Citizenship models and migrant integration: rethinking the intersection of citizenship and migrant integration through (b)ordering

Author(s) : Luca Pfirter, Lisa Marie Borrelli, Didier Ruedin, Stefanie Kurt

Source : https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789903133.00010

“This chapter examines the relationship between research on citizenship models and migrant integration. Historically, different citizenship models have been used as predictors for the extent to which or how quickly migrants become part of the majority population, or why some fail to do so. We trace developments from simplified to increasingly differentiated understandings of how citizenship models and migrant integration relate. At the same time, we propose a re-evaluation of citizenship models to avoid methodological nationalism and propose (b)ordering as an alternative perspective which draws on border regime theories. We argue that this re-conceptualisation allows grasping timely changes of integration and migration management within and between nation-states, namely that immigration and citizenship policy across countries continues to create hierarchies among migrants because some of them are considered more deserving than others. Arguing for a more practice-focused analysis of integration, we include examples from Switzerland to illustrate the argument.“