National Center of Competence in Research – The Migration-Mobility Nexus
Christin Achermann and Stefanie Kurt
Governing Migration and Social Cohesion through Integration Requirements: A Socio-Legal Study on Civic Stratification in Switzerland
Project Summary
This socio-legal project questions how and with what effects the notion of ‘integration’ has become a decisive criterion, in migration law, administrative and court practice, based on which states select which migrants shall be granted or denied access to specific rights. This reveals how social cohesion is conceived in both law and practice and who is considered to belong or not.
Building on the nccr – on the move projects Unity and Diversity in Cohesion (2014-2018) and Restricting Immigration (2014-2018), the study investigates several Swiss cantons and two contrasting European welfare states: Germany and Sweden. Based on the analysis of legal texts, ethnographic data, and documents our research contributes to understanding how state officials deal with different categories of mobile or sedentary foreign nationals, when deciding on the allocation or denial of rights, based on the criterion of ‘being integrated.’
The categorization of individuals as foreign nationals allows the state to increasingly establish conditional access to, and punishment of, receiving (national) welfare benefits.
The allocation of welfare benefits becomes a means of migration control and civic stratification.
Civic stratification is created through the legal system and implementation of law and sanctioning of social assistance beneficiaries.
Migration offices take over the role of social services by reducing costs of welfare benefits and “activating” non-citizens.
Social services take over the role of migration offices, by monitoring and assessing the ‘integration’ of non-citizens.
