Rethinking Global Economic Governance in Light of the Crisis

Observers often point to the rise of right-wing anti-immigration parties and their influence (either direct or indirect) on immigration policy. Across Europe, such parties The recession and international migration have raised the salience of immigration policy but, with a few exceptions, their gains in electoral support predate the global financial crisis...However, these must be put into perspective. Tougher rules were imposed in some countries even before the recession, for example those on family reunification in France and the Netherlands. And across the OECD, policy on asylum seekers became tougher for at least a decade before 2007 (Hatton 2011). Although much of the focus has been on policies towards the integration of immigrants (and sometimes the explicit rejection of multiculturalism), the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) suggests that for the EU15 there was very little change overall between 2007 and 2011 (MIPEX 2011). This is partly because some countries have become more generous while others have become tougher. And even for a single country, different strands of policy often shift in different directions...Read more