of citizenship
Appendix I. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)
Appendix II. Other indices for civic-integration policy and calculated correlations
Appendix III. Citizenship indicator scores.

Subject Areas: Political control & freedoms [JPV], Regional government [JPR], Comparative politics [JPB], Globalization [JFFS], Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN]