Civic Integration and Refugee Selection

This paper focuses on one of the lesser discussed aspects of the so-called ‘civic turn in immigrant integration’: namely, its possible effects, and ethical challenges, on refugee selection. By drawing from a recent (2020) Norwegian policy decision to give priority to LGBTIQ+ refugees in its refugee quota, the paper discusses some of the underlying rationales of such decision in light of recent theories of civic integration. In particular, I aim to show how the LGBTIQ+ prioritization policy can be seen to align with some of the much criticized aspects of civic integration as policies of, not integration, but migration control (on several levels, incl. first entry and family reunification). Furthermore, I discuss the ways in which the differences in the potential factors contributing to the integration success of LGBTIQ+ (contra non-LGBTIQ+) refugees feeds into our understandings of what successful integration of refugees (and other, non-refugee migrants) may require. While the paper develops a largely critical account of the LGBTIQ+ prioritization policy via the underlying rationales of civic integration, it also points towards an alternative basis for such selection that avoids many of the difficulties of the civic integration approach.