A rights-based, associational approach to migrant integration
Development summary
Sarah Ganty and Clíodhna Murphy challenge the model of migrant integration built around duties and constraints in the European Union and the United Kingdom, proposing instead an approach based on integration through rights. Their framework places migrants' associational practices at the centre of their participation in the social, civic and political fabric of their societies.
The authors argue that an imperative of conformity undermines human rights and reinforces exclusion, then develop the legal foundations of an associational paradigm. They also consider how it could operate under the European Convention on Human Rights by examining deportation case law through freedom of association and private life.
Research note
Issue
A rights-based conception of migrant integration and the assessment of deportation decisions through freedom of association and private life
Why does it matter?
The article reframes migrant integration around the protection of associational rights and ties of belonging rather than duties and pressure to conform. Applying that framework to deportation case law brings freedom of association and private life into the same analysis of integration.
Concepts
Academic details
“Integration Through Rights: Towards an Associational Paradigm”
Modern Law Review · 2026
DOI 10.1111/1468-2230.70057