The EU’s role in science-society dialogues on migrant integration in Europe

This paper explores the EU's role in science-society dialogues on migrant integration in Europe. Ostensibly, this role would appear to be minimal because the EU has no formal competence for measures related to immigrant integration, which remain largely within the domain of member state governments. However, through various mechanisms of policy co-ordination, knowledge exchange and funding the EU does now play a role in debates about immigrant integration. In order to assess some of the underlying dynamics in this area, this paper will analyse two aspects of science-society dialogues on immigrant integration: (i) more specialised research-policy dialogues and (ii) broader science-society dialogues. The paper will also explore the multi-levelling of these debates in order to show how the EU can also be present in national and sub-national dialogues while the ‘national’ can also be very visible in EU level debates about integration, such as insertion of integration measures in relevant directives. The paper will thus contribute to the broader debate about the ways in which European integration changes the dynamics of migration policy and debate in Europe.