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Abstract
Crises may provide windows of opportunity for policy analysis, since policymakers are likely to be interested in knowledge which helps them solve their urgent problems. But what if there are deep divisions in policy-oriented research on the nature and very existence of the crisis? This article analyses the migrant integration “crisis” after 2000 in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy. The findings demonstrate that what counts as expertise may constantly be contested and produced at times of crisis. The notion of “(de)constructing expertise” is introduced to describe conflict-ridden patterns of knowledge utilization, where different knowledge claims and experts compete for recognition.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the VolkswagenStiftung [grant number 85586]. We would like to thank Rinus Penninx, Martin Sjöstedt, and the editors for their comments on drafts of this article.
Notes
1. Interview with a consultant (and former think-tank researcher), 8 February 2012.
2. Ministerial Working Group on Public Order and Community Cohesion.
3. Interview with a CCRT member, 10 January 2013.
4. Interview with CCRT member, 10 January 2013.
5. All Dutch experts interviewed for this project agreed on this.
6. Interview with professor emeritus, recently retired, December 2011.
7. Similar phrase used by a governmental policy adviser on migrant integration issues, interviewed in December 2011, and a senior researcher in a governmental research organization, interviewed in February 2012 (see Penninx 2005: 44).
8. UCOII is a confederation gathering together some 104 local Muslim associations and is considered as rather extremist in the panorama of Italian Islamic organizations.
9. See the main Italian newspapers: Aut-aut di Amato all’Ucoii – “Firmate una carta dei valori”, 25 August 2006, La Repubblica, Carmelo Lopapa; «Incontrarci? Prima la carta dei valori», 29 August 2006, Corriere della Sera, Paolo Conti.
10. Interview with an academic member of the Scientific Committee, 12 November 2011.
11. CNEL is an institution established by the Italian Constitution (art. 99) with the task of providing consultancy to the Parliament and the Government on economic and labour market issues.
12. Interview with CNEL expert on migration, 15 January 2012.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tiziana Caponio
Tiziana Caponio is Professor of Dynamics and Policies of Migration, Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin, Italy, and research affiliate at Collegio Carlo Alberto, Turin.
Alistair Hunter
Alistair Hunter is an honorary lecturer in the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. He also co-ordinates the University of Edinburgh research group on Migration & Citizenship.
Stijn Verbeek
Stijn Verbeek is a research fellow in the Department of Public Administration and the Department of Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.