Search

This chapter addresses the question of cross-national variation of the drivers of change and the role of transnational institutions, which raises the question of hypothetical convergence. Welfare states have in fact changed drastically, whether through potential path-departing procedures and/or incremental change. From an historical-diachronic and long-term perspective, many current welfare state reforms may be viewed as marginal adaptations, when from a more synchronic, sociological or political point of view some of these reforms are presented as real or potential turning points. The chapter distinguishes the visible part of the policy reform from the more invisible part of the iceberg. It also distinguishes triggers and drivers of change and then visible and invisible drivers. To conclude, there are drivers for change that may be called international policy exporters and translators. They are successful once they shed any vernacular characteristics of the policy and are able to operate in countries that have different institutional capacities.

L’europeanisation des politiques d’immigration a fait l’objet de plusieurs etudes insistant a la fois sur des mecanismes d’imitation et de diffusion horizontaux et sur les transferts de competence progressifs a des forums transgouvernementaux puis europeens. Mais quels changements peut-on attribuer a ce processus enclenche il y a un quart de siecle ? Peut-on mesurer les effets de l’europeanisation ? Pour repondre a cette question, il faut multiplier les niveaux d’analyse, macro, meso et micro, et construire son objet de recherche en deplacant le regard pour partir du point de vue de ceux qui doivent s’adapter aux nouveaux cadres et cadrages de l’action publique « europeanisee » : ministres des nouveaux Etats membres, pays tiers negociant avec l’Union europeenne, organisations de mouvements sociaux et les migrants eux-memes. Tout d’abord, l’article retrace rapidement les vingt-cinq premieres annees de la cooperation en matiere d’immigration en Europe et les caracteristiques principales de ce domaine d’action publique. Il definit et analyse ensuite les mecanismes d’europeanisation du domaine de l’immigration et souligne l’interet qu’il y a a etudier les effets pervers, induits ou non avenus. Puis il souligne l’importance des niveaux d’analyse et de la multiplication des points de vue et des objets.

This introduction to a pluridisciplinary comparative analysis of European antidiscrimination policies and practices provides a critical assessment of current European empirical developments and the analytical issues that they raise. The authors’ argument builds upon the tension between the improvement of the protection of rights to equal treatment and the intensification of xenophobia in the European Union. Can proequality policies developed in a hostile context make a difference? The first part of the introduction provides an analytical framework to account for the emergence and implementation of an antidiscrimination policy framework in the European Union. The second part assesses the limits of this new paradigm in particular as far as the categorization and measurement of discrimination are concerned. It focuses on the broader impact of the development of antidiscrimination policies and jurisprudence and on the way “vulnerable populations” have made use of it.

Will Kymlicka's new book focuses on the global and regional diffusion of liberal multiculturalism, a concept that he has defended as an ideal in his earlier work. In his view, culture is a primary ...

France stands out as the pioneer in Europe in terms of supporting the development of household services through tax policies, and it is also the country that offers the most extensive public support to this sector, both in scope and generosity. Since 1991, households purchasing domestic services can benefit from a 50% tax reduction on the costs incurred, up to a ceiling currently (in 2015) set at €12,000. At the time the scheme was introduced, the policy goals were to provide help to the elderly, to support families with young children in balancing work and family, and to increase employment. In 2005, a major reform known as the Plan Borloo (see Chapter 3) considerably expanded the list of domestic services eligible for the tax reduction. Thus, besides activities to care for the elderly and children, services such as gardening, walking the dog, IT help or delivering groceries have been included in the list of tax-deductible household services. The law also lowered the value added tax (VAT) on private firms providing these new services, and both firms and private employers were exonerated from a large part of their share of social contributions. These different schemes have been promoted and supported by left and right-wing governments alike.

