Sammendrag:

In this article we ask to what extent and how political executives balance political control and agency autonomy in immigration policy and how this is reflected in the different ways of organising the central immigration administration. The analysis is based on instrumental, negotiation and cultural perspectives. The case under study is the organisation of the central immigration administration in Norway, which experienced three major reforms: in 1988, 2001 and 2005. These involved an increase in the autonomy of the immigration agency, the granting of further autonomy and eventually an attempt to increase political control. We ask what the political motives behind organising the immigration administration are and analyse the implications of different modes of organisation.