Integration requirements : a new model in migration law

The years since 2002 have seen a series of integration requirements introduced into British migration law.2 The process began in the law on naturalisation, with the strengthening of the requirement of knowledge of an official language and the introduction of a requirement of knowledge of life in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, these two knowledge requirements were extended to indefinite leave applications, and English language requirements have been introduced or proposed for limited leave categories. A further planned step is the inclusion of a concept of ‘active citizenship’ in the rules on naturalisation and long-term residence. The article provides a critique of this recent wave of integration requirements. It begins with a summary of the integration-oriented changes that have been introduced or proposed to date. It then argues that these recent developments mark a shift away from a liberal approach to migrant integration, towards a model of ‘community cohesion’. That shift is seen both in the official justifications for the new integration requirements, and in the very fact of reliance upon migration law to advance an integration agenda. The article goes on to show, based on the available published data, that the impact of the ‘knowledge of life’ tests is highly differentiated by nationality, and is probably differentiated by immigration category. The argument of the article is that this new model in immigration law is an unwelcome development: the policy as a whole is paradoxical in denying immigration status in the name of integration; it is highly prescriptive in places; and, it is at odds with the growing diversity of the migrant population of the United Kingdom. [Introduction]