Becoming Europe: Immigration, Integration, and the Welfare State
Patrick Ireland argues that it is incorrect to expect unavoidable conflict between Muslim immmigrants and European host socieites. His insighful work shows that institutions matter more than culture in determining the shape and style of ethnic relations.
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Patrick Ireland argues that it is incorrect to expect unavoidable conflict between Muslim immmigrants and European host socieites. His insighful work shows that institutions matter more than culture in determining the shape and style of ethnic relations. Foreign Affairs This is a remarkable treatment of Muslim, Turkish, and North African immigration and integration in western Europe, and of attendant changes in welfare policy. By examining in detail eight cities in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands with long histories of immigration and left-wing rule, Ireland finds that local ethnic relations are shaped more by institutional engineering (especially welfare systems) than they are by cultural factors. He explores a variety of policies, ranging from the promotion of "structural integration of individuals" to attempts at the "political-cultural integration of groups." (The former risks leading to "a stultifying version of assimilationism," the latter to "inequality and disparate incorporation.") In the end, despite all the tensions, the levels of political-cultural disconnection, residential segregation, and ethnic conflict have been lower in Europe than in the United States. With a combination of fine scholarship and level-headed evaluation, Ireland optimistically concludes that "as time passes, in fact, those foreigners are becoming Europe."
1Introduction : Europe's immigrant integration crisis12Germany : social policy and the construction of ethnic identities273German cities and city-states : facing diversity in diverse ways604The Netherlands : pillars, pragmatism, and welfare state restructuring1165Belgium : between cultural pluralism and liberal neutrality1636Conclusion : the defining role of policies and institutions210
\ Foreign AffairsThis is a remarkable treatment of Muslim, Turkish, and North African immigration and integration in western Europe, and of attendant changes in welfare policy. By examining in detail eight cities in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands with long histories of immigration and left-wing rule, Ireland finds that local ethnic relations are shaped more by institutional engineering (especially welfare systems) than they are by cultural factors. He explores a variety of policies, ranging from the promotion of "structural integration of individuals" to attempts at the "political-cultural integration of groups." (The former risks leading to "a stultifying version of assimilationism," the latter to "inequality and disparate incorporation.") In the end, despite all the tensions, the levels of political-cultural disconnection, residential segregation, and ethnic conflict have been lower in Europe than in the United States. With a combination of fine scholarship and level-headed evaluation, Ireland optimistically concludes that "as time passes, in fact, those foreigners are becoming Europe."\ \
