Why Implement without a Tangible Threat? The Effect of a Soft Instrument on National Migrant Integration Policies

Abstract

A significant amount of scholarly attention has focused on explaining variation in implementation of EU outputs. Most studies have concentrated either on the factors determining compliance with Directives or on the processes leading Member States to applying soft law provisions. Little attention has however been paid to the determinants of the implementation of soft law. Hence the focus of this paper: why do Member States implement EU outputs if they have no legal obligation to do so? The present study delves into the implementation of a soft instrument, the European fund for the integration of foreigners, and explains Member States' response to it through a policy‐specific mechanism. I show that when there is little possibility of oversight from above, government preferences are not constrained by Commission but by public opinion and organized civil society. Empirical evidence is drawn from the application of time‐series‐cross‐section methods to an original dataset.

Where is the EU’s Migrant Integration Policy Heading?

“…Even though the CBPs were designed so that they would focus on key areas and shared problems rather than on national practices in order to increase their acceptability (Pratt 2015), and even though they were adopted at the unanimity of the member states, their practical implementation as per Multi-Annual Programmes was found to be underwhelming (Carrera and Faure Atger, 2011). Similarly, evidence regarding the Annual Programmes shows that implementation of the priorities set at the EU level was very modest, despite the existence of financial incentives (Van Wolleghem, 2017 (2011) finds that the CBPs had no effect whatsoever on member states' integration policy. The values are expressed in percentage of total funding so that, for instance, Germany planned to use, on average, about 40% of its total allocation to address EU priorities whilst Poland did not intend to address them at all 15 .…”

Migrants’ Integration on the European Labor Market: A Spatial Bootstrap, SEM and Network Approach

“…In this regard, they underlined the "mainstreaming" policy, which means that "policies addressing certain problems do not aim solely at migrants, but rather at the general population, thereby hoping that migrants will benefit from them as well" [11] (p. 20), or "newcomers need to be given the same opportunities as natives" [4] (p. 196). On this frame of reference, the need of migrants' integration into host economies becomes crucial, along with accurate and specific strategies at EU level [4,12].…”