Le consulat allemand exige que les touristes fournissent « une assurance médicale réglée pour toute la durée de leur séjour en Allemagne, la preuve qu'ils ont des ressources suffisantes pour financer leur séjour dans la République fédérale d'Allemagne, des réservations d'hôtel, leur itinéraire, un certificat montrant qu'ils sont actuellement employés en Inde ». Le consulat néerlandais demande « une assurance médicale, une lettre de l'employeur et/ou la preuve de revenus suffisants ainsi qu'u...

At the 1999 Tampere summit, EU member states committed themselves to developing a comprehensive immigration and asylum policy. Although directives harmonizing border controls or anti-discrimination instruments have been adopted, it remains an incomplete and complex European policy area. This article seeks to explain the timing, form and content of this new domain. It combines the insights of March and Olsen's "garbage can' model with a sociological approach that emphasizes power competition among actors in the same field. Diverse actors have seized upon EU opportunities. Law and order officials in charge of migration control seeking to gain autonomy in intergovernmental settings linked their action to the single market and transnational crime. NGOs providing expertise to Commission units seeking competence in non-economic areas jumped on the "social exclusion' bandwagon by proposing anti-discrimination legislation. These developments - superimposed on policies regarding free movement of workers and servic...

This volume focuses on state and society transformations in the context of the 2008 financial and monetary crisis and its aftermath in Europe, which challenges the ways in which we think about and organize society, politics and our everyday life. The key objective is to identify the new dynamics and quality of conflicts that have arisen within the European space as a response to this crisis. The ‘European crisis’ (in the following ‘Eurocrisis’) refers to the overlapping and mutually reinforcing processes of systemic disturbances and uncertainty that have been manifest at three levels since 2008: the global economic and financial crisis, the political and constitutional crisis of the European Union (EU) and the public debt crisis of the Eurozone countries. This crisis poses a challenge to the stability of an integrated European social, economic and political space. The latest data on social developments during and after the crisis show a sharp deepening of social polarization and divergence in the quality of life not only across the North–South divide but also within EU countries (growing income gap and shrinking middle classes). Unemployment has risen dramatically and ever wider parts of the EU population are at risk or affected by poverty and social exclusion (European Commission 2012). Europeans have become increasingly pessimistic about their life prospects with the deepening of the crisis, and they are experiencing its negative impact more intensely.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, migration and asylum policy in Europe has increasingly been elaborated in supranational forums and implemented by transnational actors. I argue that a venue-shopping framework is best suited to account for the timing, form and content of European co-operation in this area. The venues less amenable to restrictive migration control policy are national high courts, other ministries and migrant-aid organizations. Building upon pre-existing policy settings and developing new policy frames, governments have circumvented national constraints on migration control by creating transnational co-operation mechanisms dominated by law and order officials, with EU institutions playing a minor role. European transgovernmental working groups have avoided judicial scrutiny, eliminated other national adversaries and enlisted the help of transnational actors such as transit countries and carriers.

The ability of European nation-states to control migration has been at the forefront of the immigration debate. Some scholars have argued that international human rights and the freedom of circulation required by a global economy and regional markets are the two sides of a liberal regime that undermine the sovereignty of nation-states. Others have gone even further and declared the double closure of territorial sovereignty and national citizenship to be outmoded concepts. This article inscribes itself in that debate by answering the following questions: (a) To what extent do international legal instruments constrain the actions of national policy makers? and (b) How have nation-states reacted to international constraints and problems of policy implementation? Focusing on Council of Europe's jurisprudence, the authors assess the extent to which national courts have incorporated European norms and governments take them into account. The article examines ways that national policy makers have responded by shifting the institutional locations of policy making. In evaluating state responses, the article identifies the devolution of decision making upward to intergovernmental fora, downward to local authorities, and outward to nonstate actors.

