The impact of law and state institutions on the quality and character of migrants’ legal integration has also been stressed by researchers grouped around the Migration Policy Index (MIPEX) project. MIPEX is a biannual survey on a widening range of policy areas, which are considered critical to legal integration. It aims to compare national laws and policies according to the normative framework of equality of opportunity (expressed in rights and responsibilities located in EC Directives), which EU Member States are obligated to
transpose into their national laws (Huddleston 2008). Huddleston, co-author of the second edition of MIPEX, defined legal integration purely with reference to hard, institutional factors in the competence of the state, as: ‘migrants’ legal status, residence rights, citizenship, and access to rights, goods, services, and resources’ (Huddleston 2008). Similarly Hofinger (1997), in constructing an index of legal integration that well preceded the establishment of MIPEX, saw the destinies of migration as widely determined by national legal systems. He also saw legal integration as a necessary condition for social integration, as the systematic prolongation of legal differences between the citizens of the state and immigrants reinforced social discrimination against the latter (Hofinger 1997:29)...
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Discussing legal adaptations: Perspectives on studying migrants’ relationship with law in the host country
Thomas Huddleston
Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Group
Thomas Huddleston is a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Group, a European think-and-do-tank. He coordinates MPG’s research for European cooperation on national integration policies, including the second and third editions of the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) (published in February 2011) and the third edition of the European Commission’s Handbook on Integration.
