Schmid Comparative Migration Studies
(2020) 8:25
this dimensional assumption (Koopmans et al. 2005; Goodman 2010), while others who
analysed citizenship regimes more comprehensively (by adding, among other things, indicators on the loss of citizenship) validated their two-dimensional model (Vink and
Bauböck 2013). Inspired by recent literature (Boucher and Gest 2015), this study is the
first to combine immigration policies and citizenship policies with a novel twodimensional scheme capturing regimes proper (i.e. policies as such).
Based on the typology, I then show that over the observed time period, an increasing
number of cases can be described as open-inclusive boundary regimes: they have relatively open borders and relatively inclusive citizenship. In fact, open-inclusive regimes
are the most common in the sample. However, many cases still show other configurations. One notable finding regarding these other types is that closed-inclusive regimes
are the least frequent, even though they embody the conventional liberal-communitarian model defended in classical normative accounts in democratic theory (e.g. Walzer
1983, ch. 2).
Furthermore, the analysis shows that the aggregate levels of both IRO and CRI follow
overall liberalising trajectories. However, after a surge in liberalisation from 1980 onwards, immigration policies start fluctuating after 1996. Citizenship policies show a
much-observed restrictive turn during the 2000s. I also show that there has already
been a restrictive turn in citizenship during the 1990s. Finally, I find that immigration
regimes show increasingly similar levels of openness while citizenship regimes do not
converge significantly overall.
The liberalising tendencies in both immigration policies and citizenship policies contrast with the finding of a proliferating ‘Market Model’ (Boucher and Gest 2018), which
occupies a middle ground between the closed-exclusive and open-exclusive types of
boundary regimes. The sample and type of indicators used in this article show that, instead, the ‘Liberal Model’ (ibid.) of open-inclusive regimes is more prevalent. Furthermore, these results cast doubt on the notion that democracies remain trapped in
‘liberal paradox’ that manifests itself in a tension between open borders and inclusive
citizenship (Hollifield 1992, 2004). Rather, this ‘paradox’ is increasingly resolved. Meanwhile, the finding of substantial convergence in immigration regimes but not citizenship regimes is more in line with the existing literature (e.g. Helbling and Kalkum
2018; Koopmans et al. 2012).
The last part of the article uses the two-dimensional policy space to analyse the correlation between immigration regimes and citizenship regimes. Calculating the pooled
correlation for three time periods (last decade of the Cold War: 1980–1991; 1992–
2001; and post 9/11), I show that the two dimensions are in fact not uncorrelated; the
correlation has become increasingly positive. Challenging widespread notions of tradeoffs between openness and inclusiveness (e.g. Ruhs 2013), this finding suggests a more
intricate interplay and potential convergence of the structural logics behind the two
policies realms across time.
Defining national boundary regimes regarding immigration
National boundary regimes regarding immigration are constituted by two sets of
policies: immigration regimes and citizenship regimes. Immigration regimes are, on the
one hand, constituted by the legal regulations that define the conditions for and guide
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