Plays of shadow and light : policies concerning foreigners in europe Since recruitment of foreign manpower stopped in 1974, European governments have adopted strict migration control policies in a context of rising xenophobia in public opinion, the press and political discourse. Foreigners nevertheless now enjoy better guarantees of stay and access to social rights and certain political rights. Based on a comparative study of the reforms of foreigners' rights in France, Germany and the Netherlands over the last 25 years, the article attempts to explain this surprising phenomenon with respect to existing theories. The author works out an explanatory model that stresses the importance of the breadth of participation in the debate on these reforms and on that of the institutional framework in which the decisions are taken. While public polemics about immigration lead to reform failure, reforms have suc­ceeded when they were the objects of debates limited to state administration or the judiciary or in countries where the political leaders were able to reduce the visibility of the reforms., Depuis l'arrêt du recrutement de main-d'œuvre étrangère en 1974, les gouvernements euro­péens ont adopté des politiques de contrôle migratoire strictes dans un contexte de montée de la xénophobie dans l'opinion, la presse et les discours politiques. Pourtant, les étrangers béné­ficient aujourd'hui de meilleures garanties de séjour, et d'accès aux droits sociaux et à certains droits politiques. À partir d'une étude comparée des réformes des droits des étrangers en France, en Allemagne et aux Pays-Bas depuis vingt cinq ans, cet article se propose d'expliquer ce phénomène surprenant au regard des théories existantes. L'auteur élabore un modèle d'explication qui met l'accent sur l'importance de l'ampleur de la participation au débat sur les réformes et sur celle du cadre institutionnel où les décisions sont prises. En effet, si les polé­miques publiques sur l'immigration font échouer les réformes, celles-ci ont abouti lorsqu'elles ont fait l'objet de débats restreints aux administrations de l'État ou à la sphère judiciaire ou lorsqu'ils ont eu lieu dans des pays où les dirigeants politiques ont pu diminuer la visibilité de ces réformes., Guiraudon Virginie. Jeux d'ombre et de lumière : les politiques envers les étrangers en Europe. In: Revue française de science politique, 49ᵉ année, n°6, 1999. pp. 755-782.

This article examines the texts and jurisprudence of European institutions such as the Council of Europe and the European Union regarding foreigners (third country nationals in the case of the EU) and their incorporation by courts and administrations in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. The evidence suggests that both the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice had a limited legal basis and unclear competence to rule in the area of foreigners’ rights. Notwithstanding, when they did, their rulings were partially taken into account. This required a number of conditions such as a positive attitude towards international law and a litigation strategy on the part of migrant aid groups.

This article focuses on the situation of migrants and their descendants in European labour markets. This important socioeconomic dimension of the current crisis illuminates the role of pre-existing policies and institutions and points the way to political solutions. The article begins with a comparative puzzle: how can one account for cross-national, cross-local, and cross-sectoral variation in the labour market outcomes of migrant-origin minority groups and explain migrant-origin and gender differences. This is followed by a critical examination of debates on the ‘integration’ of migrants and the ‘second generation’ reflecting political diatribes on the across-the-board poor performance of minorities and the role of ethnic or religious factors. An alternative explanation underscores the importance of policy paradigms and institutional hurdles focusing on three aspects of European political economies: welfare state arrangements, education, and sub-national labour market policies. The arguments put forth rely on comparative aggregate data and surveys in countries representative of ideal types according to the original version of the varieties of capitalism, worlds of welfare, and integration models literature, in particular France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

