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Restricting immigration to foster migrant integration? A comparative study across 22 European countries
[journal article]
Abstract Elaborating a popular assumption about the effects of immigration policies on the integration of migrants, we argue in this article that more restrictive immigration policies lead to the selection of immigrants with greater integration potential, and that this selection should foster migrant integra... view more
Elaborating a popular assumption about the effects of immigration policies on the integration of migrants, we argue in this article that more restrictive immigration policies lead to the selection of immigrants with greater integration potential, and that this selection should foster migrant integration. To test this argument, we combine country-level data from the Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) database with individual-level data on economic, political and social integration from multiple rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS) across 22 European countries. We show that, first, more restrictive immigration policies do not increase the likelihood of more educated migrants to be admitted, but they do make it more likely for migrants from European OECD countries to be admitted, while making it less likely for migrants outside the OECD. Second, we find that immigration policies affect some forms of economic, political and social integration outcomes, but mostly for immigrants from non-OECD countries. We conclude that immigration policies do affect integration outcomes but that these effects are small and limited to specific integration outcomes and migrants from specific regions. Our study, therefore, relativises the underlying popular assumption that immigration restrictions foster migrant integration, bearing important implications for the currently salient debates on immigration policy-making.... view less
Keywords
Europe; immigration; immigration policy; international comparison; political integration; social integration; economic integration
Classification
Migration, Sociology of Migration
Free Keywords
integration outcomes; Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) database, 1980-2010; European Social Survey (ESS), rounds 1-8
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Journal
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2020)
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/218871
ISSN
1469-9451
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed