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CONDITIONAL BELONGING: A LEGAL-PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO INTEGRATION REQUIREMENTS FOR IMMIGRANTS IN EUROPE
Abstract
This dissertation is dedicated to understanding and evaluating the proliferation of integration requirements for third country nationals in EU Member States over the last two decades. It examines the relationship and potential tensions between the proclaimed commitment of EU states to the core liberal-democratic values of the EU and their actual integration laws and practices.
Based on a legal-philosophical inquiry, this investigation shows that integration requirements for TCNs as conditions for attaining increased rights (i.e. family migration, permanent residency and citizenship) in EU states are increasingly legally misunderstood, misused and predisposed to have counter- productive societal outcomes. In addition, it is demonstrated that integration requirements in EU countries reinforce problematic status hierarchies between citizens in terms of their status as equal citizens.
As a solution, the dissertation argues that EU states should install an institutional ‘firewall’ between, on the one hand, laws that regulate the residential rights and naturalization of refugees and family migrants and, on the other hand, public strategies and policy schemes that promote integration.
... In migration contexts, the stakes for language learning are high. Many European countries impose language requirements on new citizens as part of their civic integration policy (Rocca, Carlsen, & Deygers, 2020), with legal consequences associated with language learning (De Waal, 2017). From the learners' perspective, learning the host country's language is seen as essential for making friends, finding employment, and for social and psychological well-being (Benseman, 2014). ...
The study focuses on the language learning experiences of adult migrants from refugee backgrounds with limited educational experiences before migration. This group is often referred to as LESLLA learners; LESLLA is an acronym for Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults. The study used Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) — a data-driven, bottom-up methodology for qualitative research — to gain understanding of the conditions that help or hinder LESLLA learners’ language development and of the strategies they use to enhance learning and to overcome obstacles. The dataset is comprised of thirty interviews with adult refugees from Syria and Eritrea learning Dutch in the Netherlands. The analyses identified self-efficacy, which has been described as ‘the soul of strategies’ ( Oxford, 2017 ), as a core category, differentiating between learners who showed contentment about their language learning achievements and expressed confidence in further learning, and those who expressed little confidence and a sense of failure. Conditions hindering self-efficacy include the cognitive conditions ‘forgetting’ and ‘stress’, and the social condition ‘isolation’. Facilitative conditions in the cognitive realm are ‘motivation’ and ‘language learning strategies’. ‘Social strategies in new social networks’ is the condition that stands out as strongly supportive for self-efficacy. The data showed how LESLLA learners are often not in the position of power to build their networks. This means that social strategies are not an individuals’ asset but rather a condition that is distributed in a social system.
... Sanctions such as fines or non-discharge of the loan often cause refugee status holders, in particular, further problems. As such, this system can hinder their integration rather than facilitating it (de Lange et al., 2017;de Waal, 2017). 48 Scholten and van Breugel (2018). ...
... This frustration was informed by what appears to be an overemphasis on personal motivation as a means of asserting worthiness and assumptions of what it means to be motivated. This emphasis on personal motivation is deeply embedded in the Dutch integration process which in recent years has become increasingly contractual in nature, emphasising the responsibility of the individual against a decreased responsibility of the state (de Waal, 2017). Dana, a participation officer: "[a]t the end of the day Dutch society expects that they can do certain things by themselves. ...
Based on 13 interviews with Eritrean status holders and professionals in Amsterdam this article explores how paying attention to media skills and media literacies may help gain a better understanding of what matters in exchanges between professionals and legal refugees in the mandatory Dutch integration process. Media literacy needs to be decolonised in order to do so. Starting as an inquiry into how professionals and their clients have different ideas of what constitutes “inclusive communication,” analysis of the interviews provides insight into how there is a need to (a) renegotiate citizenship away from the equation of neoliberal values with good citizenship and recognising needs and ambitions outside a neoliberal framework, (b) rethink components of formal and informal communication, and (c) reconceptualise media literacies beyond Western-oriented definitions. We propose that professionals and status holders need to understand how and when they (can) trust media and sources; how what we might call “open-mindedness to the media literacy of others” is a dialogic performative skill that is linked to contexts of time and place. It requires self-reflective approach to integration, and the identities of being a professional and an Eritrean stakeholder. Co-designing such media literacy training will bring reflexivity rather than the more generic term “competence” within the heart of both media literacy and inclusive communication.
... Sanctions such as fines or non-discharge of the loan often cause refugee status holders, in particular, further problems. As such, this system can hinder their integration rather than facilitating it (de Lange et al., 2017;de Waal, 2017). 48 Scholten and van Breugel (2018). ...
The Dutch government must pursue a more active policy to familiarize all new migrants with our society and to incorporate them into it as effectively as possible. That is the main message of this publication. In recent decades, policy in this area has been too variable and too reactive. An active policy is necessary because migration to the Netherlands is structural in nature. The Netherlands is now a dynamic migration society, attracting people from all parts of the world. As a result, its diversity by origin is increasing. In addition, we have to deal with more and more transient migration: many immigrants who come to the Netherlands are just ‘passing through’ and so eventually leave again.
