An Institutional Rights Perspective on Immigrant Inclusion

Course goals

In this course, students approach immigrant inclusion – the extent to which ethnic minorities enjoy equal opportunities to natives – from a new perspective: institutional rights. Institutional rights are a crucial tool for immigrants’ chances of inclusion; however, institutional rights can also sharpen ethnic inequality within a society.  A brief introduction to the topic highlights its sizeable scope, covering institutional rights in relation to international law, labor market protections, access to education, freedom of speech or protest and property rights. The central aim of the course is to provide a framework for thinking about and engaging with literature analyzing immigration inclusion from an institutional rights perspective.

Content

Over a period of four weeks, the course zooms into two specific dimensions of institutional rights: welfare and citizenship. In weeks 1 and 2, students are introduced to literature on welfare (non-) usage by immigrants, including how information transmission and administrative procedures condition access to welfare services and benefits, and how access to the welfare state shapes immigrants’ opportunities for inclusion. Weeks 3 and 4 focus on legal-status transitions concerning citizenship. We discuss what the rights, obligations and symbolism of citizenship can mean in immigrants’ lives, what drives individuals to acquire the citizenship of another country, and whether naturalization can mitigate structural obstacles to participation and promote inclusion. Throughout the course, we draw on state-of-the-art literature, and complement discussions of theory and concepts with associated empirical approaches and identification strategies. In particular, we pay attention to the increasingly common use of large-N (often register) data, discussing its structure, application in research and strengths/weaknesses.