16 dic 2019 - 22:42 CET

The distinction between immigration policies and immigrant policies has been pertinent in the field of migration studies since Tomas Hammar first made it in 1985. The former refers to the criteria used to grant immigrants entry to the territory, while the latter refers to regulations regarding immigrant rights, (permanent) settlement, and access to citizenship. Besides making the distinction, Hammar also noted later that there may be a link between these policy realms. In recent years, the nature of this link has been explored in more detail. One of the most prominent examples is Martin Ruhs’ book The Price of Rights, which suggests that while for certain high-skilled immigrants, access to the territory and to rights go together, for other categories there can be trade-offs. Anna Boucher and Justin Gest have also noted an “admission-citizenship nexus”, documenting among other things that lower naturalization rates are connected to greater labor inflows, and that higher rates are connected to non-economic forms of immigration.

However, much remains to be done to analyze and more comprehensively understand the potential interactions and correlations between immigration and immigrant integration policies. For instance, do the same factors trigger changes in immigration and integration policies? How do these policies configure across sub-national, national, and supranational levels? And are there trade-offs between openness in immigration and inclusiveness in integration?
At the same time, we know little about how these regulations and their potential intersections relate to migrants’ individual experiences and perceptions. How do migrants navigate in this policy landscape? How do they experience the exposure to selection processes for various legal statuses? And how do status transitions and immigrant rights condition integration outcomes?

This workshop welcomes contributions that analyze these questions in an interdisciplinary setting. It aims to gather a group of scholars not only from the discipline of political science, but also from law, sociology and anthropology. Furthermore, we are open to both empirical and theoretical papers, as well as to both qualitative and quantitative papers. Participation of early-career researchers is particularly encouraged.

Paper proposals should be submitted via e-mail to Samuel D. Schmid (schmid@mmg.mpg.de) by January 31, 2020. Paper proposals should include: the paper title and abstract (max. 250 words), as well as the e-mail address and institutional affiliation of the author(s).

Please note that funding for this event is limited. Early-careers scholars (including docs and postdocs) and those coming from low and middle-income countries will be given priority. We encourage participants to secure funding from their own institution.