JOURNAL ARTICLE
Citation: Laubenthal, B. (2011). The negotiation of irregular migrants’ right to education in Germany: a challenge to the nation state. Ethnic and Racial Studies 34(8): 1357-1373.
Abstract/Description: Despite Western European nation-states’ attempts to control access to their territories, a large number of migrants live in the European immigration countries without a legal residence status. Their access to social rights is restricted by national migration control policies. Focusing on the case of Germany, this article addresses the question of which factors may, against the background of a highly restrictive migration control regime that makes explicit provisions to deny social rights to irregular migrants, encourage policy changes in the field of irregular migrants' social rights. Analysing several recent cases of successful implementation of educational rights for children without a legal residence status, the article argues that the institutional structure of a nation-state can have an important impact regarding policy changes on irregular migration. The article analyses how the interplay of the specific federal structure of the German state and the existence of the international human rights regime have served as preconditions for an improved access of irregular migrants to the right to education.
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This is NOT a C-MISE publication: this website hosts links to external publications and resources selected by the C-MISE team on the basis of their relevance for city authorities interested in service provision to migrants with irregular status, and are only presented here as suggested readings. External publications are the product of the authors there mentioned, and are not in any way the product of the C-MISE initiative, nor are they related or endorsed by the C-MISE initiative.