... Sanctions such as fines or non-discharge of the loan often cause refugee status holders, in particular, further problems. As such, this system can hinder their integration rather than facilitating it (de Lange et al., 2017;de Waal, 2017). 48 Scholten and van Breugel (2018). ...
This chapter examines the challenges facing Dutch society once migrants have settled here. Their great diversity by origin makes it complicated to live side by side in neighbourhoods or communities, which can lead to feelings of loss, unease and insecurity. In this chapter we outline the most important findings in this area from our previous empirical research, as well as presenting new ones concerning the local impact of high levels of transient migration. The nature and scale of these challenges, especially those around social cohesion and labour-market participation, differ substantially from place to place. We therefore pay particular attention to that variety.
... Sanctions such as fines or non-discharge of the loan often cause refugee status holders, in particular, further problems. As such, this system can hinder their integration rather than facilitating it (de Lange et al., 2017;de Waal, 2017). 48 Scholten and van Breugel (2018). ...
Each year a wide variety of immigrants arrive in the Netherlands, from all parts of the world. Some move on after a short time, others shuttle back and forth to their homeland and others still stay permanently. All these new residents make a home somewhere in the country. For most labour migrants, that is a free choice. Family migrants usually move in with a partner, and asylum migrants are assigned permanent accommodation in a particular municipality once they have been granted official refugee status. For all, however, the local government is the primary authority charged with helping them find their way in Dutch society.
... Sanctions such as fines or non-discharge of the loan often cause refugee status holders, in particular, further problems. As such, this system can hinder their integration rather than facilitating it (de Lange et al., 2017;de Waal, 2017). 48 Scholten and van Breugel (2018). ...
How can the government manage the arrival of large numbers of very different immigrants? Before addressing this question in the next chapter, here we first analyse how Dutch integration policy has developed since 1960. A number of national policy models have been introduced during this period, but for different reasons none is able to deal adequately with contemporary patterns of migration and integration.
... Sanctions such as fines or non-discharge of the loan often cause refugee status holders, in particular, further problems. As such, this system can hinder their integration rather than facilitating it (de Lange et al., 2017;de Waal, 2017). 48 Scholten and van Breugel (2018). ...
The increasing diversity of the Dutch population is making conviviality more complicated. Not only in the big cities and their suburbs, but also in medium-sized cities, expat and horticultural municipalities (see Chap. 3 ). Moreover, modern migrants do not stay in the Netherlands as long as they used to; half have left again after 5 years. This places considerable demands upon schools, for example, which have to deal with pupils arriving and leaving throughout the course of the year. For voluntary associations, too, a high turnover of members is not conducive to cohesion. And the same applies to neighbourhoods where much of the population is just ‘passing through’.
Das Kapitel zeigt, wie die Niederländer als Nation durch Migration gewachsen und aufgeblüht sind. Gleichzeitig könnte die Migration die Antwort auf das Problem einer schrumpfenden und alternden Bevölkerung sein. Die Herausforderung, den Zustrom von Migranten zu regulieren, hängt von der nationalen Politik ab. Die Integration von Neuankömmlingen in unsere Gesellschaft liegt jedoch auf den lokalen Schultern. Es ist die lokale Ebene, auf der die Herausforderungen und bewährten Praktiken der Integration zu finden sind und auf der sich die Chancen, die Migranten den Niederländern bieten, manifestieren. Gleichzeitig ist eine präzisere Politik erforderlich, um die Bedrohungen zu bewältigen.
A recent development in the immigration policies of several European states is to make the admission of foreign nationals dependent upon criteria relating to their integration. As the practice of ‘integration testing abroad’ becomes more widespread, this book endeavours to clarify the legal implications which have hitherto remained poorly understood and studied.
The book begins by looking at the situation in the Netherlands, which was the first EU Member State to introduce pre-entry integration requirements. It explores the historical and political origins of the Dutch Act on Integration Abroad and explains how, in this national context, integration has become a criterion for the selection of immigrants. It then examines how integration requirements must be evaluated from the point of view of European and international law, including human rights treaties, EU migration directives and association agreements and the law on non-discrimination. The book identifies the legal standards set by these instruments with regard to integration testing abroad and draws conclusions as to the lawfulness of the Dutch approach.
Immigration raises a number of important moral issues regarding access to the rights and privileges of citizenship. At present, immigrants to most Western democracies do not enjoy the same rights as citizens, and must satisfy a range of conditions before achieving citizenship. In this book, first published in 2000, Ruth Rubio-Marín argues that this approach is unjust and undemocratic, and that more inclusive policies are required. In particular, she argues that liberal norms of justice and democracy require that there should be a time threshold after which immigrants (legal and illegal) should either be granted the full rights of citizenship, or should be awarded nationality automatically, without any conditions or tests. The author contrasts her position with the constitutional practice of two countries with rich immigration traditions: Germany and the United States. She concludes that judicial interpretations of both constitutions have recognised the claim for inclusion of resident aliens, but have also limited that claim.
