Family Reunification and Integration Policy in the EU: Where Are the Women?

Abstract

In its early efforts to create a migration regime, the EU passed the 2003 Directive on the Right to Family Reunification. This directive has long been considered controversial, in part because of the directive's treatment of migrant women. In 2011, the EU published a Green Paper on the right to family reunification as a way to begin to assess interest in revisiting this directive. While one could consider this a positive step due to the initial uproar over the 2003 directive, it is clear that the EU's interest in reopening the debate on family reunification is problematic for many reasons. This paper explains the consultation process in the EU to expose the concerns of various constituencies and uncovers the ways in which family reunification and integration policy in the EU are still conceived of as "gender neutral" policy areas. While reopening the 2003 family reunification Directive could have been a positive move for migrant women, this paper underscores the ways in which the EU, and even parts of the nongovernmental community, continue to fall short in crafting gender sensitive policies that would benefit migrant women, their families, and the EU a whole.

Appendix

Questions from the Green Paper on the Right to Family Reunification of third-country nationals living in the European Union (Directive 2003/86/EC)

• Question 1: Are these criteria (reasonable prospect for the right of permanent residence at the time of application as regulated in Article 3 and a waiting period until reunification can take place as regulated in Article 8) the correct approach and the best way to qualify the sponsors?

• Question 2: Is it legitimate to have a minimum age for the spouse which differs from the age of majority in a Member State? Are there other ways of preventing forced marriages within the context of family reunification and if yes, which?

  Do you have clear evidence of the problem of forced marriages? If yes how big is the problem (statistics) and is it related to the rules on family reunification (to fix a different minimum age then the age of majority)?

• Question 3: Do you see an interest in maintaining those standstill clauses which are not used by Member States, such as the one concerning children older than 15?

• Question 4: Are the rules on eligible family members adequate and broad enough to take into account the different definitions of family other than that of the nuclear family?

• Question 5: Do these measures efficiently serve the purpose of integration? How can this be assessed in practice? Which integration measures are most effective in that respect?

  Would you consider it useful to further define these measures at the EU level?

  Would you recommend pre-entry measures? If so, how can safeguards be introduced in order to ensure that they do not de facto lead to undue barriers for family reunification (such as disproportionate fees or requirements) and take into account individual abilities such as age, illiteracy, disability, education level?

• Question 6: In view of its application, is it necessary and justified to keep such a derogation in the Directive to provide for a 3-year waiting period as from the submission of the application.

• Question 7: Should specific rules foresee the situation when the remaining validity of the sponsor’s residence permit is less than 1 year, but to be renewed?

• Question 8: Should the family reunification of third country nationals who are beneficiaries of subsidiary protection be subject to the rules of the Family reunification Directive?

  Should beneficiaries of subsidiary protection benefit from the more favorable rules of the Family reunification Directive which exempt refugees from meeting certain requirements (accommodations, sickness insurance, stable resources)?

• Question 9: Should Member States continue to have the possibility to limit the application of the more favorable provisions of the Directive to refugees whose family relationships predate their entry into the territory of the Member State?

  Should family reunification be ensured for wider categories of family members who are dependent on the refugees, if so to what degree?

  Should refugees continue to be required to provide evidence that they fulfill the requirements regarding accommodation, sickness insurance, and resources if the application for family reunification is not submitted within a period of three months after granting the refugee status?

• Question 10: Do you have clear evidence of problems of fraud? How big is the problem (statistics)? Do you think rules on interviews and investigations, including DNA testing, can be instrumental to solve them? Would you consider it useful to regulate more specifically these interviews or investigations at EU level? If so, which type of rules would you consider?

• Question 11: Do you have clear evidence of problems of marriages of convenience? Do you have statistics of such marriages (if detected?) Are they related to the rules of the Directive? Could the provisions in the Directive for checks and inspections be more effectively implemented, and if so, how?

• Question 12: Should administrative fees payable in the procedure be regulated? If so, should it be in a form of safeguards or should more precise indications be given?

• Question 13: Is the administrative deadline laid down by the Directive for examination of the application justified?

• Question 14: How could the application of these horizontal clauses be facilitated and ensured in practice?