ABSTRACT
Every six months, and sometimes more frequently, the heads of governments of EU member states gather within the grandly titled European Council. The purpose of these meetings is to ‘steer’ the EU and plot the course for future developments. This chapter surveys the links between policy and institutional developments and, what is a rather neglected area in analysis of EU immigration policy development and EU politics more generally, the scope for representation of migrant interests. Examination of national policy preferences is crucial because they underpin intergovernmental bargaining processes which determine the scope and direction of integration. The notion of ‘fortress Europe’ has become central to many analyses of EU immigration policy. Connections between restrictive policies and social exclusion are particularly associated with Marxist influenced analyses of immigration policy and politics which link relations of production and the regulation of scarcity in capitalist societies with a dialectic of inclusion and exclusion.
