Integration in a pluralistic society: strategies for the future

"This essay deals with two questions: Is an internal pluralism of cultures compatible with the basic norms of a political order supported by principles of liberalism and democracy? Can societies remain integrated at the level of territorial political communities when they become increasingly mobile and open for international migration? Both questions are answered affirmatively, but with certain reservations against evolutionary optimism and cosmopolitan liberalism. Modernity has unleashed a dynamic of cultural homogenisation within nation-states, and at the global level, too. This has not eliminated cultural boundaries but rather turned them into political ones, charged with potentials for violent conflict. Liberal norms of tolerance are not strong enough to undermine the logics of nationalism and modern racism. New inclusive forms of democratic citizenship ought to represent rather than restrain internal cultural plurality, and at the same time provide incentives for boundary transgressions and against communal closure. With regard to the second question, there is a contradiction between the acceleration of international migrations on the one hand, and the need for stable and bounded membership in democratic polities on the other. This conflict can be resolved by developing transnational forms of citizenship which are based on territorial residence but allow for external, changing, and multiple forms of political membership. However, even if narrow conceptions of national sovereignty can be overcome, the national institutionalisation of social rights and the global gaps of unequal social citizenship still remain as the main obstacle for a universal right of free movement." [author's abstract

National community, citizenship and cultural diversity

'Die vorliegende Studie behandelt die Frage von Bürgerschaft und Identität in der Europäischen Union. Es wird argumentiert, daß der Zugang zur Staats- bzw. Unionsbürgerschaft in der EU ein wenig beachtetes, aber wichtiges Element in der Konstruktion einer Bürgergemeinschaft bildet - nicht zuletzt weil die Mitgliedstaaten mit beträchtlicher Immigration von Drittstaatsangehörigen konfrontiert sind. Es werden vier Optionen der Harmonisierung der Zugangsbedingungen zum Bürgerschaftsstatus in der Gemeinschaft analysiert. Die vorgeschlagene Lösung zielt auf eine gleichgewichtige Berücksichtigung des normativen Prinzips des gleichen Zugangs, der praktischen und ethischen Probleme der Integration von Drittstaatsangehörigen und der Notwendigkeit, nationale Souveränitätsansprüche im größtmöglichen Ausmaß zu bewahren. Fragen der Bürgerschaft sind mit der Konstruktion einer kollektiven Identität aufs engste verknüpft. Jedes Bürgerschaftsmodell basiert auf einer bestimmten Vorstellung von dem, was die Bürger eint. Dem 'Rechtsdefizit' der Unionsbürgerschaft, das sich aus dem Mangel an Substanz der entsprechenden Bestimmungen ergibt, korrespondiert ein 'Identitätsdefizit' in der EU. Weder national orientierte, republikanische noch gesellschaftszentrierte Ansätze der Identitätsformierung scheinen geeignet, die verschiedenen nationalen Identitäten auf europäischer Ebene miteinander zu vermitteln. Wahrscheinlich kann sich in der EU lediglich eine hybride Form der Identität entwickeln, die sich auf Formen des multinationalen Föderalismus und einen einheitlichen Bürgerschaftsstatus stützen könnte.' (Autorenreferat)'The study addresses the question of citizenship and identity in the European Union. It is argued that access to citizenship in the EU is a neglected but important element in the construction of a community of citizens, not least because Member states face substantial immigration of third country nationals. Four policy options for harmonising access to individual membership in the Community are examined. The solution which is proposed strikes a balance between the normative principle of equality of access, the practical and ethical problem of integrating third country nationals, and the need to preserve national sovereignty to the largest extent possible. Questions of citizenship are inherently linked with the construction of collective identity. Any model of citizenship is based on a certain understanding of what the collectivity of citizens has in common. The 'rights deficit' of Union citizenship which is due to the lack of substance of the respective provisions corresponds to an 'identity deficit' in the EU. Neither national, republican, nor societal approaches to identity formation seem appropriate to accommodate and articulate the various national identities at the European level. Therefore, only a hybrid form of identity is likely to develop based on multinational federalism and common citizenship.' (author's abstract)

