Unconstrained Access: Immigration Policy Diffusion Across the European Union

• In Event: European Politics and Society Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

Since the mid-2000s, widespread economic decline and the resurgence of populist right parties across the European Union have substantially reduced social welfare spending in most member states. At the same time, Europe has experienced a “migration crisis,” (Vespe et al., 2017) as an influx of nearly 4 million have resettled within its borders; the most vulnerable among them being the unknown number of “irregular migrants,” or those without the host country’s legal permission to enter (Vollmer, 2011) or reside there after initial entry (European Migration Network, 2014). Despite the unfavorable political and economic conditions, several EU nations, such as Italy and Spain, have nonetheless maintained programs that provide social services to their irregular residents. Using Network Inference (Gomez-Rodriguez et al., 2010; Desmarais et al., 2015) combined with qualitative case studies, we contrast the policy diffusion of immigrant incorporation in Europe. Specifically, we compare the policy “leaders” and “followers” in both instances in addition to describing how the factors associated with the initial adoption of these policies compares to their contemporary exercise.

Authors

• Andrea Pena-Vasquez, University of Notre Dame

• Hannah Wilson, University of Notre Dame