Explaining the Willingness to Implement EU Migration Law amongst Dutch and German Migration Law Implementers: A Matter of Shared or Individual Attitudes?

EU implementation studies did not yet connect to existing public administration theories, which focus on the willingness of frontline implementers to implement domestic policies and laws. Several studies find that this willingness to implement is crucial for the final outcomes of policies. In this paper, I will investigate to what extent explanations about the willingness to implement domestic laws also help to explain the willingness to implement EU laws. Additionally, I will discuss to what extent these explanations are specific to individual characteristics, or relate to shared attitudes among implementers operating in the same setting. Following the frontline literature, implementers tend to evaluate the substance of a law in view of its meaningfulness for solving societal challenges, to support their clients, or to realize personal interests. Furthermore, implementers attitudes towards rule compliance is expected to affect the willingness to implement. From EU implementation studies we know that evaluations of procedural legitimacy of the EU affect the propensity of domestic implementers to implement EU law. In order to test these expectations, the study draws on an original survey dataset that captures attitudes towards EU law among Dutch and German migration case workers. The analysis shows that the adjusted scales of the frontline bureaucracy literature developed for domestic implementation also work to measure attitudes towards EU law. However, not all factors assumed to matter for the willingness to implement domestic law are equally relevant for the willingness to implementation of EU law.