Glossary

Successful collaboration begins with a shared language, hence the need for a glossary. This joint effort of contributors from several teams ensures, on the one hand, terminological and conceptual coherence across not only our theoretical approaches, but also the qualitative case studies and quantitative research conducted in OPPORTUNITIES. On the other hand, our glossary facilitates communication between the academic side of the project and the fieldwork conducted by NGOs, uniting our teams working from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Mauritania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Senegal.

For more information about the Structure and Objectives of the Glossary, click here...)

European integration

European integration theory acknowledges that there is no universally accepted definition of integration. The influential neofunctional definition by Ernst Haas (1985, 16) holds that integration is “the process whereby political actors in several distinct national settings are persuaded to shift their loyalties, expectations and political activities toward a new centre, whose institutions possess or demand jurisdiction over the pre-existing national states. The end result of a process of political integration is a new political community, super-imposed over the pre-existing ones.” Arne Niemann, Zoe Lefkofridi, and Philippe E. Schmitter (2019, 45) further elaborate that neofunctionalists have always considered integration “to be a process rather than an outcome or an end state.” European disintegration, in contrast, is the process by which European integration is reversed, partially or completely.

⇢ see also: Citizenship

References and further reading:

Haas, Ernst. 1958. The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social, and Economic Forces 1950–1957. Stevens and Sons: London.

Li, Monica. 2020. What Measures Are in Place to Ensure the Long-Term Integration of Migrants and Refugees in Europe? European Web Site on Integration. URL: https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/special-feature/what-measures-are-place-ensure-long-term-integration-migrants-and-refugees-europe_en.

Niemann, Arne; Lefkofridi, Zoe and Schmitter, Philippe E. 2019. “Neofunctionalism.” In European Integration Theory. 43–63. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Zimmermann, Hubert and Andreas Dür. 2016. Key Controversies in European Integration. Palgrave Macmillan: London.

Category: A

Work Packages: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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