How is integration affected by legal issues? 

Many migrants arrived in Europe in 2015, and given the instabilities in many parts of the world more people might look for a safe place. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Vladislava Stoyanova will examine the impact of various laws and regulations on migrants’ integration in host societies. 

The integration of asylum-seekers and refugees is affected by many different areas of law: migration law, refugee law, human rights, EU law, discrimination law, labor law, family law and welfare law. Legislation governs many areas of migrants’ lives: what is necessary to have the right to stay in a country and with what type of residence permit; how and when can family reunification be allowed; when is the right to work and the right to social benefits granted. 

Associate Professor Vladislava Stoyanova from Lund University will analyze the laws and regulations that affect migrants’ integration. The questions at the core of her analysis are: How do these legal frameworks establish a balance between the differing interests of the migrants and the welfare society? What demands do these legal frameworks place on facilitating integration? And how do the legal frameworks limit immigration controls that can be introduced by individual states and which may play a negative role in integration?

Human rights law will be at the heart of this analysis, particularly the right not be discriminated against.

Foto: Marcus Marcetic