Intergovernmental cooperation aiming to limit the number of asylum seekers dates back to the 1980s, even though the heads of states and governments of the member states of the Union decided to create a common asylum policy only in 1999. The entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam granted the European institutions a more prominent role in the drafting of policies regarding immigration, asylum and external borders management. However, the legislative texts only aim at a minimum harmonization of the member states’ policies. In fact, instead of a European asylum policy, what has emerged is a policy of non-access to asylum through a number of measures such as making visas compulsory to enter Europe, imposing penalties against carriers, or codifying the notions of “safe” countries and “manifestly unfounded demands”. Rather than introducing a common policy, the Dublin agreements and the EURODAC data base have made it possible to send asylum seekers from country to country. Thus, European asylum policy shows little solidarity and benefits only the ministries of those countries which had elaborated an informal system as early as 1985 in order to stop welcoming asylum seekers.; La coopération intergouvernementale afin de limiter les demandes d’asile date des années 1980 même si ce n’est qu’en 1999 que les chefs d’État et de gouvernement des États membres de l’Union européenne s’engagent à créer une politique d’asile commune. L’entrée en vigueur du traité d’Amsterdam donne en effet aux institutions de l’Union un rôle plus important dans l’élaboration des politiques d’immigration, d’asile et de gestion des frontières extérieures. Cela dit, les textes législatifs visent à harmoniser a minima les pratiques des États membres. Plutôt qu’une politique d’asile européenne, se dessine très vite en fait une politique de non-accès au droit d’asile en rendant les visas obligatoires pour l’accès au territoire européen, en imposant des sanctions contre les transporteurs et en codifiant les notions de pays « sûrs » et de demandes « manifestement infondées ». Plus qu’une politique commune, les accords de Dublin et la base de données eurodac permettent de renvoyer les demandeurs d’un pays à un autre. La politique d’asile est donc peu solidaire et ne profite qu’aux ministères des pays qui ont élaboré entre eux de façon informelle dès 1985 un système pour ne plus accueillir de réfugiés.

Deuxieme livraison de la serie Politiques publiques, cet opus a pour objet les effets de l'action publique sur le corps social et politique. La premiere partie, consacree aux liens entre politiques, comportements et interets, fait l'analyse de politiques qui visent explicitement a « changer la societe », en agissant notamment sur les comportements des individus : famille, securite, sante publique, logement, developpement, telecommunications. La deuxieme s'interesse quant a elle aux rapports entre politiques publiques et democratie, privilegiant des dispositifs, initiatives ou demarches qui entendent permettre l'acces des citoyens a la construction et la mise en œuvre des politiques publiques. Cette serie, dont l'objectif est de rendre compte des transformations de l’action publique et des analyses nouvelles qui en sont faites, illustre ainsi avec ces travaux l’avenement de la figure du citoyen autonome, eclaire, actif et consommateur dans l’action publique ; differents chapitres de ce volume discutant cette fiction, et en revelant tant les ressorts que les implications. Ont contribue a cet ouvrage : Henri Bergeron, Cecile Blatrix, Vincent Dubois, Laurence Dumoulin, Yankel Fijalkow, Neil Fligstein, Jean-Pierre Levy, Jacques de Maillard, Claude Martin, Helene Michel, Olivier Nay, Violaine Roussel, et Philippe Warin. (Resume editeur)

To speak of a “multicultural Europe” is to venture onto a semantically slippery terrain, since the concept of multiculturalism and that of Europe have no consensual definitions. Multiculturalism has fluid meanings and serves as a mold into which new models are poured. And we could say the same about “Europe,” another crucible word that everyone fills with meanings, fears, or hopes. Without neglecting these theoretical and ideological ambiguities, it is nevertheless important to hypothesize the advent of a European multiculturalism and to analyze the steps in this direction by examining existing European law.

This article examines the development and implementation of European Union (EU) non-discrimination law since 2000. This empirical study allows us to investigate the dynamics of diffusion of the ‘international politics of diversity’ and their capacity to alter national ‘philosophies of integration’. The multi-level governance of equality and diversity is also interesting to study in the context of EU policy-building. The article first analyses the reasons why racial and ethnic equality emerged as an EU competence as an alternative to a politically unpalatable post-national citizenship agenda in the 1990s, yet fell short of protecting non EU nationals from discrimination on the basis of nationality. The second part of the paper assesses the implementation of the EU race directive in eight member states, focusing on judicial procedures and alternative forms of redress, positive action policies and ethnic monitoring. The study concludes that supranational law has been able to stir and reframe debates about integration in some of the old immigrant countries (France and Germany) by shifting the balance of forces between various actors. Notwithstanding, the introduction of new concepts and procedures is not always compatible with existing legal and mobilization cultures, and there has been little enactment of positive action policies. However, judicial processes are unlikely to be a solution to end structural discrimination or even redress feelings of injustice. The future of non-discrimination will depend on the success of equality bodies and civil society actors such as NGOs and trade unions to keep the issue on the political agenda. Finally, there are some inherent limits to what non-discrimination law focused on the socioeconomic sphere can achieve on the road to equality. The security of minorities requires their political empowerment, as a citizenship perspective would underline.

