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ABSTRACT
Tracing the link between population flux and the regulation of migration, this paper develops the argument that immigration status differentiations impact not only on categorical multiplicities but also on contingent dynamics in urban migration-related diversity. A better understanding of those contingencies is central to discussing processes of adaptation in contexts of superdiversity. I first point to the frequency of change in rules and regulations pertaining to a multiplicity of immigration statuses. I then emphasise the co-relevance of conditionalities of entry and parameters of presence, set out by those rules, as central components of legal status diversity. In a third part I consider the resulting differentiations in terms of information overload. Thinking about status differentiations as information contradicts devising ever more status tracks to order migration and optimise its economic and social implications. I then point to empirical patterns in legal status diversities emphasising spatiotemporal contingencies in admitting migrants through different immigration channels. Concurrently I highlight why the resulting patterns of change are relevant for local urban diversity dynamics. I conclude the paper by drawing parallels between on the one hand steering migration to optimise its implications and on the other hand steering adaptations in superdiverse contexts to optimise integration.
Acknowledgements
This work was made possible by a Max Weber Fellowship at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules [accessed 20 February 2015].
2 See: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-rules-statement-of-changes [accessed 20 February 2015].
3 The types of changes detailed in statements of change often clarify terminology and provide detail on rule interpretation – for example, the largest document from 2012 with 296 pages includes a 46 page table that lists ‘Financial Institutions that do not satisfactorily verify financial statements – India’. Those alterations may not significantly change particular tracks but add further hurdles for meeting conditionalities of entry (see next section).
4 See: Updates to the list of residence permits referred to in Article 2(15) of Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 (Schengen Borders Code) at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/.
5 https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-intracompany-transfer-worker-visa [accessed 10 February 2016].
6 In this hypothetical scenario we would likely still be faced with the dynamics of superdiversity and patterns of inequalities – which is why in this paper I do not see the need to take strong normative stance but allow this question to ring only in the background of the analysis.
7 http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/01/daily-chart-15 [accessed 14 February 2016].
8 It is here important to note the role of cities in claiming greater stakes in decisions on available tracks. London, for example, has previously petitioned for a ‘London visa’. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/katrina-cooper/the-london-visa-a-new-imm_b_4016578.html [accessed 29 February 2016].
9 As Grzymala-Kazlowska and Phillimore (Citation2017) indicate in the introduction, many sparsely populated rural areas experience acute diversification. Many of the arguments developed in this paper have relevance for thinking about rural diversity dynamics – yet it is arguably in urban settings where we would expect migrants moving through an extreme breadth of different tracks to live in relative proximity.
10 For example, migration figures taken from the international passenger survey (IPS) tend to estimate lower numbers of long term migrants if compared to numbers estimated based on the length of validity of issued visas. This is not least due to individual decisions not to exhaust the time frame of a given visa (Home Office 2014).
11 See: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015-data-tables [accessed: 16.06.2016] Table used for analysis: vi_04 (Kershaw Citation2016).
12 Readers should be advised that it is precisely low number categories that are most prone to measurement errors. The graph should thus be read only as indicating directions of change.
13 http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/data-and-resources/charts/create/migration-to-and-from-uk/inflows/citizenship [accessed 30 March 2015].
14 For example dynamic changes in the numbers of EU and Non-EEA migrants over the period considered (Blinder Citation2016a).
15 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/420151/Tier_1__General__Guidance_04_2015.pdf [accessed 29 February 2016].