Inside the migration state
BORIS DOI
Subtitle
the quest for democratic legitimacy
Abstract
In many European democracies immigration has become a key issue of political contestation. International migration is the most visible consequence of globalisation and at the same time the main reason for a political backlash against deeper international integration. This thesis investigates politics in times of contested globalisation by studying immigration policy-making from a perspective of democratic legitimacy: How do liberal democracies reconcile the economic imperative for open borders and the political imperative for closed borders? The thesis develops a novel argument that immigration policy-making can neither ignore economic needs nor political demands without jeopardising political support and that therefore policy choices on immigration follow the available room to manoeuvre: Governments prioritise economic needs in the external dimension of immigrant admission where they face significant constraints and prioritise political demands in the internal dimension of immigrant integration where they enjoy significant discretion. This argument is first tested with an analysis of policy choices in 18 West European democracies between 1980 and 2014. The results show that admission polices have become more liberal following economic needs regardless of who is in the government, whereas integration policies have become more restrictive and partisan in response to domestic politicisation. The second empirical part consists of a case study on a 2014 anti-immigration referendum in Switzerland exposing the political dilemma: The popular vote to reintroduce immigration quota clashed with Switzerland’s international treaty of free movement of people with the EU and its access to the European Single Market. The analysis using media content and population survey analysis shows that the dilemma was resolved not by restricting immigrant admission but by strengthening domestic labour market integration, a decision largely accepted by the public. These findings paint a consistent pattern that Western Europe has increasingly liberalised the admission of immigrants to fulfil economic needs despite a critical public, and shifted to domestic integration policies to respond to increasing political demands from their constituents. This bears important implications for the understanding of contemporary migration politics and democratic legitimacy in times of contested globalisation.
Date of Publication
2019
Year of graduation
2019
Theses Type
dissertation
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Faculty/Graduate School
Institute
Access(Rights)
open.access
Primary OA Publication
true