Migrant Integration in a Changing Europe - (Kellogg Institute Democracy and Development) by Roxana Barbulescu (Hardcover)

About the Book

Barbulescu examines Italy's and Spain's strategies and policy making as case studies toward a better understanding of state interventionism in immigrant integration in contemporary Europe.

Book Synopsis

In this rich study, Roxana Barbulescu examines the transformation of state-led immigrant integration in two relatively new immigration countries in Western Europe: Italy and Spain. The book is comparative in approach and seeks to explain states' immigrant integration strategies across national, regional, and city-level decision and policy making. Barbulescu argues that states pursue no one-size-fits-all strategy for the integration of migrants, but rather simultaneously pursue multiple strategies that vary greatly for different groups. Two main integration strategies stand out. The first one targets non-European citizens and is assimilationist in character and based on interventionist principles according to which the government actively pursues the inclusion of migrants. The second strategy targets EU citizens and is a laissez-faire scenario where foreigners enjoy rights and live their entire lives in the host country without the state or the local authorities seeking their integration.

The empirical material in the book, dating from 1985 to 2015, includes systematic analyses of immigration laws, integration policies and guidelines, historical documents, original interviews with policy makers, and statistical analysis based on data from the European Labor Force Survey. While the book draws on evidence from Italy and Spain in an effort to bring these case studies to the core of fundamental debates on immigration and citizenship studies, its broader aim is to contribute to a better understanding of state interventionism in immigrant integration in contemporary Europe. The book will be a useful text for students and scholars of global immigration, integration, citizenship, European integration, and European society and culture.

Review Quotes

"Migrant Integration in a Changing Europe examines the critically important topic of immigrant integration in the new immigration countries of Italy and Spain and fills a significant gap in the literature. It reveals that previous scholarship in this area has used too broad a brush in describing and theorizing immigrant integration. This is a must read for immigration scholars as well as for those interested in public policy cross-nationally." --Kitty Calavita, Chancellor's Professor Emerita of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine

"Migrant Integration in a Changing Europe is a smart, insightful, and original take on the state's role in the process of immigrant integration. Supported by extensive evidence drawn from the Italian and Spanish cases, it challenges the prevailing scholarly wisdom in arguing that immigration integration strategies significantly vary across time, immigrant groups, and levels of government while offering compelling reasons for these variations." --Anthony M. Messina, John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science, Trinity College

"Debates on migrant integration in Europe have for too long dwelt on the 'models' of northwest Europe, often reifying national culture differences. Migrant Integration in a Changing Europe illustrates the way Italy and Spain have pioneered integration through differentiation, undermining normative conceptions of citizenship. The study represents an important analytical advance in comparative migration studies." --Adrian Favell, Chair in Sociology and Social Theory at the University of Leeds

"The vast literature on immigrant integration in Western democracies assumes that states pursue coherent policies that they apply to all foreign nationals. Roxana Barbulescu challenges such simplistic views by showing that immigrant integration policies differ strikingly. This book is essential reading for all those who want to understand immigrant integration policies." --Rainer Bauböck, Chair in Social and Political Theory, European University Institute, Florence

About the Author

Roxana Barbulescu is University Academic Fellow and 250 Great Minds Scholar in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds