Task 2 – A Multicultural Europe?

Parekh, B. (2000). Introduction. Rethinking Multiculturalism (pp. 1-16). London/New

York: Palgrave

 The last 4 decades of the 20th century witnessed the emergence of a cluster of
intellectual and political movements led by such diverse groups as the indigenous
peoples, national minorities, ethno-cultural nations, old and new immigrants, feminists,
gay men and lesbians and the greens
o They represent practices, life-styles, views and ways of life that are different
from, disapproved of, and in varying degrees discouraged by the dominant
culture of the wider society.
o They are all united in resisting the wider society’s homogenizing or
assimilationist thrust based on the belief that there is only one correct way to
understand and structure the relevant areas of life
o They want society to recognize the legitimacy of their differences, especially
those that in their view are not incidental but spring from and constitute their
identities
 These movements form part of the wider struggle for recognition of identity and
difference, or more accurately, of identity-related differences
 They ask for the acceptance, respect and even public affirmation of their differences.
o Some of these groups want the wider society to treat them equally with the rest
and not to discriminate against or otherwise disadvantage them
o Some go further and demand that it should also respect their differences –
accepted as equally valid ways of organizing the relevant areas of life
o Respect for them requires changes in its attitudes and ways of thought
 In the eyes of their champions, these demands represent a struggle for freedom, self-
determination and dignity and against contingent, ideologically biased and oppressive
views and practices claiming false objectivity and universal validity
o For their critics, the demands represent moral and cultural laissez-faire; a
shallow, self-indulgent celebration of difference for its own sake
 Classical socialism was not just about better economic opportunities for the poor and
underprivileged but also about creating a new culture and new forms of social relations
 Although the new movements spearheading the politics of recognition sometimes
appear to be exclusively preoccupied with the issues of identity and difference, their
more articulate spokesmen appreciate that the latter cannot be dissociated from the
wider economic and political structure
o Identities are valued or devalued because of the place of their bearers in the
prevailing structure of power
o A profound change in all areas of life is needed for minorities to express their
identities
 Multiculturalism is not about difference and identity per se but about those that are
embedded in and sustained by culture; a body of beliefs and practices in terms of which
a group of people understand themselves and the world and organize their individual
and collective lives
o Culturally derived differences carry a measure of authority and are patterned
and structure by virtue of being embedded in a shared and historically inherited
system of meaning and significance
 Multiculturalism is about cultural diversity, or culturally embedded differences
 Cultural diversity in modern society takes many forms of which 3 are most common:
o Although its members share a broadly common culture, some of them either
entertain different beliefs and practices concerning particular areas of life or
evolve relatively distinct ways of life of their own
They all broadly share their society’s dominant system of meaning and
values and seek to carve out within it spaces for their divergent lifestyles
Not a divergent culture, seek to pluralize the existing one
Subcultural diversity
o Some members of society are highly critical of some of the central principles or
values of the prevailing culture and seek to reconstitute it along appropriate lines
Feminists attack its deeply ingrained patriarchal bias
Religious people attack its secular orientation
Perspectival diversity
o Most modern societies also include several self-conscious and more or less
well-organized communities entertaining and living by their own different
system of beliefs and practices
Include newly arrived immigrants, various religious communities,
territorially concentrated cultural groups (Scots, Gypsies, Amish, Jews)
Communal diversity
 Subcultural diversity is embedded in a shared culture which it wishes to open up and
diversify and not replace with another
o Does not mean that it is shallower/easier to accommodate than other types of
diversity
o Single-sex marriages, cohabitation and gay parenting deeply offend and often
provoke strong reactions among many members – their challenge is limited in
scope and articulated in terms of such values as personal autonomy and choice
that are derived from the dominant culture itself
 Perspectival diversity – represents a vision of life the dominant culture either rejects
altogether or accepts in theory but ignores in practice
o More radical and comprehensive than subcultural diversity and cannot be so
easily accommodated
 Communal diversity – springs from and is sustained by a plurality of long-established
communities, each with its own long history and way of life which it wishes to preserve
and transmit
o The diversity involved here is robust and tenacious, has well-organized social
bearers and is easier/more difficult to accommodate depending on its depth and
demands
 The terms multicultural society and multiculturalism is generally used to refer to a
society that exhibits all three and other kinds of diversity, one that displays the last two
kinds, or to that characterized by only the third kind of diversity
o The third has on balance most to be said for it
o Since communal diversity is logically distinct and raises questions that are
unique to it, it constitutes a coherent and self-contained object of investigation,
and deserves a name specific to it
 There were societies that had long assumed that they had a single national culture into
which all their citizens should assimilate. They now found that they included groups,
either long-established or new arrivals, who would not or whom it could not assimilate
and whose presence therefore faces them with new and unfamiliar challenges
o As a nation of immigrants, the US has long insisted on the ‘swift assimilation
of aliens’
 Dominated by the idea of a single American identity and culture that constituted the
core of ‘Americanism’, the country offered a ‘great asylum for diverse peoples’ but
‘has not always been a great refuge for diverse cultures’
 Australia officially declared itself multicultural and committed itself to
multiculturalism in the early 1070s because of its increasing ‘Asianization’ and the
presence of ‘nonassimilable types’
o This was also broadly the case in Canada
o In Britain, the sizeable presence of South Asians and Afro-Caribbeans in the
1960s, and their refusal, to assimilate, placed multiculturalism on the public
agenda
o In Germany multiculturalism appeared on the national agenda with the arrival
of large bodies of immigrants from Turkey
 A multicultural society, then, is one that includes 2 or more cultural communities. It
might respond to its multicultural diversity in 2 ways:
o Might welcome and cherish it, make it central to its self-understanding and
respect the cultural demands of its constituent communities
o It might seek to assimilate these communities into its mainstream culture either
wholly or substantially
 The term ‘multicultural’ refers to the fact of cultural diversity
 The term ‘multiculturalism’ refers to a normative response to that fact
 The failure to distinguish between a multicultural and a multiculturalist society has
often led to an agonized but largely unnecessary debate about how to describe a society.
o In Britain, the ethnic minorities comprise just over 6% of the population.
Although the country is clearly multicultural, the conservative opinion has
systematically resisted the description.
In its view, Britain has over the centuries evolved a distinct culture
which is integrally tied up with its national identity and should continue
to enjoy a privileged status
o In France, not just the conservative but even the liberal opinion there refuses to
call it a multicultural society
The French political tradition is based on a strong notion of citizenship
The French nation is supposed to embody and protect the French culture,
which its citizens are expected to accept as a condition of their
citizenship
 Both France and Britain are multicultural in the sense defined earlier, and the
disagreement is about how to respond to that fact, some preferring a multiculturalist
and others an assimilationist or monoculturalist response.
 Although contemporary multicultural societies are not historically unique, for many
premodern societies also included several cultural communities, four important facts
distinguish them from their predecessors:
o In premodern societies, minority communities generally accepted their
subordinate status and remained confined to the social and even geographical
spaces assigned them by the dominant groups (Ottoman Empire and non-
Muslim minorities; followed Islamic ideals)
Thanks to the dynamics of modern society, they refuse to accept inferior
political status and demand equal political rights
o Thanks to colonialism, slavery, the Holocaust, and the enormous suffering
caused by the communist tyrannies, we realize better than before that moral
dogmatism and the concomitant spirit of aggressive self-righteousness not only
 lead to egregious violence but also blind us to its enormity and blunt our moral
sensibilities
We understand that people can be oppressed economically and
politically, but also culturally – these forms of oppression reinforce each
other
Concern for social justice needs to include not just economic but also
cultural rights
Now we appreciate that culture deeply matters to people
Led to a greater acceptance of cultural differences and a redefinition of
the relation between politics and culture – culture as a politically
relevant category
o Contemporary multicultural societies are integrally bound up with the
immensely complex process of economic and cultural globalization
Technology and goods travel freely, and they are not culturally neutral
World opinion demands subscription to the body of universal values
embodied in the various statements on human rights, and imposes some
degree of moral homogeneity
No society can remain culturally self-contained and isolated
The external influences are often so subtle and deep that the receiving
societies are not even aware of their presence and impact
o Contemporary multicultural societies have emerged against the background of
several centuries of the culturally homogenizing nation-state.
Premodern societies had their own customs/practices.
The modern state generally recognized only the individuals as the
bearers of rights and sought to create a homogenous legal space where
all would be subject to the same rules
We do not know how to accommodate the political demands of a deep
and defiant diversity
 Although contemporary multicultural societies are not unique, their historical context,
cultural background and patterns of interaction between their constitutive communities
are
o They raise totally new questions and call for new concepts or redefinition of old
ones
o Questions relate to cultural rights of minorities, the nature of collective rights,
why cultures differ
o They question the state’s relation to culture, such as whether it should ignore or
give public recognition to its various cultures
o Does equality involve neutrality or evenhandedness?
o How can the state both respect cultural diversity and ensure political unity?
 Multicultural societies also raise questions about the nature and task of political theory
o We must appreciate that human beings are culturally embedded, that cultures
differ greatly and that the intended audience of political theory is not culturally
homogenous
 A theory of multicultural society cannot offer coherent answers without developing a
well-considered theory of the nature, structure, inner dynamics and role of culture in
human life
 Naturalists/Monists – claimed to arrive at one true or rational way of understanding
man and the world and leading the good life
o Assume human nature is unchanging, unaffected in its essentials by culture and
society
 o Saw culture as confined to the morally indifferent areas of customs and rituals
 Culturalism/pluralism – emerged as a reaction against naturalism and argued that
human beings were culturally constituted, varied from culture to culture, and shared in
common only the minimal species-derived properties from which nothing
moral/political could be deduced
o Could not explain how culture changed and why its members were able to take
a critical view of it
o Could not give a coherent account of how human beings were able to
communicate across, and even evaluate the customs and practices of other
cultures
 Multiculturalism is about the proper terms of relationship between different cultural
communities – not about minorities, as that implies that the majority culture is
uncritically accepted

Ambrosch, G. (November 20, 2018). Making Sense of Immigration: Why

Multiculturalism is at Odds with
Integration. Areo. https://areomagazine.com/2018/11/20/making-sense-of-immigration-
why-multiculturalism-is-at-odds-with-integration/

 When it comes to immigration, we are, essentially, faced with 2 conflicting options:

o Multiculturalism and integration
 Neither the stop immigration policy of the far right nor the open borders policy of the
far left is tenable – unregulated mass immigration is clearly incompatible with this aim
 Nor is it helpful to confuse migrants and refugees
o Migrants – people who move from one country to another to find better living
conditions
o Refugees – people who have been forced to leave their country in order to
escape war, persecution and natural disaster
 When we are talking about immigration, we are talking about human beings who have
agency and react to incentives as individuals
o To judge them collectively (as oppressed victims or aggressive invaders) is
counterproductive
o Such sweeping judgements promote divisive identitarianism – segregation
rather than integration
 The identitarian right sees the riches of Western nations as a manifestation of an
inherent superiority, which must be defended, while the left frames existing disparities
as social injustices resulting from colonial oppression and exploitation
 Multiculturalism, as distinguished from multiracialism (people of different ethnicities
living together in the same society), is based on cultural relativism: all cultures are
equal, and no one from one culture may criticize another
o The so-called dominant culture of the host society is just one of many cultural
identities on offer and has no more right to assert itself than the rest
o Integration is largely optional
 A consequence of multiculturalism policies: naively assume that immigrants, regardless
of how illiberal their culture of origin may be, will automatically adopt liberal cultural
values such as secularism, sexual equality and individualism
o As polls of Muslim communities in Great Britain, a country with a long tradition
of liberalism, have repeatedly shown, this has not been the case. According to
 one study, 52% of those questioned disagreed with the statement homosexuality
should be legal, compared with only 5% of the general public.
 Sam Harris: “some ideas really are worse than others. And the idea that all religions,
cultures and belief systems are equal is one of the worst of them all”
o This is precisely the idea underlying multiculturalism, which needlessly puts
women, children and minorities within minorities, at risk
o Implicit in this idea is the belief that there are no cultural behaviours that
immigrant groups need to change in order to advance in their new environments
Rather, it is the host society that must change to prevent such groups
from failing
The belief is based on the largely unexamined assumption that social
disparities are invariably the result of external conditions, such as
systemic racism or Islamophobia in the host society, rather than cultural
traits
 Thomas Sowell: culture, rather than discrimination, is often the deciding factor in
whether or not a particular immigrant group or ethnic minority advances
o Black immigrants economically outperform US-born blacks as well as Hispanic
immigrants – demonstrates that racial discrimination is not the whole story, as
the groups in question are black
 When immigrants, irrespective of skin colour, adopt the cultural values that have
allowed their host society to advance, they stand a better chance of getting ahead in that
society, especially if their own culture has an objectively poor track record
o What multiculturalism calls privilege
 The alternative is integration – requires a certain degree of cultural assimilation on the
part of each individual immigrants and a certain degree of openness on the part of the
host society
o This requires incentives, both positive and negative
o Raises questions:
How do we define the culture we want immigrants to integrate into?
How many immigrants can feasibly become integrated within what time
span?
Which immigrants are most likely to integrate well into their host
societies?
 Integration is obviously easier when the number of immigrants is relatively small
 Skilled immigrants from cultures that are similar to that of the host society are, as a
rule, better suited to integration
 Leitkultur – implies that there are widely shared cultural values and principles at the
core of each society, holding together the social fabric
o one cannot fully partake in a society without adopting its core cultural values
and principles, nor can society function without them
 this requires that we consistently define and assert our values and principles

Baudet, T. (2012). The Particularism of Citizenship. The significance of borders : why

representative government and the rule of law require nation states (pp. 222-238).
Dissertation. Available through the Leiden University Repository.

 Life is not merely about the approximately 80 years the individual spends on earth –
this is certainly not true for the individual person, himself and the 80 years
 Not only are we inherently historical beings, who derive meaning from being
entrenched in a web of past and future, we are also inherently social beings, defining
our lives in terms of what surrounds us.
o Being disconnected from the world, is universally perceived as a terrible
misfortune
 These ties reach beyond us and connect us to the larger realm of existence, constantly
posing constraints and leading us into conflicts
o An unrelenting effort is required to mediate between the conflicting demands of
our individual desires and expectation, and those of the many associations we
are part of
 The common way out of these conflicts is through compromise: the importance of the
individual’s demands are weighed against those of the family, or another group, and
the desire to stick together as a whole, is reaffirmed through mutual concessions.
 Associations express a form of loyalty and there are three types in which this loyalty
can manifest itself politically:
o Tribal
o National – no means a given; in large parts of the world, people do not
experience such a national loyalty
o Religious
 Loyalties are often primarily tribal or religious (or a combination of the two) – as a
result, it has proven utterly difficult to establish a political order in which minorities
were accepted and civil wars were not incumbent, and in which representative
institutions managed to speak for the whole
o In situations where non-national loyalties prevail, the individual is under
constant pressure to submit to tribal or religious laws and customs
 In Western Europe, class-justice and a predominance of religious loyalties over national
ones have continually existed throughout the centuries as well
o Catholics denies rights in the Netherlands
o Exclusion on the basis of race in the US
 The development and flourishing of the territorial, imagined loyalty, was an
achievement, realized at the cost of tribal and creedal ones, and demanding a constant
effort
o National loyalties have been taught and developed, in families and schools,
through national festive days and commemorations – have also been tamed by
experiences with imperialist nationalism
 Problem concerning nationality and citizenship: what is essential is the recognition that
the others with whom we live together on the same territory are essentially members of
the same political project (sovereignty implied here)
o Despite all differences, we share a fundamental loyalty towards a territory and
inherent therein, a loyalty towards the way of life on that territory
o It is this that enables us to live together with all our differences – provides a
reason for being bound by the same laws
 The French and American revolutions can be regarded as the definite breakthrough of
the idea of a national citizenship (from subjects to citizens, from passive to active)
o Idea of ‘inalienable rights’ but still part of a larger community
 European countries have now abandoned this ideal of a prevailing national loyalty – as
a consequence, nation states are dissolving into the pan-national empires that
characterized the Middle Ages: internally divided, politically decentralized
  As a nation state, it is simply not possible to commemorate universally, as much as it
is not possible to fight on both sides of an armed conflict
 ‘The Public Sphere’ - Although generally conceived as ‘neutral territory’ to which the
state ought to be indifferent, there is nevertheless an indisputable connection between
the nation – and its history and identity – and this public sphere.
o First element of the public sphere that comes to mind is the language spoken
(national debate is impossible among citizens who cannot understand one
another)
 Almost all Western nation states have developed comparable means to support a
particular patrimony. From a strictly universal perspective, they all discriminate:
o Between citizens and non-citizens
o They favor a particular culture and a particular way of life
 Much abstract thought about rights, while emphasizing the importance of the
‘neutrality’ of the state, neglects the social experience that is implied in every form of
political organization.
o Accepting our differences is never unproblematic
o Schlesinger: “the hostility of one tribe for another is among the most instinctive
human reactions”
o A way to overcome this hostility is by creating a common point of reference –
in the past, this was a common enemy, but which can also be a common
nationality; a common home.
 As ‘national identity’ is necessarily something particular, it implies also that certain
forms of behavior or cultural practices are not a part of it.
o A national identity implies a distinction, which is a form of inequality that
constitutes (strictly speaking) a form of discrimination
 It is implied in the modern conception of citizenship, which grants to all the right to
partake in democratic decision making, that those without citizenship have a different
status than those without
o Guests/temporary visitors may enjoy the hospitality of the community but, as
they do not bear the burdens of membership, they do not have a natural
entitlement to all of its benefits either
 The right to partake in democratic decision-making is granted to all citizens, yet, as a
rule, denied to foreigners.
 A final aspect of modern citizenship and the conception of ‘national identity’ that is
implied in it is connected to the facilities of the welfare state; the national health care,
national welfare, national pensions, national aid programmes and tax cuts for donations
to national development programmes.
o All such forms of state-funded solidarity imply a sense of national loyalty that
provides legitimacy for it
 Ultimately, representative government and the rule of law are thus dependent upon a
territorial loyalty that is sufficiently imagined to allow newcomers in, yet not so
universal that it leaves its members without shared symbols or objects of identification
o As national loyalty is connected to a collective identity, it is only natural that it
also encompasses a certain claim on the public sphere

Gozdecka, D., & Ercan, S. & Kmak, M. (2014). From multiculturalism to post-
multiculturalism: Trends and paradoxes. Journal of Sociology, 50(1), pp.51-64.
 The criticism of multiculturalism is as old as multiculturalism itself.
 Since the 1970s when multicultural policies began to be implemented in various
countries, criticism has never been lacking.
o In recent years, this criticism became more intense and began to be combined
with a diagnosis indicating the end of multiculturalism
o Multiculturalism has been declared to have failed not only in continental
Europe, but also traditionally migrant-receiving societies such as Canada and
Australia
 This time it was not only the conservative parties that attacked multiculturalism for
contributing to the social breakdown of the growth of terrorism; previous supporters of
the model have also scrutinized the state of multiculturalism in culturally plural
societies (Vertovec, 2010)
o Debates about us entering a ‘post-multicultural’ era
 ‘post-multiculturalism’ has been a contested term
o One crucial question this term raises is whether the prefix ‘post’ implies the
continuation of multiculturalism or a retreat from it
o Vertovec – post-multiculturalism as ‘to foster both the recognition of diversity
and the maintenance of collective national identities’
 Multiculturalism has often been criticized for prioritizing the maintenance of culture at
the cost of strong national identity
 Post-multiculturalism is claimed to offer a way of combining strong national identity
with the official recognition of cultural diversity
o Usually associated with the introduction of various new strategies such as
citizenship and/or language tests and citizenship ceremonies
o Confirm the emergence of an interesting mixture of a strong common national
identity coupled with recognition of cultural diversity
 5 trends that are observable in nearly all immigrant-receiving countries albeit in
different degrees and intensification:
o An excessive focus on gender inequality within traditional minority cultures
o The shift from ethnicity and culture towards religion (in particular Islam)
o The increasing emphasis on social cohesion and security
o The emergence of new forms of racism
o The relativization of international and transnational human rights law
 Multiculturalism is a contested concept defined differently by different scholars and is
given varied institutional expression in different countries
o Even within the same country, over time, a multiculturalist agenda might take
different directions
 Multiculturalism is commonly conceptualized in terms of ‘politics of recognition’,
‘differentiated citizenship’ or ‘the rights of ethno-cultural minorities’
o The underlying principle of multiculturalism that distinguishes it from other
ways of accommodating diversity is that it is based on the official recognition
of such diversity
o Multiculturalism is about adopting a wide range of public policies, legal rights
and constitutional provisions for the accommodation of cultural differences
(Kymlicka and Norman, 2000)
May entail providing funding for denominational schools, allowing
religious dress codes in public spaces
 The discourse of multiculturalism has begun to be replaced with the notions of national
identity and belonging
 o These notions are seen as urgently necessary conditions to counteract the
fragmenting forces of multiculturalism leading to the emergence of parallel
lives
 The most visible indicator of shift towards post-multiculturalism is the excessive focus
on gender inequality in minority cultural groups in Europe
o The popular discourse in nearly all migrant-receiving countries have been
dominated by issues related to the treatment of girls and women in traditional
cultures, such as women wearing the hijab; girls subjected to genital cutting;
young people forced by their families into marriage; young women murdered
by their families for behaviour offending the principles of the community
o A heated arena over the politics of integration and religious/cultural differences
 The excessive focus on the maltreatment of women has led to 2 developments:
o It reinforced the perception of minority cultures as inherently oppressive and
coercive – fundamentally different from the mainstream society
Gender inequality has been taken ‘as especially significant in exposing
the gap between majority and minority cultures’
o The way mainstream media and politicians framed these cases (as culturally
harmful, instead of gender-based violence) has fed into the stereotypical
distinctions between liberal and illiberal, modern and traditional, enlightened
and backward cultures
In this context, culture is taken to be something that applies only to
minority groups whose ‘cultural practices’ are blamed for a lack of
cohesion in society more widely
Culturalised women are denied agency and seen as in need of ‘rescue’
 Another tendency that characterizes the post-multicultural era is the shift of emphasis
from culture and/or ethnicity towards religion.
o In recent years, in many countries, religion has emerged as a major social
signifier and was given a prominent role in understanding and resolving the
problems related to migrant integration
Particularly in the post 9/11 era, we observe a strong tendency towards
‘Islamization’ of identities and issues
o The shift towards religion has manifested itself particularly in the perception of
incompatibility of Islam with freedom of religion.
Freedom of religion replaced discourse on cultural issues with discourse
on democracy and its values
Islamic religious symbols became contrasted with ‘fearful symbols’
(Gunn, 2005)
This preoccupation initiated the expulsion of Islamic religious
symbolism from the broadly conceived public sphere
o In 2011, France passed a law banning concealment of the face in public,
punishing it with a maximum of a 150 euro fine and/or by an obligation to take
a class on the meaning of citizenship
o In terms of the sphere of access, the religionization of subjects has reinforced
