The Europeanization of Opt-outs: A Case Study on the Danish Greencard and the German EU Blue Card

Författare

Jessica Crilley

Summary, in English

This paper explores how effective the Danish Greencard opt-out is in impeding the process of Europeanization. It investigates the cases of the Danish Greencard scheme and the German EU Blue Card directive in order to determine if national Danish sovereignty has been preserved through this opt-out. Opt-outs and high-skill migration are some of the most under evaluated topics within the field of European Studies. Opt-outs are traditionally assumed to be a hurdle in the project of European integration and often serve as the antagonists toward Europeanization. Furthermore, while there is an inarguably need to attract highly skilled immigrants to the European Union, the majority of material on European immigration is focused on unskilled migration. This paper will therefore combine these two neglected subjects and attempt to fill a noticeable gap in the academic literature. I reject the scholarly consensus that opt-outs always impede Europeanization through revealing the similarities between the Danish Greencard and German EU Blue Card. Utilizing a mixed methods design, I incorporate sentiment as well as content analysis in conjunction with quantitative data. Based on qualitative results derived from linguistic analyses and quantitative data complied from governmental reports, I am able to deduce similar patterns within both policies. Despite being an opt-out, the Danish Greencard scheme aligns with the German EU Blue Card. These similarities prove that the Danish Greencard scheme does not maintain a higher level of national sovereignty against the German EU Blue Card directive. Based on this case study, I argue that the Danish opt-out does not effectively impede the process of Europeanization.

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