This book addresses a timely, yet largely overlooked, issue in political science: the integration of migrants in a multilevel polity. In a context characterised by the increasing salience of migration-related questions, and despite the gradual construction of a European Union immigration policy over the past two decades, no competence was ever created on integration matters. The emergence of a consistent ensemble of soft instruments in this policy realm in the 2000s unveiled an original pattern of EU policy formation. Can there be Europeanization without an EU competence? That is the question this original piece of research tackles. It shows how the way in which the policy emerged at EU level affected policy outputs adopted thereafter throughout the policy cycle. Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods, it explains the development of the EU integration policy and examines its main policy device, the European Integration Fund, from negotiation to implementation.

Pierre Georges Van Wolleghem is Honorary Fellow at the Centre for European Governance, University of Exeter, UK. He currently works as a researcher for Fondazione ISMU and collaborates with various universities. Dr. Van Wolleghem's research focuses on Europeanization and migration policies.

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Setting the Scene: history of a competence and analytical framework.- Chapter 3: Explaining the genesis of a policy.- Chapter 4: The European Integration Fund: principles, decision-making and output.- Chapter 5: Why implement without a tangible threat? The effect of a soft instrument on national migrant integration policies.- Chapter 6: Capacity or Preferences? Explaining the Implementation of the European Integration Fund.- Chapter 7: Conclusion. EU integration policy or EU policy on integration?.