the connection between religion and both citizenship and migration policies
 This expulsion of religionized subjects from the sphere of access and appearance has
fed into the perception of the inability of immigrants with Muslim background to
integrate in host societies
o Led to the construction of Muslim identities as a. threat to the – broadly
understood – security of the state
 The central criticism against multiculturalism has been the argument concerning the
ghettoization of cultural communities and emergence of ‘parallel societies’
o Prompted the emergence of new policies and discourses which emphasized the
need for a common national identity, social cohesion, citizenship and civic
integration
o Went hand in hand with the introduction of citizenship classes as a compulsory
part of the school curriculum and citizenship language tests
o Migrants are required to demonstrate knowledge of the values of the mainstream
society
o Seen as corrective measures to counteract the dangerously fragmenting forces
of multiculturalism
 Even in traditionally migrant-receiving countries there has been a move away from
multiculturalism to a social cohesion agenda – multiculturalism was officially replaced
in government documents by the word ‘citizenship’
o In the EU, the need to guarantee social cohesion has become part of the process
of drafting migration policies
 The increased emphasis on social cohesion in both the EU and beyond is coupled with
the perception of immigrants as a threat to national values and the security of the state
and society (Guild, 2009)
o The securitization of migration can be considered as another element of the
post-multicultural shift, resulting in a tightening of migration laws and limits on
migrants’ access to rights
 Adoption of stricter legal measures has been justified by the need to strengthen the
security of EU citizens and to protect external borders
o These measures force numbers of those in need of protection, and those aiming
to find work in one of the EU countries, to choose irregular ways of reaching
the EU territory
o This can lead to an increase in the numbers of irregular immigrants and prompts
states to call for even tighter migration policies
o The negative perceptions of migrants have been strengthened recently by the
economic crisis, which resulted in growing unemployment and the adoption of
highly unpopular austerity measures couples with anti-immigration discourses
 The perception of the threat and the focus on securitization, coupled with the reactions
of states to increasing numbers of irregular immigrants in their territories, triggered the
emergence of new forms of xenophobia and racism-like practices.
o The perception of a threat from ‘enemies within’ became coupled with colonial
ways of thinking
o It meant passing judgement on those ‘to be corrected’ in much the same ways
as colonialism passed its judgement on ‘savage cultures’
o Sharma (2009) – ‘cultural hysteria’ has led to the process of marking of
‘particular others’ and to the perpetuation of ‘the universal regime of whiteness’
 Post-multicultural era features multiple forms of racism
o Those seen as ‘barbarians within’ have been denied agency due to their cultural,
religious, or racial ‘condition’
o The coexistence of many forms of ‘conditioning’ of the ‘other’ expanded the
existing forms of racism and shifted attention from race to issues such as
religion, cultural difference or citizenship as a symbol of political origin
o Eurocentrism
  The shift from multiculturalism to post-multiculturalism is also observable in the
relativization of human rights regimes in countries when it comes to the resolution of
culturally contested ideas
o Particularly visible in the jurisprudence of the ECtHR – developed its own
interpretation of principles such as for instance ‘religious pluralism’
o The trend towards expansion of own principles was reversed when the Court
was confronted with cases concerning Islamic dress code
o ECtHR emphasized the need for the preservation of the national system and
non-interference with principles such as secularism
 Paradoxes of multiculturalism:
o The excessive focus on gender inequality in traditional cultures led to the denial
of minority women’s agency rather than their emancipation
 Neoliberal governmentality constitutes a mode of power aiming to manage and control
populations through procedures, institutions and tactics based on the economic
rationality of neoliberalism and through apparatuses of security (Foucault, 2007)
o Primary aim of neoliberal governmentality s to guarantee freedom to subjects
by creating – by reference to security and danger – conditions under which
individuals can exercise this freedom
o Freedom constitutes therefore a positive effect of governmental actions and the
primary mode of control of subjects
o Control through freedom – expressed by the administration of freedoms ‘for’
the subjects, rather than by the subjects
Some subjects are seen as those who must be liberated from constraints
they are unable to free themselves from
 This detachment and management of culturalized subjects leads to the emergence of
good and bad subjects, allowing for their subsequent control and governance.
o This control is visible in the focus on security, social cohesion and citizenship
o Those marked as standing outside the definition of a good citizen become ‘lesser
human beings’, constituting a threat to security – leads to the increased control
of access to freedoms through access to citizenship
 Those who are seen as a threat to security frequently have no security themselves, but
they become subjects of security control
 Post-culturalism, with its central focus on management of freedom, leads to the
affirmation of national legal systems’ sole right in governing the resolution of cultural
conflicts
o Reinforces locally homogenous understandings of rights and endows states with
quasi-rights-like privileges in administering homogenous notions of ‘tradition’

