Explaining the immigrant integration laws of German, Italian and Spanish regions: sub-state nationalism and multilevel party politics

Abstract

Notes: * denotes an autonomous province with the legislative power of a region; ** denotes a region that has so far not made a law addressing immigrant integration; bold letters denote the document that was included in the analysis.

Making regional citizens? The political drivers and effects of subnational immigrant integration policies in Europe and North America

“…Such comparative multilevel analyses (Thomann & Manatschal, 2016) can indicate whether insights about regional policies hold only for specific national settings or can be generalized. To draw valid conclusions from such comparisons, contributors either include country fixed effects (as in Zuber's, 2019, in this issue, quantitative study of German, Italian and Spanish regions) or choose most similar national systems (as in Piccoli's, 2019b, in this issue, doubly paired comparison of two Italian and two Spanish regions). The contributions use regression analysis to detect systematic patterns in regional integration policies (Zuber) and to estimate the effect of integration policies on immigrants' attitudes and behaviour (Bennour, 2020, in this issue;Filindra & Manatschal, 2019, in this issue).…”

“…Distinct regional policies targeting immigrants and their children constitute a steadily growing realm of legislation, in both classical and more recent immigration countries. For example, by the 2000s, all but two of Italy's 20 regions had passed their own immigrant integration laws (Zuber, 2019, in this issue). In the United States, state-level legislation in the area of immigration and integration (regulating access to social benefits, cultural diversity or law enforcement) almost doubled in just five years, from 123 bills enacted in 2005-06 to 218 bills in -10 (Filindra & Manatschal, 2019.…”

Multilevel strategies of political inclusion: The contestation of voting rights for foreign residents by regional assemblies in Europe

“…However, simply by tabling a discussion on this issue, regional assemblies maintain the political inclusion of foreign residents on the agenda. The general point is that regional assemblies can indeed shape decisions on the electoral inclusion and exclusion of different groups (Keating 1998;Hepburn 2011;Manatschal, Wisthaler and Zuber 2019;Zuber 2019). However, rather than making their own rules irrespective of what the central government decides, they use multilevel governance to engage in broader political debates involving other actors in the country.…”

Regions and immigration in advanced democracies

“…In sum, although often considered as belonging to the realm of 'high politics' and out of reach from regional authorities, immigration is in fact heavily impacted by the activities of regions. Their sprawling competences in education, culture, health and social services mean they directly impact integration policies on the socioeconomic and cultural-religious dimensions (Piccoli, 2020, in this issue;Xhardez, 2020, in this issue;Zuber, 2020, in this issue), whilst indirectly affecting developments on the legal-political dimension (Filindra & Manatschal, 2020, in this issue;Manatschal et al, 2020, in this issue;Zuber, 2020, in this issue). Regions with legislative authority on immigration and citizenship shape the whole spectrum of integration policies directly (Bennour, 2020, in this issue;Paquet & Xhardez, 2020, in this issue), whilst also impacting a broader set of migration-related questions (Table 1).…”

“…In this sense, the question of solidarity within the regional space regulates how out-group members entering the territory (i.e., immigrants) can benefit from the community's solidarity structures. As identity and community are differently defined at various territorial scalesfrom the regional, to the state, to the supranationaland that community defines the boundaries of solidarity, it is not surprising to observe that strong identity regions, such as 'Rokkan regions', are characterized by distinctive integration policies compared with non-Rokkan regions (Manatschal et al, 2020, in this issue;Zuber, 2020, in this issue). However, the link between community and solidarity plays out differently according to its territorial context.…”