Examining ‘Postmulticultural’ and Civic Turns in the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, and Denmark

Abstract

There is a widely shared view that the appeal of multiculturalism as a public policy has suffered considerable political damage. In many European states the turn to 'civic' measures and discourses has been deemed more suitable for the objectives of minority integration and the promotion of preferred modes of social and political unity. It is therefore said that the first decade of the new century has been characterised by a reorientation in immigrant integration policies -from liberal culturalist to the 'return of assimilation ' (Brubaker, 2001), on route to a broader 'retreat from multiculturalism ' (Joppke, 2004). In this article we argue that such portrayals mask a tendency that is more complicated in some cases and much less evident in others. To elaborate this we offer a detailed account of the inception and then alleged movement away from positions in favour multiculturalism in two countries that have adopted different versions of it, namely the UK and the Netherlands, and two countries that have historically rejected multiculturalism, namely Denmark and Germany. We argue that while there is undoubtedly a rhetorical separation between multiculturalism and civic integration, the latter is in some cases building on the former, and broadly needs to be understood as more than a retreat of multiculturalism. Taking seriously Banting and Kymlicka's argument that understanding the evolution of integration requires the 'the mindset of an archaeologist', we offer a policy genealogy that allows us to set the backlash against multiculturalism in context, in manner that explicates its provenance, permutations and implications.

The participation paradox: demand for and fear of immigrant participation

“…In the civic integrationist discourse, citizenship is increasingly portrayed as an identity issue, rather than a legal status (Meer et al 2015). The central narrative is that integration thus far has failed, and that the state needs to become more actively involved in integration processes.…”

Multicultural Engagements in Lived Spaces: How Cultural Communities Intersect in Belleville, Paris

“…Moreover, multicultural policies often shift, as when a Dutch policy promoting corporate identities switched to one in which more individual rights were accentuated, and the emphasis moved from cultural difference to socioeconomic incorporation (Meer et al. ).…”

The Emphasis on Ethnic Homogeneity and Japanese and Danish Immigration Policy

“…After the 1973 oil crisis, most immigrants came through the family reunification, asylum and refugee (refugees from Chile and Vietnam) channels (Beck and Lindekilde, 2014). From the 1980s, the main form of immigration was asylum (Meer et al, 2015). In the 1980s and 1990s, refugees arrived from the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sri Lanka, the Balkans, Hungary and Russia (Bech and Lindekilde, 2014;Jensen et al, 2017b).…”

“…These messages were accentuated by real socioeconomic differences between immigrants and Danes. Immigrants were told to take more responsibility and adjust to society, and not to 'burden' the welfare system (Meer et al, 2015). 'Adjusting to society' in this context refers to acquiring fundamental Danish values, in other words, to be more like Danes.…”