The power to expel vs. the rights of migrants: expulsion and freedom of movement in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1960s-1970s

Abstract

Migrants have rights vis-a-vis the liberal state. But these rights are not simply given. This article argues that they are the product of historical evolution and of norms-based societal contestation of state power. Migrant rights are located in different national and international bodies of law - constitutions, treaties, and conventions - which came into being mostly after the Second World War and together strengthened the protection of foreigners against forced removal. Examining a case study of the attempted expulsion from West Germany of an immigrant woman with children during the 1960s and 1970s, the article shows how the active negotiation between state and societal actors translated national and international norms on the family and on entitlement-based welfare into a social reality in which migrants had rights protecting them from expulsion. It furthermore argues that the contestation of expulsions strengthened the individual right to stay as one pillar of a comprehensive individual right to free movement.