This socio-legal project questions how and with what effects the sociological notion of “integration” has become, in migration law, administrative and court practice, a decisive criterion based on which states select which migrants shall be granted or denied access to specific rights (e.g., right of abode, political rights, right to family reunification). By the means of integration requirements, states govern both the composition of the legally resident population and the legal status of non-citizen members. This affects the way social cohesion is strived for and reveals how both in law and practice social cohesion is conceived of (i.e., who is considered to belong or not). The project asks the following overarching research questions: How can we understand and explain the rationales underlying the policies and practices governing migration and social cohesion based on the requirement of integration? Which criteria of difference enter via administrative and court practices, thereby defining the contours of a system of civic stratification and revealing specific conceptions of social cohesion?
Project manager :
Stefanie Kurt, HETS, HES-SO VS, Sierre, stefanie.kurt@hevs.ch
Christin Achermann, Université de Neuchâtel, christin.achermann@unine.ch