Conditional Belonging: Evaluating Integration Requirements from a Social Equality Perspective

In multiple EU Member States, immigrants are subjected to an increasing number of integration requirements in order to gain access to residency and political rights. This article explores the legitimacy of such requirements from the perspective of recent theories of social equality. According to these theories, states must seek to uphold a ‘community of equals’ and to avoid problematic status hierarchies between citizens. I argue that aspects of current integration schemes in EU states jeopardise social equality by indicating symbolic hierarchical variations in the status of non-immigrant citizens and citizens with certain immigrant backgrounds. First, there are integration requirements that convey the message that certain immigrants are unwanted or will never truly belong to the nation. Second, there are integration requirements that suggest that the citizenship of (certain) immigrants must be earned conditionally and is contingent on certain competences and efforts, while native-born citizens of the majority are implicitly perceived as natural possessors of their unconditional citizenship. I argue that these integration requirements are problematic from a social equality perspective. Integration requirements that suggest a status hierarchy between citizens who naturally belong and those who conditionally belong should be rejected.