Integration (of Immigrants) in the European Courts’ Jurisprudence: Supporting a Pluralist and Rights-Based Paradigm?

The concept of integration is the subject of various immigration policies but is still lacking a proper legal definition. In view of the abiding interest of the EU Member States to preserve their sovereignty over immigration, it is at serious risk of being instrumentalised for this purpose. Taking such circumstances into account, this article reflects on the model of integration resulting from the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights and questions the capacity of the two courts to advance a pluralist and rights-based paradigm of integration. On the one hand, it acknowledges the progressive enhancement of the protection of the immigrants’ fundamental and human rights. On the other hand, it points out the contradictions of a narrative that appears intrinsically incompatible with the very idea of pluralism by conceiving integration primarily as civic and cultural assimilation and placing most of the integration burden on the immigrants’ side.