In the fall of 1989, two girls were expelled from a junior high school in Creil for refusing to take off their Moslem headscarf in class, marking the beginning of the affaire du foulard. For months, while the rest of the West looked to Berlin and the fall of the wall, French politicians and intellectuals engaged in intense debates. In a secular public school system, could female minors harbor a religious signifier? How could the exercise of religious freedom be reconciled with the neutrality of the public system, known as laicite? Was their expulsion compatible with their right to schooling and the State obligation to educate? The Socialists in power were divided. To put an end to internal struggles and stop the media frenzy, Minister of Education Lionel Jospin decided to refer the question to the Conseil d’etat, the high administrative court. The Council wise men issued a moderate guideline: the veil should be tolerated unless proselytism and other manifestations incompatible with public order in school justified expulsion.

This article examines the relationship between Moroccan migration to France and French policy regarding migrant flows and integration alongside other factors determining individual decisions to come and settle in France. The article recalls that France remains the main destination country in terms of flows and stocks for Moroccans and hosts Moroccans of varied legal statuses, age, gender and occupation. Based on explorative interviews, the article suggests that Moroccans are mainly affected by administrative practices yet most decisions to come were made based on economic calculus and kinship interventions. The article also stresses that Moroccans are feeling the brunt of anti-migrant racism yet this does not deter their will to stay because of their presence of children in France.

The politics of immigration in Britain and France now constitute interesting examples of the scope, reach, potential, and limits of European integration. There is something new here and the European Union (EU) could be largely ignored in what were essentially domestic debates about immigration and its effects on the two societies. The EU’s reach into these issues could be seen as surprising because immigration issues combine symbolic resonance with high levels of political sensitivity. In the words of Stanley Hoffmann (1966), states may well be loath to expose to the supranational method issues such as immigration and immigrant politics that are closely linked to their identities as states. If they were to play this dangerous game of Russian roulette, as Hoffmann put it, they would do so only if the gun was filled with blanks. European integration would thus be more likely to occur when it sustained and fortified state identities rather than undermining and eroding them.

Introduction: Closing the Gap between Political Demands and Policy Outcomes, Actors and Venues in Immigration Control Part 1: Formulating Policy 1. National Models, Policy Types and the Politics of Immigration in Liberal Democracies 2. Contentious Politics of Asylum in Britain and Europe: Public Opinion, the Media and Political Mobilization 3. The Extreme-Right and Immigration Policy-Making: Measuring Direct and Indirect Effects Part 2: Implementing Policy 4. Street-Level Democracy? How Immigration Bureaucrats Manage Public Opposition 5. Excluding Illegal Migrants in The Netherlands: Between National Policies and Local Implementation Part 3: International Policy-Making 6. Shifting Up and Out: The Foreign Policy of European Immigration Control 7. The Myth of Free-Riding: Refugee Protection and Implicit Burden-Sharing 8. Shaping International Migration Policy: The Role of Regional Consultative Processes

