We will always have Tampere: a case study on the regulation of the residence status of long-term migrants

Abstract

While European Union citizenship gradually moved from a matter of employment rights toward a matter of fundamental rights, the status of third-country nationals (TCNs) remained locked in the policy areas of security and economic cooperation. This changed since the late-1990s under gradual developments favouring the centralization of migration policy. The current paper makes a contribution to trace this process by presenting a case study of the 2003 Directive concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents. An overview of the process leading to the adoption of the Directive is followed by an examination of the practicalities involved in its transposition into domestic law in Portugal, a country in which the relative novelty of the immigration phenomenon and an inconstant economic trajectory are critically entwined. It is concluded that migration policy can be developed at the EU level without a common position on integration being taken. Far from an incidental outcome, this enables nation-states to both concede benefits claimed through political mobilization for the advancement of immigrants’ rights and reassert their gate-keeping capacity in the regulation of migration. The combination of protective advancements for TCNs and increased securitization of their mobility stands out as a piece of key explanatory value to understand the adoption of the Directive in a context of tightening immigration policy in various member-states