Street-level democracy
How immigration bureaucrats manage public opposition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6407629 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Antje Ellermann (0000-0002-6701-9051, University of British Columbia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 293-309 |
| Publication date | 2006-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | West European Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01402380500512627 |
| OpenAlex | W2138839915 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 72 |
| References cited | 22 |
It is commonly argued that immigration policies in advanced democracies are consistently more liberal than the restrictionist preferences of publics. This study challenges this view by examining the opinion–policy relationship at the stage of policy implementation, rather than legislative choice. Bureaucrats, in fact, regularly encounter local publics who are opposed to the strict enforcement of migration control measures. These pressures, it is argued, reflect a shift in public attention between the stages of policy design and policy implementation, from the benefits of restriction to the harsh costs of control. As implementation makes these costs visible, public opinion threatens the capacity of bureaucrats to implement restrictionist legislative mandates. This essay specifies the conditions under which bureaucrats' enforcement strategies can enhance their capacity to produce policy outcomes that are more restrictionist than public preferences. Drawing on extensive interview data, the study empirically tests this argument by examining the implementation of deportation policy in Germany
Argument (complex analysis · Bureaucracy · Democracy · Deportation · Economics · Enforcement · Immigration · Immigration policy · Legislature · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Public opinion · Public policy · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Public Administration
Migration and Integration in a Post-Pandemic World
Asyl verwalten
The Comparative Politics of Immigration
The Deportation Regime
‘If you don’t have documents or a legal procedure, you are out!’ Making humanitarian organizations partner in migration control
The Refugee Reception Crisis
The Fight Against Illegal Migration
The State and the Refugee. Governing Asylum at the Intersection Between Politics and Administration
Regional News, Regional Bias? Evidence From Media Discourses and Welfare Decisions in Germany
Pulling human rights back in? local authorities, international law and the reception of undocumented migrants
The complex process of implementation of migratory policies in Italy
Multilevel governance in trouble
What are we afraid of? Exploring risk and immigration detention
Do Marginalized Sources Matter
Unravelling migration media coverage
When the Government Comes to the Neighbourhood
Stealth Humanitarianism
Creating Uncertainty in the Governance of Arrival and Return
Agency Entrenchment
Adminigration
Migration Control as Communication? Voluntary Returns, Information Campaigns and the Justification of Contested Migration/Border Governance
Unpacking the Schengen Visa Regime. A Study on Bureaucrats and Discretion in an Italian Consulate
Refugees in borderlands
Exploring the “Liberal Paradox” from the Inside
Theorizing Legitimacy in Migration Research
Korean Immigration Policy Changes and the Political Liberals' Dilemma
Salience, preference, and asylum outcomes in Germany and the UK, 2002–2019
Opening the blackbox of air deportation
Blaming the bureaucrat
We have nothing to hide”
European Mobilities or Poverty Migration? Discourses on Roma in Germany
Civic mobilisation around immigration detention
Passing the buck? Analyzing the delegation of discretion after transposition of European Union law
Europe at the frontline
Framing Citizenship
Irregular Migration
From "illegality" to Tolerance and Beyond
Externalization or imitation
Challengers in the migrant field
Humanitarian border
Studying Public Policy through Immigration Policy
Why Do (Some) City Police Departments Enforce Federal Immigration Law? Political, Demographic, and Organizational Influences on Local Choices
The Dynamics of State and Local Contexts and Immigration Asylum Hearing Decisions
Asylum and the Expansion of Deportation in the United Kingdom
Trading Liberty
Forty-Eight Shades of Germany
Bureaucratic entrepreneurship and morality politics
Illiberal Norms, Media Reporting, and Bureaucratic Discrimination
Mobilisation pénale et cycle politique au Canada
The case for extending measures of democracy in the world "Beneath", "Above", and "Outside" the national level
Toward Street-Level Communities of Practice? The Implications of Actor Diversification in Migration Management in Athens and Berlin
Introduction to the Special Issue
Medical aid as protest
Citizenship, deportation and the boundaries of belonging
The deportation continuum
The Réseau Education Sans Frontières
"The Urban Governance of Asylum as a "Battleground
Command and control or market-based instruments? Public support for policies to address vehicular pollution in Beijing and New Delhi
The Effectiveness of Immigration Policies
Where's the Harm in That? Immigration Enforcement, Trafficking, and the Protection of Migrants' Rights
Behind the Framing Scenes
Framing Irregular Immigration in Western Media
Toward a Cultural Sociology of Immigration Control
Defining and transforming local migration policies
Between humanitarian assistance and migration management
The affective economy of removal
Why symbolise control? Irregular migration to the UK and symbolic policy-making in the 1960s
Why irregular migrants arrive and remain
Buy me love
The Public and the Politics of Immigration Controls
Local "Battlegrounds". Relocating Multi-Level and Multi-Actor Governance of Immigration
Contesting the deportation state? Political change aspirations in protests against forced returns
Crossings
Immigration and Politics in the New Europe
Controlling immigration
West European Immigration and Immigrant Policy in the New Century
Looking for Loopholes
Fences and Neighbors
The Sources of Social Power
Die neue radikale Rechte im Vergleich
Operation Gatekeeper
Economy and Society
Modes of Immigration Politics in Liberal Democratic States
At the Crossroads
Operation Gatekeeper
The Ambivalent Welcome
Xenophobia and the European Union
Why Liberal States Accept Unwanted Immigration
A Reappraisal of the State Sovereignty Debate
Coercive Capacity and The Politics of Implementation
Looking for Loopholes
Intensity, Visibility, Direction and Scope
| Unique citing works | 72 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,79 |
| Citation span | 2007 - 2026 (20) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 72 |