Why stay together? A pluralist approach to secession and federation

"As a political doctrine nationalism has four distinctive features which make it unattractive from a liberal perspective. It promotes revisions of external state borders by secession and unification in order to create homogeneous nation-states; it militates against national and ethnic diversity within the given borders of a state; it regards national obligations as overriding other interests and identities of the nation's members; and it attributes a moral priority to compatriots which overrides obligations towards foreigners or foreign countries. The paper briefly examines each of these 'four ugly faces' of nationalism. Although liberal political theory may claim to have most consistently opposed these nationalist propositions, I argue that traditional liberalism is ill-equipped to reply to questions which involve the legitimacy of boundaries of political communities. This claim is substantiated by a more thorough examination of the question how state borders ought to be drawn. Consequentialist, deontological and liberal nationalist approaches are each divided against themselves on the question about whether and how to defend or reject a right to secession. The paper derives an alternative response from linking the legitimacy of secession to a theory of federation. In this view, secession may not only be justified in cases of persistent discrimination and inequality of individual citizenship, but also when fair terms of federation are violated. In multinational states, the claims of territorially concentrated groups to self-government can be generally satisfied by guaranteeing them collective rights to regional autonomy and special representation at the federal level. If, and as long as, the terms of federation are fair, minorities incur an obligation to maintain the unity of the federation in which they participate both as individual citizens and as distinct political communities within the larger polity." [author's abstract

Recombinant citizenship

'Europa ist ein Laboratorium für die Rekombination unterschiedlicher Aspekte von citizenship. Der Text schlägt als analytischen Raster drei Dimensionen (Mitgliedschaft, Rechte und Praktiken) und drei Konzeptionen (liberale, republikanische und kommunitäre) von citizenship vor. Im zweiten Abschnitt werden drei Herausforderungen für eine monistische Auffassung von Staatsbürgerschaft als homogener Status und exklusive Bindung zwischen Individuum und einer einzigen politischen Gemeinschaft diskutiert. Internationale Migrationen schaffen überlappende multiple Bürgerschaften, die sich in doppelter Staatsangehörigkeit und 'Wohnbürgerrechten' niedergelassener AusländerInnen manifestieren. Die Forderungen nationaler Minderheiten nach territorialer Autonomie führen zu einer Föderalisierung zentralistischer Staaten, wodurch eine ineinander verschachtelte Mehrebenen-Bürgerschaft geschaffen wird, wie sie in anderer Weise auch in der Europäischen Union entsteht. Kulturelle Bürgerrechte werden entlang von Gruppenzugehörigkeiten differenziert, indem kulturellen Minderheiten Schutz vor Diskriminierung, besondere Ausnahmen von allgemeinen Bürgerpflichten oder öffentliche Ressourcen und Anerkennung zugestanden wird.' (Autorenreferat)'Europe has become a laboratory for recombining elements of citizenship. The paper suggests a matrix of citizenship dimensions (membership, rights and practices) and conceptions (liberal, republican and communitarian). The second part discusses three challenges to a monistic view of citizenship as a homogenous status and exclusive link between individuals and a singular political community. First, international migration leads to overlapping multiple citizenship through the proliferation of dual nationality but also 'denizenship' rights for foreign residents. Second, claims for territorial autonomy by national minorities have resulted in the devolution of unitary states, creating thereby a nested multilevel citizenship that is also emerging in a different way in the European Union itself. Third, cultural rights of citizenship have been increasingly differentiated according to group membership in response to demands by cultural minorities for protection from discrimination, for special exemptions from general obligations of citizenship, or for public resources and recognition.' (author's abstract)

Citizenship Deprivation: A Normative Analysis. Liberty and Security in Europe No. 82, 19 March 2015

