Matters of control: integration tests, naturalisation reform and probationary citizenship in the United Kingdom
Matters of control: integration tests, naturalisation reform and probationary citizenship in the United Kingdom
In the new millennium there has been a shift away from multiculturalism and the politics of difference towards integration, assimilation and a gradual ‘thickening’ of political belonging. The alleged weaknesses of the multicultural model and advantages of thicker, communitarian notions of community are highlighted in recent discourses on migrant incorporation and increasingly reflected in citizenship and migration policies across European countries. In this paper I critically examine citizenship reform and civic integration policies in the United Kingdom and argue that the fashionable language of integration represents a politically dated and normatively deficient approach to ethnic diversity. I furnish the basic tenets of an alternative pluralist mode of inclusion based on respectful symbiosis and the ‘letting be’ of groups of migrant origin, and examine the conditions for such a model's empirical implementation.
citizenship, integration, naturalisation, multiculturalism, nationalism
829-846
Kostakopoulou, Dora
98dbedbe-574f-4431-8844-b635d2884788
2010
Kostakopoulou, Dora
98dbedbe-574f-4431-8844-b635d2884788
Kostakopoulou, Dora
(2010)
Matters of control: integration tests, naturalisation reform and probationary citizenship in the United Kingdom.
[in special issue: Migration and Citizenship Attribution: Politics and Policies in Western Europe]
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36 (5), .
(doi:10.1080/13691831003764367).
Abstract
In the new millennium there has been a shift away from multiculturalism and the politics of difference towards integration, assimilation and a gradual ‘thickening’ of political belonging. The alleged weaknesses of the multicultural model and advantages of thicker, communitarian notions of community are highlighted in recent discourses on migrant incorporation and increasingly reflected in citizenship and migration policies across European countries. In this paper I critically examine citizenship reform and civic integration policies in the United Kingdom and argue that the fashionable language of integration represents a politically dated and normatively deficient approach to ethnic diversity. I furnish the basic tenets of an alternative pluralist mode of inclusion based on respectful symbiosis and the ‘letting be’ of groups of migrant origin, and examine the conditions for such a model's empirical implementation.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 27 May 2010
Published date: 2010
Keywords:
citizenship, integration, naturalisation, multiculturalism, nationalism
Organisations:
Southampton Law School
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 200321
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/200321
ISSN: 1369-183X
PURE UUID: 00a3c39c-ee6b-45a8-adfe-b6f4352a7933
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Date deposited: 19 Oct 2011 15:47
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 04:19
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Author:
Dora Kostakopoulou
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