Project description Project team Extranet

Civic Stratification, Gender and Family Migration Policies in Europe

Family related migration has been the dominant legal mode of entry in Europe for the past decades. In the current context, family migration derives its political significance from the fact that family-related modes of entry have become one of the main, and in many countries, virtually the only legal but at the same time highly contested means to find admission. Underpinned by human rights considerations, granting migrants the right to family union has traditionally also been justified as promoting the well-being of migrants and their integration into receiving societies. In current debates over ethnic closure of migrant communities and over the alleged failure of integration, by contrast, the migrant family is increasingly seen as an obstacle to integration as a site characterised by patriarchal relationships and illiberal practices and traditions such as arranged and forced marriages. As a result, family related modes of entry have been increasingly been subject to restrictions, while existing conditionalities have been tightened up.

This research project will analyse family migration policies in 8 European countries from two angles. First, it will analyse policies and policy-making in regard to family related migration in a top-down perspective through the analysis of legislation, public debates, as well as through expert interviews. Secondly, it will analyse family migration policies from a bottom-up perspective, by investigating the impact of conditionalities and restrictions on migrants and their families and the responses and strategies migrants adopt to cope with these and to organise their family lives.

The project is funded by the research programme "New Orientations for Democracy Research" (NODE) of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture

Involved Institutions: International Centre for Migration Policy Development, (ICMPD), Vienna (project coordinator); Social Policy Research Centre, University of Middlesex, UK (international partner institution); Autonomes Zentrum von und für Migrantinnen (MAIZ), Linz (national partner institution)

External partners: Department of Sociology, University of Milan; IMISCOE; Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute - Florence

Implementation period: July 2006 to June 2008

Contact: Albert.Kraler@icmpd.org; Veronika.Bilger@icmpd.org

Publications and Presentations

Veronika Bilger, Albert Kraler, Elisabeth Strasser (2008): 'Doing Family' - Civic Stratification, Gender and Family Migration Policies. Presentation at the 7th European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Lisbon, 28 February 2008
Marie Jelinkova, Alice Sczepanikova (2008): Binational Marriages and Czech Immigration Policy: Sorting Truth from Fiction? Migrationonline. http://www.migrationonline.cz/e-library/?x=2074815
Eleonore Kofman, Albert Kraler (2007): The Impact of Family Migration Policies on Migrants/ Citizens Affected by Family Migration Policies. Presentation at the 22nd EMN Meeting (European Migration Network), Brussels, 6. Juli, 2007
Eleonore Kofman, Albert Kraler (2006): "Civic Stratification, Gender and Family Migration Policies in Europe". Paper prepared for the IMISCOE B3 Cluster Conference in Budapest, 30 May to 2 June 2006