Kumulative Dissertation, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2024

In the context of increasing immigration, immigration policy has come to be seen by policymakers as a political instrument to influence social cohesion. Restrictions on immigration are seen as necessary to maintain a shared set of cultural values and practices in a society, and thus as a precondition for social cohesion in terms of a society’s social and political connectedness. First, it is often believed that bringing immigration policy more in line with public demands for restrictions would increase citizens’ political connectedness. Second, it is often assumed that restrictions would limit immigration to groups of immigrants who are more skilled and culturally more similar to the host society and, therefore, more socially and politically connected. This dissertation sought to challenge these prominent assumptions about immigration policy, by bringing them together as two modes through which policymakers seek to influence social cohesion through immigration policy-making. The aim of this dissertation was to outline and empirically test theoretical mechanisms (‘composition effects’ and ‘policy congruence effects’) through which immigration policies impact social cohesion (by affecting the population as a whole and immigrants), and to make statements about the magnitude and conditions of the effects. The results of this dissertation show that the effects of immigration policies on social cohesion do not live up to the high expectations of politicians and the public.