"Migration policy in an integrating Europe"

Geddes, Andrew. (2001) "Migration policy in an integrating Europe" . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2001 (7th), May 31-June 2, 2001, pages 14, Madison, Wisconsin.

Abstract

This paper examines the Europeanisation of migration policy. It explores state-centered approaches to analysis of the development of EU free movement, immigration and asylum cooperation and integration that focus on institution formation and on the motives for member states to act collectively on migration policy issues at EU level. The paper then moves on to examine actual and potential consequences of policy cooperation and integration on laws, institutions, policies and collective identities in the member states. Thus the decisions by member states to cooperate at EU level are an important part of the story, but may well not be the whole story either now or in the future. The paper begins from the supposition that national policy models are likely to be resilient, particularly in older countries of immigration where these responses are well-established and connected to long-standing ideas associated with the nation and national belonging. Indeed, a school of thought has developed that sees European integration as a device for attaining national policy objectives and thus in a sense sustaining these national models in slightly amended form via an "escape to Europe" that allows for a European reconstruction of migration policy in line with the security and economic interests of member states.