Challenge to the Nation-State: Immigration in Western Europe and the United States
TL;DR: The challenge to the nation-state: Immigration in Western Europe and the United States as discussed by the authors, a volume on immigration and immigration policy in the U.S. and countries of the European Union.
Abstract: Challenge to the Nation-State: Immigration in Western Europe and the United States Christian Joppke, Editor New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 360 pp. In highly developed Western countries, popular notions run rampant about a weakening of the nation-state's sovereignty. Among the state's supposed destroyers are: post-modern economic globalism, tribalistic ethnic nationalism, pressures for international human rights, and supranational imperatives. These 'challenges to the nation-state' are given thorough examination and critique in this edited volume on immigration and immigration policy in the U.S. and countries of the European Union. Though the tide may lead the reader to believe odierwise, the volume asserts that the nationstate, in fact, is not in decline, and does not face any serious challenge to its existence from international migration. All chapters are well referenced and are grounded primarily in the examination of immigration politics and law, de jure and de facto, in the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany. Challenge to the Nation-State lacks a concluding chapter, although the introduction is sufficient in providing a framework for understanding the research presented in the other chapters. By 'nation-state,' Joppke intends a territorially sovereign polity defined largely by the ability to grant and deny citizenship to individuals in order to guarantee continuity in the relationship between state and individual. Joppke's introduction offers a fine summary of the findings of contributing authors, but also doggedly maintains a unifying theoretical framework, and attempts to take discussions on immigration further than any of the individual chapters. His basic thesis is that the nation-state can and still does maintain sovereignty over its borders, its affordance of rights and privileges, and its affordance of citizenship, often balancing a change in one with an opposite change in another. In the end, citizenship always has been and always will be granted by a territorially sovereign polity. Challenge to Sovereignty, the first section following the introduction, addresses territorial sovereignty-one of the two political bases for the modern nation-state. The authors in this section note changes in the decision-making arena for states in recent years, but resoundingly conclude that decision-making tools and ultimate authority over the movement of people (while experiencing new constraints) still lie with national governments, not extra-national bodies. And while Soyal's Limits of Citizenship (1995) continues to have an influence over this discussion, as it is referenced by some of the authors, few are entirely sympathetic to Soyal's polemic stance about the reach of post-nationalism. Saskia Sassen is the single author in the volume who asserts that immigration is a serious challenge to the state. The odiers are more skeptical. Sassen's globalizing economy paradigm dichotomizes regulations for information, capital, and goods vs. regulations for migrants and labor, the former more transnational, the latter more international. In this model, the state has the twofold goal of globalizing the economy while maintaining state sovereignty, thereby undermining state authority and power. This chapter uncritically cites many global processes (e.g., judicial tools, deregulation, bond-raters, international commercial arbitration) as evidence for the dissolution of statehood. However, it is also the only chapter to devote much attention to the relation between state sovereignty and the governance of global economic practices. Sassen's chapter, diough a minority viewpoint, also considers international economics, which is found lacking in the odier chapters. The contribution by Gary Freeman contends Sassen's by arguing that most variation and developments in immigration policies can be explained better by domestic politics than by structural economic adjustment. In addition, especially intriguing in light of current nationalistic sentiments around the world, are his findings that, among actual policy outcomes, there resides little basis for the claim that Western states are becoming more restrictive against immigration. …
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Abstract: Transnationalism and identity are concepts that inherently call for juxtaposition. This is so because many peoples' transnational networks of exchange and participation are grounded upon some perception of common identity; conversely, the identities of numerous individuals and groups of people are negotiated within social worlds that span more than one place. In this introductory article, the transnational perspective on migration studies is first discussed, followed by some critiques and outstanding questions. The final section summarises points raised by the contributing authors of the main articles in this themed issue of JEMS, especially with regard to various ways transnational settings and dynamics affect the construction, negotiation and reproduction of identities.
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Cites background from "Challenge to the Nation-State: Immi..."
...The `portability of national identity’ (Sassen 1998) among migrants has combined with a tendency towards claiming membership in more than one place....
[...]
TL;DR: In both Europe and North America, rights are the key to regulating migration as states strive to fulfill three key functions: maintaining security; building trade and investment regimes; and regulating migration as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Since 1945, immigration in the core industrial democracies has been increasing. The rise in immigration is a function of market forces (demand-pull and supply-push) and kinship networks, which reduce the transaction costs of moving from one society to another. These economic and sociological forces are the necessary conditions for migration to occur, but the sufficient conditions are legal and political. States must be willing to accept immigration and to grant rights to outsiders. How then do states regulate migration in the face of economic forces that push them toward greater openness, while security concerns and powerful political forces push them toward closure? States are trapped in a liberal paradox - in order to maintain a competitive advantage, governments must keep their economies and societies open to trade, investment, and migration. But unlike goods, capital, and services, the movement of people involves greater political risks. In both Europe and North America, rights are the key to regulating migration as states strive to fulfill three key functions: maintaining security; building trade and investment regimes; and regulating migration. The garrison state was linked with the trading state in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen the emergence of the migration state, where regulation of international migration is as important as providing for the security of the state and the economic well being of the citizenry
465 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a set of hypotheses are derived and tested with data on the collective claims making of migrants and ethnic minorities in two European countries, Britain and Germany, for the period 1990-95.
