Saturday, March 15, 2014
Cabinet (Omni Shoreham)
This article examines the transformation of immigration policy from one focusing on paradigms of national security toward another emphasizing human rights. While multiple causes may be identified for the reasons for this shift, the reasons for which ideas win in the past decade and why so remain unanswered. Immigration policy presents a good test case as it is a constitutive policy which presents the ground for examining the transformative power of the EU, the domestic preferences and the global pressures, particularly in response to challenges from the neighboring countries. The article begins with a review of the literature on ideational drivers of policy transformation in immigration policy and the ways in which these ideas are dispersed in the past two decades to nation-states. Second, the article studies the empirical evidence to identify the sources of the shift in (dominant) ideas and institutions in the policy area. Third, the article analyzes the ways in which the key policy actors and stakeholders, their perceived interests and institutions affected the scope and direction of the paradigmatic shifts and (re)adjustments. It also investigates how such shift has taken place by reviewing the potential drivers of change and their impact. It concludes by remarks on how alternative explanations provide responses to the sources and patterns of policy change. The article is based on qualitative interviews with key policy actors and stakeholders as well as primary sources of parliamentary minutes, minutes of committee meetings, accounts of policy process meetings and legislative acts.
