This article assesses to what extent we see externally driven integration in EU migration policies, focusing on three different periods over the past thirty years: (1) the path to partial integration of immigration policies through the Treaty of Amsterdam, (2) the full regulatory integration and subsequent consolidation in the 2000s and early 2010s, and (3) a phase of selective integration/EU capacity-building and non-integration since 2015. It argues that immigration policies are the prime example for externally driven EU integration, as policymaking in this area is usually reactive and not programmatic. Leveraging secondary data, original interviews with EU policymakers and original EU documents, it finds that joint external interdependence is not required for EU integration in the area, as long as some member states face (external) interdependence and (external) politicisation of the issue. Non-affected member states willingly accept more integration, as they do not consider themselves (negatively) affected by EU policy. However, once EU migration policies become more conflictively (unevenly) politicised, those previously indifferent about EU integration in the area block it further. This has led to selective integration of less politicised border policies rather than comprehensive integration of immigration policies in recent years.