European University Institute

Graduate Student, Political and Social Science

Researcher

European University Institute, Social and Political Sciences Department

About

Roxana Barbulescu is a PhD candidate at the European University Institute in Florence. She received a Master of Research from European University Institute in 2009 and a Master of Arts in intercultural studies in 2008 from Jacobs University Bremen, in Germany. She completed her undergraduate studies in 2006 at University of Craiova, Romania.

Her dissertation investigates how states pursue the integration of immigrants in two new immigration countries Italy and Spain. Previous studies that have considered 'immigrants' a homogenous group and, hence the state integration strategy as singular. This dissertation distinguishes between co-ethnic migrants, migrants from non-EU countries and European citizens from the old and the new member states. It argues that two main strategies of integration are pursued in parallel: the first one targets the non-European citizens and it is assimilationist in character and based on interventionist principles according to which the government (be it national, regional or municipal) actively pursues the inclusion of migrants; the second one targets the EU citizens and is a laissez-faire scenario where foreigners enjoy rights and live their entire lives in the host country without the state or the local authorities seeking their integration.
Thus, there is a continuum of integration strategies, from less to more inclusive and from less to more demanding for different foreign groups that are simultaneously enforced within one single country. The thesis builds on empirical evidence from national immigration laws,  EU directives on the rights of TCNs and EU citizens, national and European case law, international treaties on immigrants' rights and public policies for immigrant integration. In addition, a series of interviews were conducted with policymakers involved in designing the integration policy in both Italy and Spain. The data was collected across three levels of government namely  national, regional and city across a period of over 25 years from 1985 to 2012.


Her current research interest are: state-driven immigrant integration in its voluntary and mandatory policy variants, aliens' rights, anti-discrimination, access to citizenship in European countries and European Union citizenship.

Contact Information