The Politics of Immigration Beyond Liberal States

"Immigration presents a fundamental challenge to the nation-state and is a top political priority for governments - worldwide. Yet, knowledge on the politics of immigration remains largely limited to liberal states of the Global North. In this book, Katharina Natter systematically compares immigration policymaking in authoritarian Morocco and democratizing Tunisia to theorize the role of political regimes in immigration politics. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research, her study shows that in Tunisia, restrictive policy continuity functioned as a safeguard for democratization, while in Morocco, liberal immigration reform was central to the monarchy's authoritarian consolidation. This analysis demonstrates that immigration politics - how a state deals with 'the other' - offers a privileged lens into the inner workings of political regimes. The study also reveals that most policy dynamics around immigration do not depend on the type of political regime in place, but are inherent to the issues raised by immigration or to public policymaking in modern states. Connecting comparative politics, international relations and political sociology scholarship on migration across the Global North and Global South, the book provides scholars, students and practitioners with food-for-thought on the fascinating interplay between immigration, political regimes and modern statehood around the world"--