The legal-domestic sources of immigrant rights - The United States, Germany, and the European Union

This article traces the evolution of two types of immigrant rights-alien ri ghts and the right to citizenship-across three polities (the United States, Germany, and the European Union). It argues that the sources of rights exp ansion are mostly legal and domestic: Rights expansion originates in indepe ndent and activist courts, which mobilize domestic law (especially constitu tional law) and domestic legitimatory discourses, often against restriction -minded, democratically accountable governments. The legal-domestic hypothe sis is qualified and differentiated according to polity, migrant group, and type of immigrant right.