The EU and Immigration Policies ─ Cracks in the Walls of Fortress Europe?

The EU and Immigration Policies: Cracks in the Walls of Fortress Europe? explores how and why the EU and its member states define immigration policies. A comparison of EU negotiations on five EU immigration directives reveals interests of actors in EU integration and whether common policies aim at a restriction or expansion of immigration to the EU.
The findings of the study suggest that some legal migration policies deviate to a certain extent from increased restrictions. Some member states were required to adapt their national laws to a more expansive EU policy. EU immigration policies actually define cracks in the walls of the 'Fortress Europe'. This development reflects a shift in immigration policy preferences among European countries from the late 1990s and early 2000s. The EU Commission used this window of opportunity and its power in policy framing to push member states toward EU integration. The author shows how the EU level could become the policy venue for member states' strategies on immigration regulation.

Christof Roos is Research Associate at the Collaborative Research Centre on 'Transformations of the State' at University of Bremen, Germany. He is co-author of Liberal States and the Freedom of Movement: Selective Borders, Unequal Mobility (with Steffen Mau, Heike Brabandt, and Lena Laube).