Immigration & Citizenship regimes

7 important questions on Immigration & Citizenship regimes

Nationality acquisition (Bram ?)

How to obtain formal citizenship is central in characterizing immigration regimes:
  • Participating in democratic process
  • Social rights often tied to nationality
  • Access to public sector employment
  • (Nationality as a tool for integration)

Citizenship: "Membership in a national political community"
  • Right to: vote, run for office, participate in public activities etc.
  • Obligation to: pay taxes, serve in the military, obey the law.

4 Migration policy areas

  • Border controls
    • fence vs any borders with documents.
  • Legal entry and stay policies
    • how to aquire citizenship.
  • Integration policies
    • what do states do to facilitate incorporation or adjustment.
  • Exit policies
    • what is being arranged for states if you are not allowed to stay?

Conclusion: selection rather then volumes

Migration policies have not become more restrictive, but rather increasingly complex through a differentiation of policy instruments and a growing emphasis on criteria such as skills as a tool for migrant selection.

More and more, migration policies aim at affecting the selection — rather than the volumes (filter: growing emphasis on skills)— of migration.
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Changing citizenship rights variation

2 theories that explain variation in ((not) granting) citizenship rights
  1. Liberal convergence theorie
  2. National polictical processes

Citizenship policies - Howard (2006)

Howard (2006) classifies countries based on three components:
  1. Ius soli: children of non-citizens can acquire citizenship?
  2. Minimum length of residency requirement for naturalization
  3. Can naturalized immigrants hold dual citizenship?


2 mechanisms explain the differences in nationality acquisition across countries and time:
Colonial history
Countries with former colonies have more developed relationships with the outside world and thus more inclusive citizenship regimes (however, are equally xenophobic).
Democratic history
Early democracies are much more likely to develop more inclusive conception of national identity, based on civic rather than ethnic terms.

Pros/Cons approach

Pros
• Cross-national Comparison
• Over-time comparison

Cons
• Large processes captured in one variable
• Difficult to assess mechanisms

Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX)

3. to compare, analyse and improve integration policy. Do all residents have equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities to help them improve their integration outcomes?
Covers
  • 38 countries (EU-28, North America, Australia, New Zeland, Japan, South Korea),
  • 8 policy areas: access to nationality, anti-discrimination, family reunion, labor market access, education, political participation, long-term residence, health, anti-discrimination
  • 167 indicators

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

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