Redefining membership

Restrictive rights and categorisation in European Union migration policy

Bibliographic Data

ID7843601
AuthorsJulia Mourão Permoser (0000-0003-3635-310X, University of Vienna, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume43
Issue15
Pages2536-2555
Publication date2017-11-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2017.1301202
OpenAlexW2592409610
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited36

This article analyses European Union (EU) policy-making on the rights of third-country nationals (TCN) against the backdrop of theoretical literature on the transformation of citizenship. The aim is to evaluate why and to which extent EU policy expands citizenship rights to TCNs, thus redefining the criteria for membership in the European polity. The research emphasises the role of norms and frames in policy-making and is based on secondary sources, primary documents and semi-structured interviews. The analysis reveals how the combination of a principled conflict over citizenship and a strategic conflict over competence led to a legal framework characterised by ‘restrictive rights’ and ‘politics of categorisation’. ‘Restrictive rights’ means that membership rights are granted to TCN in principle, but subject to very restrictive conditions. ‘The politics of categorisation’ refers to the political construction of migrant categories that are subject to different rights-regimes. Both phenomena have the ambiguous effect of enabling the expansion of rights to non-citizens while at the same time creating new lines of division and mechanisms of exclusion

Citizenship · Economics · European union · Fundamental rights · Human rights · International trade · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Polity · Sociology · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Populism, Right-Wing Movements

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub