Lobbying for migrant inclusion in the European Union: new opportunities for transnational advocacy?

Can the heightened salience of immigration and asylum as Europeanized issues also translate into some kind of EU - level migrant inclusion agenda? Can the EU offer protection against racist, ethnic or religious based discrimination? Can it offer access to EU rights for migrants as a result of legal residence in an EU member state rather than as a consequence of prior possession of the nationality of a member state? Can it ensure respect for international legal standards and the rights of asylum - seekers and refugees in the development of EU asylum policy? This article argues that the EU provides new, albeit limited and constrained, political opportunities channelled through an institutional context with a strong technocratic and legal orientation. Supranational opportunities for transnational advocacy can arise from relative 'insulation' from the harsh glare of electoral politics for protection of diffuse and seemingly electorally unpopular migrant interests.