Search

The European Union (EU) is at the forefront of advancing a science-for-policy paradigm, developing resources and infrastructures where "evidence" in various forms can be produced, collected, and applied into policy. This article investigates the production of "useful" knowledge in the policy area of migrant integration, in a system of research–policy configurations mediated by EU institutions. The article asks: What kind of structures are set in place to support migrant integration governance with "evidence," what counts as "evidence," whose expertise is sought out, and what are the implications for wider debates on mobility and diversity? First, I map and classify the key channels for research–policy collaboration at inter- and supranational levels, where researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interact to produce, exchange, and disseminate various forms of knowledge on migrants and their integration. I then explore the nature of said knowledge, analyzing the various data, statistics, and indicators that are the result on such research–policy collaboration. This article finds that the EU-level ecosystem of evidence production both makes social scientific knowledge indispensable for migrant integration governance and produces 'integration' simultaneously as a measurable and manageable (objective) social issue, and a common European problem. I discuss possible implications of this "policy-relevant" knowledge production and propose a research agenda for an in-depth exploration of its effects on the governance of migranticized and racialized populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entanglements of the colonial-imperial efforts with historical and present-day movement, dispersal and displacement of people across the globe cannot be overstated, and yet they are often overlooked in discussions of contemporary immigration policies. As once the most powerful empire in the world, Britain's immigration and citizenship regime is intimately imbricated with its colonial-imperial ambitions. The paper investigates the making of the racialised subject through movement and membership control, historically tracing the production of race in Britain's policies related to border control, immigration, citizenship and race relations. The author argues that the salience of race is sustained to a great measure through border and membership management, whose subject is marked by racial markers that are unstable and transformative, while always remaining linked to a single basic logic of racial difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]