The Concept of Integration in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

Integration has become a recurring theme of national immigration policies; and there has been a corresponding normative development of the concept to a certain degree in the European Union, both in soft policy and through references to integration in legally binding immigration measures. Th e diffi culty in defi ning integration is a pervasive problem encountered by lawyers and sociologists attempting to understand the phenomenon. Th is article argues that the development of the concept of integration by the European Court of Human Rights has an important contribution to make to the debate, with the potential to provide a legal framework within which to situate integration policies at the national and the EU level. It assesses the concept of integration employed by the European Court of Human Rights, analysing the Court's Article 8 immigration jurisprudence in terms of two core issues: fi rst, the conception of integration employed in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights; and second, the implications of the development of the concept in terms of impacting on the right to remain in a State Party and family reunifi cation, each a key integration issue. Th e article concludes that while the jurisprudence relating to what actually constitutes 'integration' is very much in its infancy, the express consideration of integration as a factor in the balancing exercise undertaken by the Court in the expulsion cases signifi es the start of a normative development of the concept of integration by the European Court of Human Rights. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the increased emphasis of the Court on the integration criterion in the Article 8 expulsion cases infl uences the Court's approach to key integration issues such as family reunifi cation and in turn whether this fi lters down to legislators and policymakers at the national level.

Integration as an Essentially Contested Concept: Questioning the Assumptions behind the National Roma Integration Strategies of Italy and Spain

“…While, in European literature and policies, the concept of minority integration is usually understood to address the situation of migrants -and specifically of thirdcountry nationals (Garcés-Mascareñas and Penninx 2016;Murphy 2010;Penninx et al 2008) -it has also become an increasingly pivotal term in directives and policies explicitly targeting Roma groups and individuals, even though the vast majority of them are European citizens and only relatively few have left their country of origin (Matras and Leggio 2018).…”

Becoming Less Illegal: Deservingness Frames and Undocumented Migrant Incorporation

“…These circumstances include, among others: persecution in one's home country; being an unaccompanied minor; certified medical emergency (Fassin and d'Halluin 2005); and victimization during or after migration (Morando Lakhani 2013). On the other hand, restrictionist policies have also tended to define deserving migrants as those who can demonstrate their integration and contributions as residents (Murphy 2010).…”

Human Rights Challenges to European Migration Policy

“…581 The Boultif/Üner criteria and their application by the Strasbourg Court confirm this finding. 582 A lack of so cio-cultural integration on the part of the migrant is regularly held against him or her when assessing whether a 'fair balance' has been struck. In some instances, the Court has even attributed excessive importance to such factors, 583 triggering criticism from commentators that it is employing an overly simplified, unidirectional model of migrants' integration.…”