Most critical analyses assess citizenship-deprivation policies against international human rights and domestic rule of law standards, such as prevention of statelessness, non-arbitrariness with regard to justifications and judicial remedies, or non-discrimination between different categories of citizens. This report considers instead from a political theory perspective how deprivation policies reflect specific conceptions of political community. We distinguish four normative conceptions of the grounds of membership in a political community that apply to decisions on acquisition and loss of citizenship status: i) a ‘State discretion’ view, according to which governments should be as free as possible in pursuing State interests when determining citizenship status; ii) an ‘individual choice’ view, according to which individuals should be as free as possible in choosing their citizenship status; iii) an ‘ascriptive community’ view, according to which both State and individual choices should be minimised through automatic determination of membership based on objective criteria such as the circumstances of birth; and iv) a ‘genuine link’ view, according to which the ties of individuals to particular States determine their claims to inclusion and against deprivation while providing at the same time objections against including individuals without genuine links. We argue that most citizenship laws combine these four normative views in different ways, but that from a democratic perspective the ‘genuine link’ view is normatively preferable to the others. The report subsequently examines five general grounds for citizenship withdrawal – threats to public security, non-compliance with citizenship duties, flawed acquisition, derivative loss and loss of genuine links – and considers how the four normative views apply to withdrawal provision motivated by these concerns. The final section of the report examines whether EU citizenship provides additional reasons for protection against Member States’ powers of citizenship deprivation. We suggest that, in addition to fundamental rights protection through EU law and protection of free movement rights, three further arguments could be invoked: toleration of dual citizenship in a political union, prevention of unequal conditions for loss among EU citizens, and the salience of genuine links to the EU itself rather than merely to one of its Member States

'Nach Rasse und Sprache verschieden': Migrationspolitik in Österreich von der Monarchie bis heute

"Why is Austria’s rich tradition as a country of both emigration and immigration so thoroughly neglected in current debates about the admission of refugees and economic migrants? This essay sketches eight chapters in the history of Austria’s migration policy since the late Habsburg monarchy and finds some strong continuities. The most conspicuous ones are: attempts to ensure a rapid transit of refugees to other destinations; strong legal barriers to the full integration of settled immigrant workers; rules for the acquisition of citizenship which ignore partial and dual affiliations among immigrants and the membership claims of second and third generations of immigrant descent; definitions of nationhood that do not allow for ethnic diversity resulting from immigration. The paper argues that Austrian migration policy has not only been driven by public interests in internal and external security, economic growth and social welfare, but also by symbolic uses of migrants in politics. Political discourses which defined immigrants as outsiders have been instrumental in shaping the ideological profile of parties as well as the boundaries of an insecure national identity." [author's abstract]"Warum wird Österreichs reichhaltige Tradition als sowohl Auswanderungs- wie Einwanderungsland in den gegenwärtigen Debatten über die Aufnahme von Flüchtlingen und die Zulassung ökonomischer Immigranten so sehr vernachlässigt? Der vorliegende Essay skizziert acht Kapitel aus der Geschichte österreichischer Migrationspolitik seit der späten Habsburger Monarchie und findet einige starke Kontinuitäten. Die auffälligsten darunter sind: Versuche, den raschen Transit von Flüchtlingen in andere Aufnahmestaaten zu gewährleisten; starke rechtliche Barrieren für die volle Integration niedergelassener Wanderarbeiter; Regeln für den Zugang zur Staatsbürgerschaft, die partielle und mehrfache staatliche Bindungen unter Immigranten ebenso ignorieren wie Ansprüche von zweiten und dritten Generationen auf Mitgliedschaft; Definitionen nationaler Identität, welche keinen Spielraum für ethnische Verschiedenheit lassen, die aus Einwanderung hervorgegangen ist. Der Beitrag argumentiert, daß österreichische Migrationspolitik nicht nur von öffentlichen Interessen an innerer und äußerer Sicherheit, an Wirtschaftswachstum und sozialer Wohlfahrt getrieben wurde, sondern auch von der symbolischen Verwendung der Migranten in der Politik. Politische Diskurse, welche Immigranten als Außenseiter kennzeichnen, haben dazu gedient das weltanschauliche Profil von Parteien zu schärfen und die Grenzen einer unsicheren nationalen Identität zu markieren." [Autorenreferat