Language as a new instrument of border control: the regulation of marriage migration from Morocco to Germany

Abstract

In 2007, the German government introduced the requirement of a language certificate for citizens of ‘third countries’ who want to join their spouses in the Federal Republic. Thereby, Germany followed the example of the Netherlands, Austria, the UK and France. German policy-makers have justified this language certificate as a measure to facilitate integration before entering the country. Drawing on the Moroccan case, this paper challenges this dominant integration argument and shows the actual consequences of this new instrument of border control. This paper argues that the language certificate leads above all to the hierarchisation of marriage migrants and even to the exclusion of certain candidates, depending on their educational background and financial means. The history of marriage migration from Morocco to Germany shows that family migration, especially of spouses, has a long tradition and has always been the special target of restrictions and control. However, the required language certificate leads to a new level of control. While marriage migration is traditionally based on a private matter, namely the decision to marry someone and to share life together, the utilitarian logic of a neoliberal migration management has found its way into the control of this form of migration. This is also visible in the externalisation of the border regime in the sense of an out-sourcing of migration management, whereby institutions such as language schools have become an integrated part of Germany's border control system.

Keywords:

• border control
• hierarchisation
• language
• marriage migration
• mixed couples

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented in 2014 at the ‘Moroccan Migrations: Transformations, transitions and future prospects’ conference in Fes (Morocco). I would like to thank Myriem Choukrallah and Maria Schwertl for helpful suggestions and discussions. Thanks also to Mohamed Berriane and Katharina Natter of the International Migration Institute at the University of Oxford, whose comments helped me to refine my arguments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This research was supported by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung – The Green Political Foundation.