ABSTRACT
Immigration policy is an extremely complex and sensitive field of politics and administration. Policy is developed at the international, national, regional and local levels (Cornelius et al. 2004) and involves specific cases about asylum, refugees, citizenship, residency, reuniting families, and work permits (Lahav 2004). Public opinion and people’s attitudes towards immigrants are in a constant state of flux and are influenced both by changes in general policy and by conflicts surrounding individual and high-profile cases (Givens and Luedtke 2005). The integration of migrants requires input from a range of public services such as housing, education, employment, health, police and social welfare. Immigration is a ‘wicked’ issue (Rittel and Weber 1973) that cannot easily be solved within one sector or policy area or at one administrative level. Immigration policy involves balancing control, coordination, agency autonomy, professional competence and judicial rights.
