From multicultural to diversity policies: Tracing the demise of group representation and recognition in a local urban context

Abstract

This article deals with the question of how and why urban governments have implemented diversity policies in the context of a broader backlash against multiculturalism. The starting point of our analysis is the conceptualization of multiculturalism as a set of institutional arrangements for ethnic minority group representation and recognition. While scholars have largely focused on normative critiques of multiculturalism, arguing that it is unable to respond to the super-diversity in contemporary cities, this article focuses on the empirical complexities of diversity policy-making in a local context. More specifically, we investigate the changes in the policy practices and discourses regarding the representation and recognition of ethnic minorities in Antwerp, the largest city of the Flemish Region in Belgium. The minority policies in Antwerp had taken a multicultural turn by the 1990s, most evident in two strategies for group representation and recognition: the establishment of a migrant council to address the interests of ethnic minorities and the recruitment of an ethnically diverse city staff. We analyse how these measures became contested in the context of a wider backlash against multiculturalism. When multicultural policies became diversity policies, the migrant council was disbanded and a dress code prohibited minorities from displaying religious or other symbols in front-office public functions. With these cases, we argue that diversity discourses can be politicized in the governance of cities, with far-reaching consequences, such as the demise of ethnic minority representation and recognition, eventually reinforcing a neo-assimilationist focus urging migrants and their descendants to adapt to the cultural majority.

Repertoires on diversity among primary school children

“…Yet, while Antwerp has a highly diverse population, the Flemish far-right also gained landslide electoral victories in the city during the 1990s and 2000s with an anti-immigrant rhetoric. This made anti-immigration discourses highly visible and created a political atmosphere highly receptive to resurgent neo-assimilationist tendencies and the backlash against multiculturalism (Saeys et al, 2019). The social segregation between immigrants and the established ‘white majority’, characteristic of many Western European countries, is also particularly pronounced in Flanders.…”

In search of a cool identity: how young people negotiate religious and ethnic boundaries in a superdiverse context

“…Yet, at the same time the widespread use of the term ‘superdiversity’ should not make forget that there is a broad variety in how people, including urban youth, perceive and practice diversity (Saey et al, 2019). One cannot overlook, for instance, the massive support for extreme-right social and political movements across the world, also among youth in super-diverse cities (Miller-Idriss, 2018).…”

The Influence of the Ethnic Diversity on the Regional Development as Exemplified by the Silesian Autochthonous Population in Poland

“…The critical turnaround in migration studies coincided with populist anti-immigration mobilization in Europe and the United States, where violations of anti-populist norms of nondiscrimination are no longer avoided (Freeman, 1995). While group-based arguments against immigrant admission and inclusion are once again becoming naturalized in public debate, migration scholars need to take seriously the claim that group-based discrimination remains an integral part of the migration and citizenship policy (Saeys et al, 2019;Fitzgerald, 2020;Noja, 2018;Noja and Cristea 2018). It is also related to recent studies on the contemporary "politics of belonging" (Yuval-Davis et al, 2005;Gedalof, 2007;Schmidt, 2011;Adamson et al, 2011) that have examined ways in which immigration and citizenship policies influence the social group membership, taking into consideration the ethnic diversity.…”

“…However, there is still a question of how urban governments should implement diversity policies in a broader backlash against multiculturalism. The starting point is the conceptualization of multiculturalism as institutional arrangements for ethnic minority group representation and recognition (Colombo, 2015;Saeys et al, 2019).…”