Join us for the next edition of our MWG Series with presentations on new research ideas from early career researchers at the EUI.
The Migration Working Group will host the following presentations:
‘Conditions, Conditionality, and the Law on Migration in Europe’ by Saniya Amraoui, PhD Researcher (EUI-LAW)
Abstract
This paper introduces the PhD thesis outline by framing the concept of conditionality in European migration law (EML). The theoretical framework relies on the hypothesis that conditions and conditionality regimes in EML go beyond the mere presence of rules to follow. Rather, these regimes reflect a logic which determines, among others, the right to enter the European space, mobility within it, and the right to stay. The logic of conditionality does not appear explicitly in the law, yet if it is effective, the thesis offers to unveil its governing mechanisms and rationales. This is carried out by first locating conditionality in the law along with an analysis of what the concept entails, especially for migrants’ rights and experiences. Subsequently, the thesis presents and challenges the epistemological and ontological claims behind conditionality. Researching the multiple forms of conditionality goes in hand with questioning the necessity of having conditions in the first place, their justifications and their consequences. Critical legal scholars have pointed at the normative framework of migration law, questioning its legal and moral rationales in the way it constructs migrants. This project is in line with this scholarship and uses conditionality as a lens to deliver a critique of the European migration system.
‘The Political Acculturation of First-Generation Immigrants: Migrant-to-Native Differences in Western Europe’ by Jérôme Gonnot, Research Associate (EUI-MPC) (co-authored by Federica Lo Polito, Toulouse School of Economics)
Abstract
This paper documents the migrant-to-native gap in preferences towards redistribution, gay rights, European integration, immigration policy, and political trust. Our findings reveal that foreign-born immigrants hold relatively more restrictive views on gay rights, show greater levels of trust in national parliaments and are more supportive of EU unification and open immigration policies than natives. Further analysis indicates that these differences owe mostly to immigrants from low-income countries, but that other factors such as religion and linguistic ties between the home and host countries are also significant predictors of political differences between natives and immigrants. Moreover, after controlling for compositional effects across immigrant cohorts and self-selection biases, our results suggest that the migrant-to-native gap on immigration policy no longer exists and that differences in political trust are reduced by 40% among immigrants who have spent at least 20 years at destination. Exploiting within-country variations in political attitudes among the native population, we show that local culture has a large and significant effect on immigrants’ attitudes to redistribution, immigration, and political trust, suggesting acculturation at the regional level. We also provide evidence that this acculturation cannot be fully explained by the possible self-selection of immigrants to places where natives hold similar political views to their own.
Discussants
- Emily Cunniffe, Policy Officer (Economic and Social Research Institute, EMN Ireland)
- Giulia Tura, Postdoctoral Researcher (University of Milano-Bicocca)
Chair: John Trajer, PhD Researcher (EUI-LAW)