Book on Immigrant Integration: “The Civic Citizens of Europe” by Moritz Jesse
Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor of EU Law at the Europa Institute, has published his book, “The Civic Citizens of Europe: The Legal Potential for Immigrant Integration in the EU, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom”.
In his book, Moritz Jesse critically analyses the legal framework within which inclusion of immigrants into the receiving societies can take place. In contrast with current political wisdom, he argues that inclusion of immigrants cannot be enforced by law. Mandatory integration courses and integration conditions are structurally incapable of achieving inclusion, will not guarantee a homogeneous society, or prevent frictions within society naturally connected to migration movements. However, legislation must provide the room within which inclusion can take place. Legislation must create opportunities for immigrants and receiving society enabling integration on fair terms bearing legitimate interests of both immigrants and receiving society in mind. This, however, can only be achieved, then the receiving society and legislators are aware of their position of strength vis-à-vis immigrants, who are the natural outsiders in our societies legally held together by nationality. By studying residence titles, administrative procedures, rights to family migration, permanent residence titles, and integration measures in a comparative and critical way, Jesse assesses whether the legal potential for integration in the EU and the three Member States is sufficient for the inclusion of immigrants.
For more information see the publisher’s webpage.
Moritz Jesse is currently working on a research project titles “The ‘others’ amongst ‘us’: Western societies, ‘otherness’ and the law” for which he obtained funding by the Dutch Scientific Organization (NWO) under the VENI (Vernieuwingsimpuls) research grant scheme.