In this work, Yasemin Soysal compares the different ways in which European nations incorporate immigrants, how these policies evolved and how they are influenced by international human rights discourse. Soysal focuses on post-war international migration, paying particular attention to "guestworkers". Taking an in-depth look at France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, she identifies three major patterns that reflect the varying emphasis particular states place on individual versus corporate groups as the basis for incorporation. She finds that the global expansion and intensification of human rights discourse puts nation-states under increasing outside pressure to extend membership rights to aliens, resulting in an increasingly blurred line between citizen and non-citizen. Finally, she suggests a possible accommodation to these shifts: specifically, a model of post-national membership that derives its legitimacy from universal personhood, rather than national belonging.
List of illustrations Acknowledgments 1: Introduction 2: International Migration and the Nation-State System 3: Explaining Incorporation Regimes 4: Discourses and Instruments of Incorporation 5: The Organization of Incorporation 6: The Collective Organization of Migrants 7: The Membership Rights and Status of Migrants 8: Toward a Postnational Model of Membership 9: Conclusion Appendix A: List of State Agencies, Organizations, and Migrant Associations at which Interviews Were Conducted Appendix B: The Organizational Structure of Incorporation Appendix C: List of International Instruments that Provide Standards Applicable to International Migrants Appendix D: List of Intergovernmental and Nongovernmental Organizations Concerned with International Migration and Migrant Workers Notes Bibliography Index
