Diversity as Immigration Governmentality: Insights from France (original) (raw)
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In France, the tension between the long-lasting presence of non-citizen immigrants and political participation has been solved as such: the model of citizenship has always defined that non-citizens would not be granted any access to political decision until they became French. The fact that citizenship and nationality are compounded in the French political model is one of the key dimensions for understanding the participation of ethnic minorities in political life. In this report, we provide some analysis of recent developments in minority politics in France. We argue that, although the framing of the issue in terms of diversity has come to replace the worn-out model of integration, in politics as in many other dimensions of social life, it is clear that the legitimacy of minority demands remains limited and that minority politicians’ access to political responsibilities is slight. As a result, the Republican framing is still relevant in current minority politics in France.
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In both Germany and France, perceptions of immigration, diversity and their societal consequences have undergone important transformations in the past two decades. However, existing research has only partially captured such processes. The “grand narratives” of national approaches, while still influential, no longer explain contemporary realities. Further, analyses of national politics and discourses may not sufficiently reflect the realities across localities and society more broadly. While emerging in different national contexts, little is known about how diversity is actually perceived by political stakeholders at the urban level. Given the key role of immigration and diversity in current conflicts over Europe’s future, it is imperative to assess present-day conceptualisations of migration-related diversity among important societal actors.This article investigates perceptions and evaluations of socio-cultural heterogeneity by important societal actors in large cities. We contribut...
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Contemporary European societies are increasingly diverse. Migration both within and to Europe has contributed over the past decades to the rise of new religious, racial, ethnic, social, cultural and economic inequality. Such transformations have raised questions about the (multi-level) governance of diversity in Europe, thus determining new challenges for both scholars and policy-makers. Whilst the debate around diversity stemming from migration has become a major topic in urban studies, political science and sociology in Europe, Critical Race Studies and Intersectionality have become central in US approaches to understanding inequality and social injustice. Among the fields where ‘managing diversity’ has become particularly pressing, methodological issues on how to best approach minorities that suffer from multiple discrimination represent some of the hottest subjects of concern. Stemming from the interest in putting into dialogue the existing American scholarship on CRT and anti-discrimination with the European focus on migrant integration, this paper explores the issue of integration in relation to intersectionality by merging the two frames. In doing so, it provides some observations about the complementarity of a racial justice approach for facing the new diversity-related challenges in European polity. In particular, it illustrates how Critical Race Studies can contribute to the analysis of inequality in Europe while drawing on the integration literature.
Citizenship and Belonging in France and North America Multicultural perspectives on political, cultural and artistic representations of immigration , 2020
This chapter explores the relationship between migration, integration, and multiculturalism in 21st century France. I make two arguments. The first is that migration policies and practices do not reflect a monolithic, historically transcendent ‘French model’. Rather migration policies are historically dynamic, shaped inter alia by nativism and especially the influence of right wing political parties, concerns about ‘terrorism’, but also European laws and policies, French juridical constraints, and government decisions concerning the ‘needs’ of labor markets. Second, in terms of integration, I argue that beyond the public philosophies of laïcité that are equally associated with a ‘French model’ of integration, lies a more local or urban practice of de facto multiculturalism, which calls into question the methodological nationalism of most discussions of integration in France.
Migration studies have long been characterized as an illegitimate field of research in the French social sciences. This results from the strong influence of the so-called 'republican' ideology on social sciences, the constant politicization of the subject in the public arena, the maintenance of a number of taboos revolving around the colonial experience, and a history of the concepts (race, ethnicity, minority) that makes their potential use in scientific analysis controversial. This difficulty of reflecting upon the ethnic fact or racial relations contributed to the implementation of a normative framework, which until recently gave priority to the analysis of integration, leaving the content of 'racial and ethnic studies' little explored in France. This article offers a historical perspective on the way knowledge has been produced in this field. It highlights the 'doxa' of the French integration model in social sciences, elaborating on the controversy over the production and use of ethnic categories in statistics, the various taboos revolving around the role of ethnicity in politics, the discussions launched by the emergence of a post-colonial question and the transition from an analysis of racism to the understanding of a system of discriminations.