The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) is pleased to invite you to a seminar under the Migration Thursday series ‘Europe’s New Migration Challenges’ with Ruud Koopmans, Ulf Hedetoft and Adrian Favell on:
Not Easy Being Danish:
Integration vs. Multiculturalism in a Comparative Perspective
Thursday, 16 November 2006, 14.00-16.00
Danish Institute for International Studies
Main Auditorium
Strandgade 71, ground floor, 1401 Copenhagen K
Background
Not Easy Being British is the name of a well-known book from the early 1990s by Tariq Modood, critical of British policies towards its ethnic and immigrant minorities. Modood, a professor at the University of Bristol, continues to be a leading spokesperson in Britain for multicultural recognition and constructive dialogue with Britain’s immigrant-origin Muslim population. But on these questions, times have changed in Britain as elsewhere. Across Western Europe during the last decade – especially since 9/11 – there has been a marked rollback of policies on multiculturalism and a reframing of questions about immigrant accommodation in terms of national integration. In Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, there has been a reassertion of national identity, a questioning of tolerance and the viability of multi-ethnic diversity, and growing fears about terrorism and the so-called ‘clash of civilisations’. Researchers have disputed the effectiveness and unexpected consequences of the good intentions of past multicultural policies. In response, policy makers, journalists and some scholars have joined ranks to reassert the importance of nationally defined culture and values in the process of integration of non-Western populations, requirements that often take the form of language and civics tests or citizenship contracts to prove the immigrant truly deserves their new residency.
Among its European neighbours, Denmark is both lauded and criticised as a pioneer of resurgent nation-centered views on immigrant integration. Our seminar today seeks to open a broad debate about the costs and benefits of current Danish policies and attitudes, exploring the parallels and distinctions that might be drawn with its European neighbours. Sweden is most often discussed in this context, where the sharp contrast in philosophy towards the management of inter-ethnic relations with immigrants belies an arguably convergent public opinion. However, as much if not more might be learned by the comparison of Denmark with other West European states. France has long stood for a nationally-specific republicanism that demands above all the individualistic allegiance and participation of new members as self-conscious citizens. Britain and the Netherlands, meanwhile, are nations better known for overtly multicultural policies in the post-colonial period, but where painful recent events have led to a sharp change in public opinion on the limits of toleration towards non-Western values. There as elsewhere, national values have become the bottom line. Denmark is perhaps only notable for spelling out in stark cultural and moral terms what is implicit in all these countries’ changing policy lines. The governmental ‘Declaration on integration and active residency in Danish society’, adopted as law in 2006, formulated a contractual checklist for immigrants that no native born and bred citizen of the country has ever had to sign. But is integration on these terms working, and are there alternatives? Is the Danish approach a model for Europe, or the sign of a defensive nationalism that has gone badly astray? Our seminar will open a debate on these and other questions.
Ruud Koopmans is Professor of Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA). He is the co-author of Challenging Immigration and Ethnic Relations Politics (Oxford University Press 2001) and Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe (University of Minnesota 2005), alongside numerous comparative works on immigration and social movements in Europe. His interventions criticising the failures of multicultural policies in the Netherlands have played a key role in reframing debates in the country.
Ulf Hedetoft is Professor of International Studies at Aalborg University and Director of the Academy for Migration Studies in Denmark (AMID). He is the author of a variety of works on immigration, nationalism and globalisation, including most recently a co-edited volume Bortom Stereotyperna? Invandrare och integration i Danmark och Sverige (Makadam, Lund 2006). In international circles he is perhaps the best known Danish expert on immigration politics, and has recently published online a number of sharp critical analyses of current Danish policy.
Adrian Favell, who will introduce and moderate the debate, is Associate Professor of Sociology at UCLA and Visiting Senior Researcher in the Migration Unit at the Danish Institute for International Studies. He is the author of Philosophies of Integration: Immigration and the Idea of Citizenship in France and Britain (2nd ed., Palgrave 2001)
Forthcoming Events in the Migration Thursday-Series
Thursday, 14 December 2006
Security & Control in Europe: From a Migrant’s and the State’s Point of View
With Christina Boswell (University of Edinburgh) and Jørgen Carling (Peace Research Institute, Oslo)
Is there a “control gap” between the aims of border control policy in Europe and the realities on the ground? How do migrants view these restrictions? How is Europe coordinating its security efforts on migration, and what are the implications of these new policies for human rights? The seminar will debate these issues.
In 2007
Seminars on EU Neighbourhood Policy and Immigration, Asylum Protection Here and There, and Dilemmas of Return and Repatriation.
Practical Information
The seminar will be held in English.
Participation is free of charge, and registration is NOT required.
For further information on these events, please contact: Adrian Favell at afa@diis.dk |
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