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1 The Dilemmas of Immigration Control in Liberal Democracies

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Controlling Immigration
This chapter is in the book Controlling Immigration
13All countries face the challenge of controlling migration. The dilemmas of control are especially acute in liberal democracies. Economic pressures encourage govern-ments to be open to migration, while political, legal, and security concerns argue for closure and control—a liberal paradox (Hollifield 1992). How can countries be simultaneously open to immigration for economic and demographic reasons and closed to immigration to protect sovereignty, ensure security, and enhance the social contract?This book explores the liberal paradox by comparing immigration trends and policies of major OECD countries. Two leitmotifs are convergence and gaps. The con-vergence hypothesisargues that governments that face similar problems adopt similar solutions, including(1) the policy instruments they choose to control immigration and (2) integration and naturalization policies that generate similar public reactions. The gaphypothesis argues that the gap between the goals or outputs of immigration policy (laws, regulations, executive actions, and court rulings) and the results or out-comes of those policies in terms of unauthorized and unwanted migration is growing wider, contributing to public hostility toward immigrants (regardless of their legal status) and putting pressure on political leaders and governments to adopt more re-strictive policies (Hollifield 1986; cf. Czaika and De Haas 2013 and Ellermann 2021).Beyond testing these two hypotheses against the evidence gathered in the coun-tries and regions represented in the book, we seek to explain the efficacy of immi-gration control measures in an era of globalization that rivals that of the eighteenth the Dilemmas of immigration Control in liberal DemocraciesJames F. Hollifield, Philip l. martin, Pia m. orrenius, and François Héran1
© 2022 Stanford University Press, Redwood City

13All countries face the challenge of controlling migration. The dilemmas of control are especially acute in liberal democracies. Economic pressures encourage govern-ments to be open to migration, while political, legal, and security concerns argue for closure and control—a liberal paradox (Hollifield 1992). How can countries be simultaneously open to immigration for economic and demographic reasons and closed to immigration to protect sovereignty, ensure security, and enhance the social contract?This book explores the liberal paradox by comparing immigration trends and policies of major OECD countries. Two leitmotifs are convergence and gaps. The con-vergence hypothesisargues that governments that face similar problems adopt similar solutions, including(1) the policy instruments they choose to control immigration and (2) integration and naturalization policies that generate similar public reactions. The gaphypothesis argues that the gap between the goals or outputs of immigration policy (laws, regulations, executive actions, and court rulings) and the results or out-comes of those policies in terms of unauthorized and unwanted migration is growing wider, contributing to public hostility toward immigrants (regardless of their legal status) and putting pressure on political leaders and governments to adopt more re-strictive policies (Hollifield 1986; cf. Czaika and De Haas 2013 and Ellermann 2021).Beyond testing these two hypotheses against the evidence gathered in the coun-tries and regions represented in the book, we seek to explain the efficacy of immi-gration control measures in an era of globalization that rivals that of the eighteenth the Dilemmas of immigration Control in liberal DemocraciesJames F. Hollifield, Philip l. martin, Pia m. orrenius, and François Héran1
© 2022 Stanford University Press, Redwood City

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Contributors xi
  5. 1 Introduction
  6. 1 The Dilemmas of Immigration Control in Liberal Democracies 3
  7. Commentary: History Matters 52
  8. Commentary: Multiple Gaps 59
  9. 2 Nations of Immigrants
  10. 2 The United States: Whither the Nation of Immigrants? 69
  11. Commentary: Blinded by the Numbers 109
  12. Commentary: Activists, Interests, and Parties 117
  13. 3 Canada: Continuity and Change in Immigration for 123 Nation-Building 123
  14. Commentary: Canadian Exceptionalism 168
  15. 4 Australia and New Zealand: Classical Migration States? 175
  16. Commentary: Australia: Legitimizing Immigration Through Contrast 211
  17. 3 Countries of Immigration
  18. 5 Immigration and the Republican: Tradition in France 219
  19. Commentary: Republicanism in Question 271
  20. Commentary: France’s Children of Immigrants 277
  21. 6 UK Immigration and Nationality Policy: Radical and Radically Uninformed Change 283
  22. Commentary: Anti-Immigrant Sentiments and the “Brexit Moment” 311
  23. 7 Germany: Managing Migration in the Twenty-First Century 316
  24. Commentary: General and Special Integration Policies in Germany 343
  25. Commentary: Can Germany Master the Integration Challenge? 350
  26. 8 The Netherlands: From Consensus to Contention in a Migration State 357
  27. Commentary: Mind the Gap 390
  28. Commentary: Who Is Truly Dutch? The Politics of Law, Policy, and Practice 401
  29. 9 Governing Immigration in the Scandinavian Welfare States: Control and Integration 412
  30. Commentary: How Do Welfare States Control Migration? 440
  31. Commentary. Clashing Solidarity Logics: Comments on Grete Brochmann 450
  32. 10 Immigration and Integration in Switzerland: Shifting Evolutions in a Multicultural Republic 457
  33. Commentary: Rule of Law Versus Sovereignty: On Swiss Immigration Policy 490
  34. 4 Latecomers to Immigration
  35. 11 Italy: Immigration Policy and Partisanship 497
  36. Commentary: A Method to the Madness 533
  37. Commentary: Change and Continuity in Migration Control 542
  38. 12 Spain: The Uneasy Transition from Labor Exporter to Labor Importer and the New Challenges Ahead 551
  39. Commentary: Spain and the Liberal Paradox 592
  40. 13 Greece and Turkey: From State-Building and Developmentalism to Immigration and Crisis Management 598
  41. Commentary: Forced Migration and Nation-State Building 623
  42. Commentary: Migration Control as State-Making: Toward an Illiberal Convergence Hypothesis? 630
  43. 14 Immigration and Citizenship in Japan and South Korea 639
  44. Commentary: On Japanese and Korean Immigration Legislation, Global Responsibility Sharing, and the EU Leadership 667
  45. Commentary: Two Sides of a Coin: A New Norm of Constrained Rights or Latecomers to Immigration in East Asia? 672
  46. 5 The Europe an Union and Regional Migration Governance
  47. 15 The European Union: From Politics to Politicization 683
  48. Commentary: The European Union: From Politics to Politicization 706
  49. Postscript: War, Displacement, and Migration in Europe 712
  50. Index 715
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