An international workshop co-sponsored by the MPI-MMG Department of Ethics, Law and Politics
22 May 2020 in Berlin
The distinction between immigration policies and immigrant policies has been pertinent in the field of migration studies since Tomas Hammar first made it in 1985. The former refers to the criteria used to grant immigrants entry to the territory, while the latter refers to regulations regarding immigrant rights, (permanent) settlement, and access to citizenship. Besides making the distinction, Hammar also noted later that there may be a link between these policy realms. In recent years, the nature of this link has been explored in more detail. One of the most prominent examples is Martin Ruhs’ book The Price of Rights, which suggests that while for certain high-skilled immigrants, access to the territory and to rights go together, for other categories there can be trade-offs. Anna Boucher and Justin Gest have also noted an “admission-citizenship nexus”, documenting among other things that lower naturalization rates are connected to greater labor inflows, and that higher rates are connected to non-economic forms of immigration.
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