Haidt, J. (July 10, 2016). When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism. The American
Interest. Available online: https://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/07/10/when-and-
why-nationalism-beats-globalism/

 “left behind” thesis – globalization has raised prosperity all over the world, with the
striking exception of the working classes in Western societies
o These less educated members of the richest countries lost access to well-paid
but relatively low-skilled jobs, which were shipped overseas or given to
immigrants willing to work for less
 Globalization and rising prosperity have changed the values and behaviour of the urban
elite, leading them to talk and act in ways that unwittingly activate authoritarian
tendencies in a subset of the nationalists
 Those who dismiss anti-immigrants sentiment as mere racism have missed several
important aspects of moral psychology related to the general human need to live in a
stable and coherent moral order
 Countries seem to move in 2 directions, along 2 axes:
o As they industrialize, they move away from “traditional values” in which
religion, ritual and deference to authorities are important, and toward “secular
rational” values that are more open to change, progress and social engineering
based on rational considerations
o As they grow wealthier and more citizens move into the service sector, nations
move away from “survival values” emphasizing the economic and physical
security found in one’s family, tribe and other parochial groups, toward “self-
expression” that emphasize individual rights and protections – for everyone
 Democratic capitalism – in societies with good rule of law and non-corrupt institutions
– has generated steady increases in living standard and existential security for decades
o As societies become more prosperous and safer, they generally become more
open and tolerant
o Combined with vastly greater access to the food, movies and consumer products
of other cultures, this openness leads almost inevitably to the rise of a
cosmopolitan attitude, usually most visible in the young urban elite
o People begin to think of their fellow human beings as fellow “citizens of the
world”
 Nationalists see patriotism as a virtue; they think their country and its culture are unique
and worth preserving.
o Some nationalists do believe that their country is better than all others, and some
nationalisms are plainly illiberal and overtly racist
o Nationalists feel a bond with their country, and they believe that this bond
imposes moral obligations both ways: citizens have a duty to love and serve
their country, and governments are duty bound to protect their own people
o Governments should place their citizens interests above the interests of people
in other countries
 There is nothing necessarily racist about having a shared sense of identity, norms and
history
 If you are a European nationalist, you would oppose the open-door policy towards
refugees
 Nationalists in Europe have been objecting to mass immigration for decades, so the
gigantic surge of asylum seekers in 2015 was bound to increase their anger and their
support for right-wing nationalist parties.
o Globalists tend to explain these reactions as “racism, pure and simple” or as the
small-minded small-town selfishness of people who don’t want to lose either
jobs or benefits to foreigners
o Racism is a shallow term when used as an explanation
 This racism usually turns out to be deeply bound up with moral concerns
o People don’t hate other just because of the colour of their skin, they hate people
whom they perceive as having values that are incompatible with their own, or
who (they believe) engage in behaviours they find abhorrent, or whom they
perceive to be a threat to something they hold dear
 Karen Stenner – authoritarianism is not a stable personality trait – it is rather a
psychological predisposition to become intolerant when the person perceives a certain
kind of threat
  Authoritarians are simply trying to protect their wallets or even their families
o They are trying to protect their group or society
o Some authoritarians see their race or bloodline as the thing to be protected, and
these people make up the deeply racist subset of right-wing populist
movements, including the fringe that is sometimes attracted to neo-Nazism
 Status quo conservatives can be drawn into alliance with authoritarians when they
perceive that progressives have subverted the country’s traditions and identity so badly
that dramatic political actions are seen as the only remaining way of yelling “stop!”
 Muslims don’t just observe different customs in their private lives; they often request
and receive accommodations in law and policy from their host countries, particularly
in matters related to gender
o Some of the most pitched battles of recent decades in European countries have
been fought over the veiling and covering of women
o For example, some public swimming pools in Sweden now offer times of day
when only women are allowed to swim – this is contrary to strong Swedish
values regarding gender equality and non-differentiation
 Globalists often support high levels of immigration and reductions in national
sovereignty; they tend to see transnational entities such as the EU as morally superior
to nation-states; and they vilify the nationalists and their patriotism as “racism pure and
simple”
 When immigrants seem eager to embrace the language, values and customs of their new
land, it affirms nationalists’ sense of pride that their nation is good, valuable and
attractive to foreigners

