A.G.M. Böcker

Country of asylum by choice or by chance: Asylum‐seekers in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK

Abstract This article seeks to illuminate the reasons underlying an asylum‐seekers choice of country of refuge. An examination of the statistics on asylum applications in the countries of the European Union reveals some specific patterns of origin and destination. Why, for example, do so many asylum‐seekers go to the Netherlands? The authors consider the question of just how much choice the asylum‐seeker has. Next, the importance is analysed of three groups of factors in explaining the patterns of destination of asylum‐seekers: (1) ties between the country of origin and the country of asylum, (2) the characteristics of the countries of destination and, (3) events during the actual flight and journey which might influence the destination of the asylum‐seeker.

Language and Knowledge tests for Permanent Residence Rights. Integration tests, help or hindrance?

More and more Member States require immigrants from outside the EU to pass language or knowledge-of-society tests in different stages of the immigration and integration process. This article focuses on the application of this requirement as a condition for obtaining a permanent residence permit or the EU long-term resident status. It is based on an international comparative study that included seven Member States with integration conditions (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). The article analyses the reasons behind the introduction of language and knowledge tests for applicants for a permanent residence permit or the EU long-term resident status in these Member States. Secondly, it examines the effects of the tests on the integration process of third-country nationals admitted for non-temporary stay. Finally, it discusses the legal constraints posed by EU and international law.

Einbürgerung und Mehrstaatigkeit in Deutschland und den Niederlanden

Diese Veranderung war nicht auf Deutschland beschrankt. In allen OECD- Landern und in vielen Entwicklungslandern erfolgte in den siebziger Jahren eine Abwendung von der patriarchalischen Vorstellung der Vererbung der Staatsangehorigkeit nur durch den Mann und die Ubernahme dieser Staatsangehorigkeit durch die Ehefrau und die Kinder und eine Hinwendung zu Vorstellungen der Gleichberechtigung. Die meisten Lander nahmen dabei eine wesentliche Vermehrung der Zahl der Mehrstaatigen aus Ehen mit unterschiedlichen Staatsangehorigkeiten hin. Nur wenige Lander — beispielsweise Japan — legten fest, dass sich die Kinder aus solchen Familien fur eine Staatsangehorigkeit entscheiden mussen, wenn sie erwachsen werden.

A pyramid of complaints: The handling of complaints about racial discrimination in the Netherlands

Abstract This article summarises the findings of a study into the ways in which complaints about racial discrimination are dealt with in the Netherlands. The Dutch legislators have chosen to use primarily the criminal law in the fight against racial discrimination. Although racial discrimination became more and more a matter of public concern in the Netherlands during the last decade, the number of court cases has remained very low. The researchers found that in point of fact a much larger number of complaints about racial discrimination are lodged with the police and with organisations providing assistance to individual complainants. However, due to the rigid selection procedure to which complaints about racial discrimination are subjected, only a fraction of the total number of complaints are pursued before the courts. The research aimed at identifying the factors which play a role in the selection. Among the complaints which are pursued, there are remarkably few complaints about discrimination in the f...

Legislating for transnational ageing: a challenge to the logics of the welfare state

Transnational ageing presents fundamental challenges to nationally bounded welfare states, which historically have tended to be organised according to a logic of solidarity among nationals and permanent residents of a given state territory. Nonetheless, the Dutch and French governments have taken steps to break this link between solidarity and territorially bounded consumption of welfare, by providing lifelong income security for older migrants who return to countries of origin on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. This article asks what motivated policymakers to initially develop these novel policy tools for transnational ageing which contradict the territorial logic of the welfare state. Based on interviews with key stakeholders and available official documents, we find that in both France and the Netherlands, policymakers’ initial motivations can be characterised as rather benign, if not beneficent: to facilitate return for those who are willing but unable to afford it. However, two types of obstacle have impeded the delivery of such policies. Non-discrimination clauses and free movement rights in EU law may make it difficult to implement policies for specific categories of older migrants. Electoral realpolitik may also lead policymakers to shelve policies which benefit older migrants, in a European context where public opinion on immigration is less and less favourable. Nonetheless, opposition may be neutralised by the budgetary advantages of these schemes, since older returnees do not consume public services such as healthcare.

The Institutional Setting of Naturalization and Multiple Citizenship

The ideas dominant in former times and to some degree even today about granting citizenship as a delimitation of the nation under aspects of public order, and that the state could proceed at its own discretion, does not correspond to the constitutional understanding of the democratic and social state under the rule of law.2