Restricting Immigration to Foster Migrant Integration? A Comparative Study

Policy research on the integration of immigrants has mostly focused on the effects of integration policies, and the debate has often revolved around the effects of assimilationism versus multiculturalism. By contrast, the impact of immigration policies on immigrant integration has rarely been examined. Though policy debates imply that restricting immigration at the border may be more effective in promoting immigrant integration than actual integration policies, it is unclear whether and to what extent this differential effect indeed exists. Combining country-level data from the Immigration Policies in Comparison Index (IMPIC) with individual-level data on economic, political and cultural integration from multiple rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS) in this analysis we set out to test these propositions.