Introduction to International Migration by Jeannette Money Sarah P. Lockhart

Author:Jeannette Money, Sarah P. Lockhart [Jeannette Money, Sarah P. Lockhart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367415334
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2021-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

Theoretical Evolution

National Models of Integration

Research on integration policy in a comparative context is relatively recent and focuses on countries of the Global North and, more specifically, on European countries. The first efforts to develop a theoretical understanding of the policies that states adopted are labeled the “national models” approach. This approach focused not only on the policies that states adopted but also theorized that these policies were the primary determinants of the degree of immigrant integration (Brubaker 1992; Castles and Miller 1993; Favell 1998). The central focus is on processes of state formation, states’ understanding of nationhood, and cultural idioms and philosophies that shape how they approach the issue of immigrant integration (Joppke 2007; Goodman 2010). In trying to explain the historical institutional development of policy decisions, these authors draw attention to national history and political culture that are resistant to change over time (Koopmans, Michalowski, and Waibel 2012, 1206). Broadly speaking, the national models argument discusses three different policy approaches to integration: (1) the assimilationist (or civic) model; (2) the pluralist (or multicultural) model; and (3) the differential exclusionist (or ethnic) model, each of which has been linked to some traditional immigration countries in Europe (Pasetti 2019).

The assimilationist (civic) model, represented by France, aims to turn migrants into citizens by assimilating them into native culture (Castles 1995). The pluralist (multicultural) model, championed by the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK, does not expect migrants to abandon their cultural values and attachment to their homeland. The public expression of ethnic and cultural identity is complemented with a shared national identity (Castles and Miller 1993). The differential exclusionist (ethnic) model, as in the case of Germany, incorporates migrants into certain spheres of life, but excludes them from others (Doomernik and Bruquetas-Callejo 2016). Following a labor-oriented approach combined with an ethnic conception of the nation, this approach to integration favors immigrants’ inclusion in the labor market but precludes their incorporation into the democratic polity (Pasetti 2019).

In actuality, these models rarely fit well. In a comparison of the Netherlands and Germany, Thränhardt (2000) found that the politicization of immigration politics in Germany led to the perception that Germany has been less pro-active in the area of immigrant integration, but when one looks at outcomes, the Netherlands, which adopted the multicultural model, actually has had less success than Germany in improving employment and educational prospects for immigrants.

The national model approach has attracted ample criticism in recent years on the basis that it is excessively rigid and cannot account for policy change (Joppke 2007; Bertossi and Duyvendak 2012). These models also present a normative, ideal situation for host states rather than depicting a process that unfolds when immigrants arrive in their new destinations. Bertossi (2011, 1571) claims that “[these] highly stylized national models, as we often imagine them, have never existed … for the simple reason that they were never institutionalized or internalized on the basis of stable, univocal, and coherent normative systems over the last 30 years.” Instead, as Freeman (2004, 946) argues:

[These models] do

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