Exploring the Demands of Assimilation among White Ethnic Majorities in Western Europe

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, assimilation has gradually regained momentum as both a normative and an analytical concept for understanding the ways in which migrants are incorporated into societies at large. Although scholars have investigated various dimensions of this process, they have tended to privilege the experience of migrants themselves. Comparatively little attention has been dedicated to the perspective of the dominant groups, particularly in relation to what ethnic majority people demand that migrants do in order to be accepted. This article explores these demands of assimilation through qualitative data collected among white local elites in four regional case-studies in Western Europe. The analysis reveals a different picture from the one usually portrayed by ‘new assimilation theory’. Accordingly, I suggest rethinking assimilation in ways which incorporate more fully the plurality of demands put forward by dominant ethnic groups.

Keywords:

• Assimilation
• Integration
• Multiculturalism
• White Ethnic Majority
• Western Europe

Acknowledgements

The fieldwork data collection was made possible thanks to a National Science Foundation (USA), Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant No. 0503405, conferred on 30 December 2004.

Notes

1. The author is fluent in English, Italian and French.

2. The selection was based on a cross-tabulation of the results of a cluster analysis (using the significant predictors from a binary logistic model on European attachment—Eb 60.1, 2003) and Eurostat data (2001–03) about regional GDP per capita (in Purchasing Power Parity values) for each region in the EU-15. Further information on the sampling process is available from the author upon request.

3. Data source: INSEE (France), National Statistics (United Kingdom), ISTAT (Italy), and Tilastokeskus (Finland). Figures relate to the year 2005 (when the fieldwork for the present research was carried out).