Civic Stratification, Gender, and Family Migration Policies: An exploratory Investigation of Migrants involved in Family Migration in Spain

GIL ARAUJO, SANDRA

NODE interview analysis

BMWF/ICMPD

Lugar: Viena; Año: 2009; p. 1 - 42

The research project analysed family migration policies in nine European countries from two angles. First, the project analysed policies and policy-making in regard to family related migration in a “top-down” perspective through the analysis of legislation, public debates, as well as through expert interviews. Secondly, the project analyses family migration policies from a “bottom-up” perspective, by investigating the impact of conditions and restrictions on migrants and their families and the responses and strategies migrants adopt to cope with these and to organise their family lives. This project was financed under the programme New  Orientations for Democracy in Europe (NODE, www.node-research.at) which is committed to exploring the future democratic development of Europe and its effects on citizens as well as politics. Within the perspective of the NODE-Research, the project on Civic Stratification, Gender and     Family Migration Policy in Europe aimed at: a) Providing an empirically grounded analysis and evaluation of family migration policies  in a broad range of immigration countries in Europe, including Eastern Europe; b) Investigating how family migration policies create civic stratification; c) providing empirical evidence for the consequences of stratified rights for migrants immigrating for family related reasons; d) analysing how migrants challenge and cope with the constraints imposed by family migration policies; e) analysing the relationship between “civic integration” and social and political integration, and conversely, relationship between civic stratification and social and political exclusion; f) applying a gender based analysis both to the analysis of family migration policies and the impact of these policies on migrants; and g) developing basic principles that might help governments to design and implement fairer immigration legislation. This report is based on the spanish study.