Modood, T. (2018, 25 July). Remaking the nation: Immigration, integration and

multicultural nationalism. ABC Religion and ethics. Available online: https:
//www.abc.net.au/religion/remaing-the-nation-immigration-integration-and
multicultural-na/10214338

 Multicultural nationalism – argues that multiculturalism is a mode of integration that

does not just emphasize the centrality of minority group identities, but argues that
integration is incomplete without re-making national identity
 Multiculturalist approaches to national belonging have some relation to liberal
nationalism and majoritarian interculturalism
o Represents the political idea most likely to offer a feasible alternative rallying
point to monocultural nationalism
 The need for integration arises when an established society is faced with some people
who are perceived as “different” and treated unfavourably by standard members of that
society
o Can relate to policy, housing, education, employment
 Sectoral integration is not full integration without some degree of subjective
identification with the society or country as a whole and with the acceptance by the
majority that you are a full member of society with the right to feel that you belong
 Multiculturalism is the idea that equality in the context of “difference” cannot be
achieved by individual rights or equality as sameness, but has to be extended to include
the positive inclusion of marginalized groups marked by race and their own sense of
ethno-cultural identities
 Multiculturalism emphasized the importance of respecting diverse identities
 Two variations of multiculturalism:
 o Liberal nationalism – argues that existing national identity of a liberal
democratic country cannot be reduced to political institutions and a public
sphere but requires a cultural component consisting of a language, a history,
ways of thinking and ways of living
Cannot be detached from a sense of peoplehood or country and are
essential to the solidarity that underpins a liberal democratic national
identity, common welfare, willingness to pay tax to help others and
common public services
o Quebecan interculturalism - distinguishes itself from Canadian multiculturalism
by alleging the latter believes that all cultures are equal and none is more
Canadian than another in the eyes of the state; while Quebec, on the other hand,
is and must continue to be committed to the preservation of its foundational
Francophone culture
Not all cultures are equal, one of them is the ground upon which all
others must be accommodated
 Multiculturalism puts particular value on identity and so is consistent with the idea that
liberal democratic states may promote a national culture (within liberal limits and
respecting other group identities) and this would be of benefit to the society or polity
as a whole.
 Multiculturalism nationalism – the accommodation of minorities should not be seen as
a drag on the national identity but as a positive resource; not as diluting the national
culture but vivifying and enrichening it
o Allow people to hold, adapt, hyphenate, fuse and create identities important to
them in the context of their being national co-citizens and members of socio-
cultural, ethno-racial and ethno-religious groups
o Denies that the majority have the right to deny the accommodation of minorities
simply because it runs counter to majority culture or majority preferences,
provided it does not breach any liberal democratic rights
 Multiculturalism in Canada, Australia and Britain developed alongside a restrictive
immigration policy- perhaps it was regarded as the price to be paid for multiculturalism
 As multiculturalism emerged as a distinct political idea, it did not radically challenge
the consensus on immigration
o Political theorists who emerged as advocates of multiculturalism in the
19080s/90s did not have much to say about immigration policy itself
o Implicit position seems to have been that, while immigration has been and
continues to be of benefit to countries such as those of Western Europe and
North America, immigration controls have been explicitly or implicitly racist
o A country has ‘a moral right to its territorial and cultural integrity including the
right to limit the entry of outsiders’
 Multiculturalists argue that all groups of people should be rhetorically and visually
represented respectfully, and that questions of policy should not be framed in terms of
negative discourses about immigrants or other minority groups
 Multiculturalism is a national identity re-making project, which may in some
circumstances lead to legitimate concerns about the identity effects of immigration
 Multiculturalism must engage with migration at 3 levels:
o By identifying and opposing negative, racist, “othering” discourses, actions and
policies directed against migrants
o By protecting and promoting the policies, forms of governance and
understanding that constitute the core of post-immigration multiculturalism
o By protecting and promoting the multicultural nation-building project