The Process and Policies of Immigrant Political Incorporation
Irene Bloemraad, University of California, Berkeley
About the Seminar
Attacking multiculturalism has become a political cliché, from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s proclamation in October 2010 that a multicultural approach had “utterly failed” in Germany, to David Cameron’s speech in February 2011 implying that such policies might foster terrorism. The alternative, for many politicians of the right and left, is stronger integration policies and greater normative emphasis on common citizenship, an argument also advanced by academics. This juxtaposition – between multiculturalism on one hand and common citizenship on the other – implies that there is a zero-sum trade-off between the two. Can democracy and immigrant-driven diversity be reconciled? And if so, in what ways – through policies of assimilation, multiculturalism. or something else?
This talk takes as its starting point critiques of multicultural policy and ideology, and the arguments of the political theorists who defend a multicultural approach. Using evidence on immigrants’ naturalization, their success in gaining office and indicators of trust and civic participation from various Western democracies, Dr. Bloemraad will show that immigrants tend to be more politically integrated in countries identified as more multicultural. She will draw on a comparison of the United States and Canada to discuss some of the reasons why this might be the case.... Read more about Reconciling Diversity and Democracy