Urban Multiculturalism beyond the ‘Backlash’: New Discourses and Different Practices in Immigrant Policies across European Cities

Abstract

All across European receiving societies, the mainstream political discourse is displaying increasing disaffection with multiculturalism. It is primarily at the level of local policies, though, that the social inclusion of immigrants and the governance of ethno-cultural diversity are negotiated. Building on a comparative study of the urban ‘adaptations’ of multiculturalism in eight European cities, this article addresses three questions: (1) the changing relations between national and (relatively autonomous) local immigrant policies; (2) the ways in which such policies are locally reframed and reshaped along the continuum between multiculturalism and assimilation; (3) the involvement of civil society organizations in urban governance processes. Altogether, local policies seem to have been less affected by the backlash against multiculturalism than a common sense understanding would entail. Yet, they are increasingly constrained by anti-immigrant positions and budgetary restrictions, as well by the search for new political idioms vis-à-vis the de-legitimization of the multiculturalist lexicon and agenda.

Keywords:

• Multiculturalism
• Integration
• Urban Policies
• Diversity
• Civil Society
• Europe

Acknowledgements

The research on which the article builds was promoted by Casa della Carità in Milan, with the contribution of Unicredit Foundation. The authors thank Francesca Campomori for her suggestions and the anonymous referees of this Journal for their useful comments.

Notes

[1] Interestingly, much work along these lines was done in the early 2000s (see Alexander 2003; Penninx et al. 2004), while more recent research has apparently lagged behind (see, among the exceptions, however, Caponio and Borkert 2010).

[2] The research took place between 2010 and 2011. As a comparative study, it followed a common pattern to be adapted in the light of the specificities of each local context. Besides an extended literature review on the evolution of urban integration policies, the empirical analysis was based on field visits, meetings and in-depth interviews with civil servants, managers of local services, academics and representatives of associations. Overall, about 60 in-depth interviews were conducted.

[3] The choice of these Italian cities was driven less by their conformity to a national model (itself very fuzzy and inconsistent, see Ambrosini 2012), than by the opportunity to compare significantly different local policy arrangements.

[4] This may entail, as pointed out by Zukin (1998), a ‘commodification of diversity’ which, while fictitious and instrumental, treats minority cultures and ethnicized neighbourhoods as economic resources for the city.