Ce commentaire sur l’article de John Roemer et Karine Van der Straeten « Politiques sociales et immigration en France : une analyse des opinions et des comportements électoraux » souligne les apports de l’article en le positionnant par rapport aux études comparées et interdisciplinaires sur ces questions et développe quatre points. Tout d’abord, (1) il est important de ne pas assimiler préjugé raciste et opinions sur l’immigration. Les travaux sur les opinions sur l’immigration s’intéressent aux questions de visibilité de la question, d’information des enquêtés, et aux sentiment d’appartenance à un groupe menacé. (2) Le commentaire souligne le fait que les États-providence se sont développés en supposant l’homogénéité ethnique et depuis les années 1970 les gouvernements européens ont cherché à contrôler les nouveaux flux migratoires. (3) Le commentaire discute de la relation entre « welfare chauvinism » et welfare-bashing » dans l’électorat dit populaire. (4) Enfin, l’auteur traite du lien entre l’opinion de l’électorat, ses effets sur les partis politiques et les réformes de politique publique en matière de politiques redistributives en mettant en avant les variations inter-pays dans ce domaine. This review essay focuses on John Roemer and Karine Van der Straeten’s article “Politiques sociales et immigration en France: une analyse des opinions et des comportements électoraux”. It underlines their contribution to the debate by situating their research in a broader comparative and interdisciplinary perspective and highlighting four points. (1) the need to distinguish the notion of racist prejudice and anti-immigration opinion; (2) the relation between the development of the welfare state and nation-building (3) he relation between welfare chauvinism and welfare bashing among the electorate and (4) the link between public opinion and policy reforms and cross-national variation therein.

L’Union europeenne est devenue un champ de recherche a part entiere. Certains comme James Caporaso ont meme parle de « ghettoisation » des etudes europeennes. Malgre cela, de larges parcelles de ce champ restent en friche delaissees par les debats universitaires et, en particulier, nous disposons de peu d’etudes empiriques sur des questions qui pourtant devraient interesser non seulement les specialistes de l’Europe mais plus largement la science politique et les relations internationales : q...

This account reviews the state of the literature on migration since the West European Politics special issue on migration was published in 1994. Particular attention is dedicated to the theme of immigration control and the critical question of policy gaps between immigration policy goals and outcomes. Regarding policy gaps, we identify three dimensions of this thesis that are addressed in some form by the contributors to the volume. These include: the disjuncture between public opinion and policy elites at the decision-making and implementation stages; the relationship between principals (states) and agents; and the dynamic between international and domestic arenas of policy-making. Offering a comparative analytical framework to empirically map the variations that exist across countries and policy stages and levels, this essay disaggregates the various components and actors involved in migration policy-making. It suggests that in order to test the gap thesis, a more nuanced empirical analysis of an expanded migration policy field composed of multiple actors and venues is warranted.

The chapter seeks to contextualize the current period and focuses on trafficking in human beings and human smuggling. It examines the ways in which the French executive has resorted to irregular migration and regularizations as a means of managing migration flows in the post-war era yet has only recently focused on illegal entries and smuggling as well as trafficking. It then focuses on the consequences of "importing" new terms via the UN and EU to address complex phenomena such as prostitution in the French context. The chapter also examines the main issues that have entered the French political debate: foreign prostitutes on French streets, Romanian minors and migrants in the Calais region attempting to cross to the UK. It outlines the social phenomenon, determine the position of political parties, associations and state actors and study the dynamics of the policy debates. It focuses on the period between 1999 and 2004. Keywords: European Union (EU); foreign prostitutes; France; human smuggling; irregular migration; Romanian minors; social phenomenon; trafficking; United Nations (UN)

The transfer of competence in areas considered emblematic of national sovereignty, like immigration and citizenship, should be a litmus test of the ‘polity’ ambitions of the EU. As of the early 1980s, national officials in charge of migration sought to avoid judicial constraints and conflicting bureaucratic views that that were experiencing at the national level. They consequently moved to relocate some of their decision-making to a secretive intergovernmental forum at the EU level. This chapter develops this analysis of motives for cooperation at the EU level in terms of political ‘venue shopping’.

Part I: Reforming Migration Control Part II: Linking Migration and Security Part III: New Migration World

L’attitude des compagnies de transport Les responsables des compagnies aériennes n’aiment pas parler de leur rôle de « sheriff’s deputy ». Il est difficile d’obtenir des entretiens et des informations concrètes : une réalité que les autres chercheurs qui se sont aventurés sur ce terrain (Antonio Cruz, Kristeen le Bourhis, Gallya Lahav) ne manquent pas de souligner mais également le personnel des entreprises. Les raisons invoquées par les compagnies varient : procédures judiciaires en cours, m...