The study of immigration and integration of immigrants into the Netherlands is relatively recent: some early pioneers published in the 1970s, but the expansive growth of this literature took place in the 1980s and that growth did not stop in the 1990s. The result of these developments is that by 2004 the literature in this field is abundant.

A substantial part of that literature relates to policy making, in the sense that it ‘advises’ policy makers or evaluates the policy implementation and its effects at the national or local level. Remarkably, however, there is only a relatively modest part of that literature that analyses the making of policies itself: that is analyses, not of the content of policies per se, but of the process that has led to these policies, the actors involved and the levels at which they are made.

In this review of the Dutch literature the authors focus on research that explicitly studies the process of policymaking in one way or another. They first outline in some of the general features of the Dutch policymaking context as a general background for the reader.

Following they review the studies according to the special topics they cover: first studies that examine (specific parts of) immigration and admission policies, secondly studies that analyse (aspects of) integration policies, thirdly studies that focus on specific actors and finally studies that concentrate on specific phenomena.

In the final section they draw some conclusions, like that most of the research on integration policymaking has focused on the national level, and there is a lack of studies on the local and regional level. More systematic analysis of how local authorities and cities deal with immigration and integration is needed.

This title is published within the IMISCOE publication programme as part of the Working Papers. These Working Papers are the products of ongoing work by IMISCOE members that are not (yet) ready for publication within the IMISCOE-AUP Book series. They may range from State of the Art Reports (SoAR) on worldwide research within a particular domain to more specific products of ongoing work. The Working Papers are evaluated by the editorial committee for quality and completeness before being published on the website.

Peer-reviewed publications can be found in the IMISCOE_AUP Book Series developed in co-operation with the Amsterdam University Press (AUP).

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//2006

Rinus Penninx (IMES), Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas (IMES), Peter Scholten (University of Twente)

research

Urban Policy

Social inclusion & integration