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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 …