Boundary integrationism and its subject: shifts and continuities in the EU framework on migrant integration

The European Union emerged as an important actor in debates on 'migrant integration', yet remains understudied. This paper critically maps the EU Framework on migrant integration, outlining the ruptures and continuities that have shaped EU's approach to 'diversity governance'...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of ethnic and migration studies Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 748 - 771
Main Author Dodevska, Iva
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 25.02.2024
Carfax Publishing Company, Abingdon Science Park
Subjects
Accession
Boundaries
boundary liberalism
Cultural values
Discourses
Egalitarianism
European Union
Frame analysis
Governance
Immigration policy
Migrant integration policy
Migrants
Migration
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Nativism
Neoliberalism
Reforms
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Summary:The European Union emerged as an important actor in debates on 'migrant integration', yet remains understudied. This paper critically maps the EU Framework on migrant integration, outlining the ruptures and continuities that have shaped EU's approach to 'diversity governance' in the past three decades. I propose a typology of the (sometimes opposing) discourses that converge in the EU migrant integration policy, differentiating between neoliberal, egalitarian (welfarist), securitarian and boundary integrationism. I argue that while the early predominantly welfarist and neoliberal discourse on integration was only vaguely interested in questions of values and identity, the recent reformulation of the EU's integrationist strategy represents a break from universalist ideas of a 'European community'. In particular, the Commission under von der Leyen adopted a more nativist and securitarian discourse that frames 'integration' as a wager in an alleged civilizationist clash between the liberal and the 'illiberal' world. I argue that the rising importance of adherence to liberal values as a proxy for 'integration', the reinvention of 'European values' as cultural values springing from the Judeo-Christian liberal tradition, and drawing new boundaries around the subject of integration are three developments that amount to an important shift in the European Union's migration and integration agenda.
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ISSN:1369-183X
1469-9451
DOI:10.1080/1369183X.2023.2247170