An article examined the way in which integration policy had been implemented. Successful initiatives adopt a 'pathways to integration' approach that maximized the potential for the interlinkages between integration dimensions, while facilitating a two-way integration process engaging refugees and wider society.
Source: Jenny Phillimore, 'Implementing integration in the UK: lessons for integration theory, policy and practice', Policy & Politics, Volume 40 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
An article highlighted the 'dangerous, indeed poisonous, nature' of debates on immigration and multiculturalism in Europe. There was a 'crisis of values', which had been consistently overlooked or manipulated by politicians and academics alike, or reduced to an epiphenomenon bound to disappear when global financial crisis was over.
Source: Umut Ozkirimli, '"And people's concerns were genuine: why didn't we listen more?": nationalism, multiculturalism and recognition in Europe', Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Volume 20 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
An article examined the significance of class for English national identity.
Source: Arthur Aughey, 'Englishness as class: a re-examination', Ethnicities, Volume 12 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
An article examined contemporary sentiments towards Englishness in terms of its relationship to class. It identified both a decline in social deference and an increase in contempt towards a so-called 'underclass' in people's talk about being English. Part of the explanation for why people were uneasy about identifying with 'being English' related to an absence of an equal sense of English national membership.
Source: Robin Mann, 'Uneasy being English: the significance of class for English national sentiments', Ethnicities, Volume 12 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
A new book said that multiculturalism had failed: the inability of multicultural policies to adapt to the new global era had left people feeling disconnected and powerless. It established a new concept – interculturalism – for managing community relations in a world defined by globalization and super-diversity. As all countries became more multicultural, a new framework of interculturalism was needed, and new systems of governance to support it.
Source: Ted Cantle, Interculturalism: The new era of cohesion and diversity, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Aug
A new book examined legislative means to combat racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism, and other forms of related intolerance in European countries.
Source: Talia Naamat, Nina Osin, and Dina Porat (eds), Legislating for Equality: A multinational collection of non-discrimination norms (Volume I: Europe), Martinus Nijhoff
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jul
A new book said that social cohesion was achieved through people (new arrivals as well as the long-term settled) being able to resolve the conflicts and tensions within their day-to-day lives in ways that they found positive and viable. It challenged the view that social cohesion was about the assimilation of new immigrants through acceptance of shared values of 'Britishness'. It was instead achieved through people's broad acceptance of a diverse Britain, and by navigating the fine lines between separateness and commonalities/differences and unity in the places where they lived.
Source: Mary Hickman, Nicola Mai, and Helen Crowley, Migration and Social Cohesion in the UK, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-May
A report examined developments in integration policy since 1997. Despite experiencing large-scale immigration flows and settlement over the previous half-century, the United Kingdom had not developed a formal integration programme. Few public policies had specifically sought to advance immigrant integration, and the political debates surrounding immigrant integration had often been fraught and destabilizing, reflecting deep-seated ambivalence in society about immigrants and immigration.
Source: Shamit Saggar and Will Somerville, Building a British Model of Integration in an Era of Immigration: Policy lessons for government, Migration Policy Institute
Links: Report
Date: 2012-May
A think-tank report examined modern British identity and sources of national pride. It considered the extent to which people identified themselves as being English, Welsh, and Scottish, as well as British; whether ethnicity and parentage mattered more or less than the more civic ideals of contributing to society and a sense of national identity; and what made the English, Scottish, and Welsh proud of their nations, and why these sources of pride were important.
Source: Andrew Gimson, Rachael Jolley, Sunder Katwala, Peter Kellner, Alex Massie, and Richard Miranda, This Sceptred Isle: Pride not prejudice across the nations of Britain, British Future
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Apr
A report examined the origins of minority legal orders in the United Kingdom. It explored the advantages and disadvantages of the practical ways in which the state could respond to and work with minority legal orders, and identified the gaps in the research around them. It said that liberal democracies had a responsibility to consider the rights and needs of those from minority groups who wanted to make legal decisions in tune with their culture and beliefs: they also had a responsibility to protect those 'minorities within minorities' who were vulnerable to pressure to comply with the norms of their social group.
Source: Maleiha Malik, Minority Legal Orders in the UK: Minorities, pluralism and the law, British Academy
Date: 2012-Apr
A new book provided an in-depth evaluation of the European Union Directive on race (adopted in 2000) and its effects.
Source: Erica Howard, The EU Race Directive: Developing the protection against racial discrimination within the EU, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Apr
A report examined the discourse and context of contemporary far-right political parties in the European Union.
Source: Robin Wilson and Paul Hainsworth, Far-Right Parties and Discourse in Europe: A challenge for our times, European Network Against Racism
Links: Report | ENAR press release
Date: 2012-Mar
A paper challenged the view that multiculturalism had been a failure in European countries: such a view mischaracterized the nature of the experiments in multiculturalism that had been undertaken, exaggerated the extent to which they had been abandoned, and misidentified both the genuine difficulties and limitations that they had encountered and the options for addressing those problems.
Source: Will Kymlicka, Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future, Migration Policy Institute
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Feb
The coalition government published a strategy for enabling and encouraging integration in communities throughout England. It said that the strategy was based on five key factors:
• Common ground – shared aspirations and values, and a focus on what people had in common rather than on difference.
• Responsibility – promoting a strong sense of mutual commitment and obligation.
• Social mobility – people being able to realize their potential to get on in life.
• Participation and empowerment – people having the opportunities to take part and take decisions in local and national life.
• Challenge to intolerance and extremism – a robust response to threats that deepened division and increased tensions.
Source: Creating the Conditions for Integration, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Strategy | Hansard | DCLG press release | EHRC press release | Labour Party press release | MRN press release | Runnymede Trust press release
Date: 2012-Feb
An article examined the main ethno-national and cultural expressions of complex diversity in Europe. Diversity was recurrently celebrated in Europe's official political discourse: but the term tended to be used in a superficial and biased way, which linked it to the dynamics of the market rather than to a reflective identity politics.
Source: Peter Kraus, 'The politics of complex diversity: a European perspective', Ethnicities, Volume 12 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
A paper examined the extent to which European governments could restrict immigrants' rights to engage in cultural or religious practices deemed incompatible with the host society's values without undermining civil liberties. It cast doubt on whether such policies could even be workable: the core cause of European integration problems lay in socio-economic, rather than religious, factors – in particular, poverty and exclusion.
Source: Christian Joppke, The Role of the State in Cultural Integration: Trends, challenges, and ways ahead, Migration Policy Institute
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Feb
A new book examined the issue of race and ethnicity within welfare provision, including the ways in which racial/ethnic minorities experienced welfare in a range of service settings.
Source: Gary Craig, Karl Atkin, Sangeeta Chattoo, and Ronny Flynn (eds.), Understanding 'Race' and Ethnicity: Theory, history, policy, practice, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Feb
A paper said that the European Union had been slow to develop clear competences on the rights of national minority groups: but there were elements in recent legal and policy developments that pointed toward progress on the issue.
Source: Tamara Jovanovic, National Minority Groups in Post-Lisbon Europe: The presence of Europeanisation and transnational human rights in one policy field, Working Paper 56, European Centre for Minority Issues
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Jan