The impact of substate nationalism and ‘horizontal’ Europeanization on migration policy: the case of family reunification in Belgium

Jacobs Dirk

Since the federal elections of 2007 (and new elections in 2010 which mid 2011 still have not lead to a new government), elites from both sides of the language frontier in Belgium have had difficulty in agreeing about almost anything. As a result, the split up of the country is seriously being discussed. Although not the main source of conflict, migration and migrant integration policy is one area in which Flemish and Francophone political elites tend to hold diametrically opposing views. Somewhat surprisingly, while negotiations on the formation of a federal government were still in a deadlock situation, in May 2011 the federal parliament did nevertheless succeed in voting a new stricter bill on family reunification, with support from political parties from both sides of the linguistic frontier. In this article I will analyze how it was possible to reach an agreement on this contentious aspect of migration policy. I claim that Europeanization of migration and migrant integration policy neutralized the impact of substate nationalism.

Type Conference contribution
Language en
Themes
  • Europe as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
Discipline(s)
  • Sciences sociales
Publication date 2011-06-21
ULB Institutional Reference http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/91454