Immigration and the Nation-State

by Christian Joppke

"In this study, Professor Joppke compares the post-war politics of immigration control and immigrant integration in the United States, Germany, and Britain - three liberal states characterized by sharply distinct nationhood traditions and immigration experiences. Mapping out the many variations between these cases, Immigration and the Nation-State focuses on the impact of immigration in the two key areas of sovereignty and citizenship. The first part analyses the effect of immigration on state sovereignty, arguing that with respect to immigration control liberal states are self-limited by interest-group pluralism, autonomous legal systems, and moral obligations toward particular immigrant groups - the weight of these factors differing across particular cases. In Part 2, the author addresses the ways in which immigration impacts upon citizenship, arguing for the continuing relevance of national citizenship for integrating immigrants, albeit modified by nationally distinct schemes of mul