Abstract: As important aspects of purported tendencies toward globalization and pluralization, recent immigration waves and the resulting presence of culturally different ethnic minorities are often seen as fundamentally challenging liberal nation-states and traditional models of citizenship. According to this perspective, migrants and ethnic minorities contribute through their claims making both to the external erosion of sovereignty (the postnational challenge), and to the internal cultural differentiation of liberal nation-states (the multicultural
challenge). In contrast, alternative theoretical approaches have emphasized the continuing relevance of the nation-state in the processes of inclusion and exclusion of minorities. From these three perspectives on citizenship (postnational, multicultural, and national) a set of hypotheses is derived and tested with data on the collective claims making of migrants and ethnic minorities in two European countries, Britain and Germany, for the period 1990–95. The data show very little support for the postnational approach, mixed results regarding the multicultural model, and strong support for the continuing
relevance of national models of citizenship. Counter to claims that national modes of migrant incorporation have become insignificant, the evidence shows that migrant claims making is still forged in the image of a particular nation-state.
396 citations
Cites background from "Challenge to the Nation-State: Immi..."
...…of common EU policies and coordination of the national policies of members states has been highly restricted by the endurance of the different national policy frameworks and attachments to the “public philosophies” that underpin them (Favell 1998, p. 245; see also Joppke 1997; Freeman 1998)....
[...]
References
More filters
Book•
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explained the EU political system and the decision-making procedures of the European Union, focusing on the role of the Single Market and the single market's role in the political system.
Abstract: Introduction: Explaining the EU Political System PART I: GOVERNMENT Executive Politics Legislative Politics Judicial Politics PART II: POLITICS Public Opinion Democracy, Parties and Elections Interest Representation PART III: POLICY-MAKING Regulation of the Single Market Expenditure Policies Economic and Monetary Union Citizen Freedom and Security Policies Foreign Policies Conclusions: Rethinking the European Union Appendix: Decision-making Procedures of the European Union Bibliography
1,209 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the ways that specific sociocultural institutions have been modified in the course of being stretched across the globe, and how such institutions are involved in more deep-seated patterns of change or structural transformation.
Abstract: Much of the literature on migrant transnationalism focuses on the ways that specific sociocultural institutions have been modified in the course of being stretched across the globe. Yet migrant transnational practices are involved in more deep-seated patterns of change or structural transformation. Such modes of transformation concern: 1) an enhanced ‘bi-focality’of outlooks underpinning migrant lives lived here-and-there; such dual orientations have considerable influence on transnational family life and may continue to affect identities among subsequent post-migration generations; 2) heightened challenges to ‘identities-borders-orders’stemming from migrants' political affiliations in more than one nation-state; these particularly arise around questions of dual citizenship and nationality; and 3) potentially profound impacts on economic development by way of the sheer scale and evolving means of remittance sending; money transfer services, hometown associations and micro-finance institutions represent three kinds of remittance-related organizations currently undergoing significant forms of adaptation with significant consequences for development. These modes of transformation, and the practices of migrant transnationalism surrounding them, both draw from and contribute to wider processes of globalization.
815 citations
TL;DR: Transnationalism and identity are concepts that inherently call for juxtaposition as discussed by the authors, which is so because many peoples' transnational networks of exchange and participation are grounded upon some perception of common identity; conversely, the identities of numerous individuals and groups of people are negotiated within social worlds that span more than one place.
Abstract: Transnationalism and identity are concepts that inherently call for juxtaposition. This is so because many peoples' transnational networks of exchange and participation are grounded upon some perception of common identity; conversely, the identities of numerous individuals and groups of people are negotiated within social worlds that span more than one place. In this introductory article, the transnational perspective on migration studies is first discussed, followed by some critiques and outstanding questions. The final section summarises points raised by the contributing authors of the main articles in this themed issue of JEMS, especially with regard to various ways transnational settings and dynamics affect the construction, negotiation and reproduction of identities.
814 citations
TL;DR: In both Europe and North America, rights are the key to regulating migration as states strive to fulfill three key functions: maintaining security; building trade and investment regimes; and regulating migration as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Since 1945, immigration in the core industrial democracies has been increasing. The rise in immigration is a function of market forces (demand-pull and supply-push) and kinship networks, which reduce the transaction costs of moving from one society to another. These economic and sociological forces are the necessary conditions for migration to occur, but the sufficient conditions are legal and political. States must be willing to accept immigration and to grant rights to outsiders. How then do states regulate migration in the face of economic forces that push them toward greater openness, while security concerns and powerful political forces push them toward closure? States are trapped in a liberal paradox - in order to maintain a competitive advantage, governments must keep their economies and societies open to trade, investment, and migration. But unlike goods, capital, and services, the movement of people involves greater political risks. In both Europe and North America, rights are the key to regulating migration as states strive to fulfill three key functions: maintaining security; building trade and investment regimes; and regulating migration. The garrison state was linked with the trading state in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen the emergence of the migration state, where regulation of international migration is as important as providing for the security of the state and the economic well being of the citizenry
465 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a set of hypotheses are derived and tested with data on the collective claims making of migrants and ethnic minorities in two European countries, Britain and Germany, for the period 1990-95.
Abstract: As important aspects of purported tendencies toward globalization and pluralization, recent immigration waves and the resulting presence of culturally different ethnic minorities are often seen as fundamentally challenging liberal nation-states and traditional models of citizenship. According to this perspective, migrants and ethnic minorities contribute through their claims making both to the external erosion of sovereignty (the postnational challenge), and to the internal cultural differentiation of liberal nation-states (the multicultural
challenge). In contrast, alternative theoretical approaches have emphasized the continuing relevance of the nation-state in the processes of inclusion and exclusion of minorities. From these three perspectives on citizenship (postnational, multicultural, and national) a set of hypotheses is derived and tested with data on the collective claims making of migrants and ethnic minorities in two European countries, Britain and Germany, for the period 1990–95. The data show very little support for the postnational approach, mixed results regarding the multicultural model, and strong support for the continuing
relevance of national models of citizenship. Counter to claims that national modes of migrant incorporation have become insignificant, the evidence shows that migrant claims making is still forged in the image of a particular nation-state.
396 citations