Abstract
In much of the Western world, and particularly in Europe, there is a widespread perception of a wholesale ‘retreat’ from multiculturalism. Governments that once embraced a multicultural approach to diversity are said to be replacing it with a strong emphasis on civic integration. This assumption that new civic integration policies displace older multiculturalism policies (MCPs) has not properly been tested. Existing indices of immigrant integration policies (such as Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) or Civic Integration Policy Index (CIVIX)) have captured the rise of civic integration policies, but are not designed to measure the presence of MCPs. Drawing on an updated version of the Multiculturalism Policy Index introduced earlier, the article presents an index of the strength of multicultural policies for European countries and several traditional countries of immigration at three points in time (1980, 2000 and 2010). The results paint a different picture of contemporary experience in Europe. While a small number of countries, including most notably the Netherlands, have weakened established multicultural policies during the 2000s, such a shift is the exception. Most countries that adopted multicultural approaches in the later part of the twentieth century have maintained their programmes in the first decade of the new century, and a significant number of countries have added new ones. In much of Europe, multicultural policies are not in general retreat. As a result, the turn to civic integration is often being layered on top of existing multicultural programmes, leading to a blended approach to diversity. The article reflects on the compatibility of MCPs and civic integration, arguing that more liberal forms of civic integration can be combined with multiculturalism but that more illiberal or coercive forms are incompatible with a multicultural approach.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The full Multiculturalism Policy Index for 21 countries, together with an explanation of the index, scores for each component of the index and the documentation on which the scoring is based, can be accessed at www.queensu.ca/mcp. The first version of the index (Banting and Kymlicka, 2006) provided one set of scores, which represented an overall assessment of the state of multiculturalism policies in each country during the period 1980–2000. In the updated index, the scores for 1980 represent the state of multiculturalism policies in that year.
A partial exception is the citizenship rights index developed by Koopmans et al (2012). This index includes both an individual equality dimension and a cultural difference dimension. The latter comes closest to the MCP Index, but is only available for 10 countries.
In addition to the composite scores, separate scores for each of these eight indicators are available for all 21 countries at three points in time (1980, 2000, 2010) at www.queensu.ca/mcp. Researchers can therefore vary the weighting assigned to each indicator if they wish.
For example, whereas we have a single indicator for exemptions, Koopmans et al (2012) subdivide this into two indicators, one for exemptions by public authorities, another for exemptions by private sector institutions. Their data shows, however, that the two go hand in hand.
The indicator that fits least well is dual citizenship, which may reflect the fact that dual citizenship in some countries was adopted not primarily to recognize and accommodate the desire of immigrants to maintain ties to their country of origin, but rather to enable emigrants to maintain ties and perhaps to return home.
This result is confirmed by Koopmans’ index of Indicators of Citizenship Rights for Immigrants, which also shows a growing standard deviation along the multiculturalism dimension from 0.20 in 1980 to 0.31 in 2008 (Koopmans et al, 2012).
For one effort to expand our MCP Index to include anti-MCPs in the American context, see Hero and Preuhs (2006).
Knowledge of either English or French as a requirement for naturalization dates back to the Naturalization Act of 1914 (Pal, 1993, p. 79).
The Code Civil in France states that ‘nobody may be naturalised unless he proves his assimilation into the French community’ (quoted in Peucker, 2008, p. 243). Former German Interior Ministry guidelines on naturalization required that immigrants ‘renounce exaggerated national-religious behaviour’ (quoted in Schmidt, 1999, p. 103).
Adamo (2008) has highlighted this difference in comparing citizenship tests in Denmark and Canada. See also Paquet’s (2012) account of the diverging goals of citizenship tests in Canada and the United Kingdom), and Peucker’s (2008) comparison of the diverging functions of citizenship tests in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
For a debate on the CIVIX index, see Goodman (2012) and Michalowski and van Oers (2012).
For a fuller defense of the idea that liberal democratic principles support robust national integration policies supplemented and constrained by robust MCPs, see Kymlicka (2001).
For a range of views on this question, see Meer and Modood (2012), and the responses to it in the same issue.
For a review of the evidence to date, see Kymlicka (2010).
References
Abu-Laban, Y. (2013) Reform by stealth: The Harper conservatives and Canadian multiculturalism. In: J. Jedwab (ed.) Debating Multiculturalism in Canada. Montreal, Canada: Queen’s School of Policy Studies, McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Abu-Laban, Y. and Gabriel, C. (2002) Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism, Employment Equity, and Globalization. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.
Adamo, S. (2008) Northern exposure: The New Danish Model of citizenship test. International Journal on Multicultural Societies 10 (1): 10–28.
Banting, K. (2010) Is there a progressive’s dilemma in Canada? Immigration, multiculturalism and the welfare state. Canadian Journal of Political Science 43 (4): 797–820.
Banting, K. and Kymlicka, W. (2006) Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Berry, J., Phinney, J., Sam, D. and Vedder, P. (2006) Immigrant Youth in Cultural Transition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bloemraad, I. (2006) Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United States and Canada. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Borevi, K. (2010) Dimensions of citizenship: European integration policies from a Scandinavian perspective. In: B. Bengtsson, P. Strömblad and A.-H. Bay (eds.) Diversity, Inclusion and Citizenship in Scandinavia. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 19–46.
Cameron, D. (2011) Speech to the Munch Security Conference, 5 February. http://www.number10.gov.uk, accessed 25 February 2011.
Council of the European Union. (2004) Immigrant Integration Policy in the European Union. 14615/04 Brussels, Belgium: Council of the European Union.
Crepaz, M. (2006) ‘If you are my brother, I may give you a dime!’ Public opinion on multiculturalism, trust and the welfare state. In: K. Banting and W. Kymlicka (eds.) Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eliadis, P. (2007) Diversity and equality: The vital connection. In: K. Banting, T. Courchene and L. Seidle (eds.) Belonging: Diversity, Recognition and Shared Citizenship in Canada. Montreal, Canada: Institute for Research in Public Policy.
Freeman, G. (2004) Immigrant incorporation in western democracies. International Migration Review 38 (3): 945–969.
Goodman, S. (2010) Integration requirements for integration’s sake? Identifying, categorizing and comparing civic integration policies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36 (5): 753–772.
Goodman, S. (2012) Measurement and interpretation issues in civic integration studies: A rejoinder. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 38 (1): 173–186.
Hacker, J. (2004) Privatizing risk without privatizing the welfare states: The hidden politics of social policy retrenchment in the United States. American Political Science Review 98 (2): 243–260.
Hero, R. and Preuhs, R. (2006) Multiculturalism and welfare policies in the USA. In: K. Banting and W. Kymlicka (eds.) Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Home Office. (2001) Community Cohesion: A Report of the Independent Review Team (Cantle Report). London: The Home Office.
Howard, M. (2006) Comparative citizenship: An agenda for cross-national research. Perspectives on Politics 4 (3): 443–455.
Janoski, T. (2010) The Ironies of Citizensip: Naturalization and Integration in Industrialized Countries. Cambridge, USA: Cambridge University Press.
Joppke, C. (2004) The retreat of multiculturalism in the liberal state: Theory and policy. British Journal of Sociology 55 (2): 237–257.
Joppke, C. (2007) Immigrants and civic integration in western Europe. In: K. Banting, T. Courchene and L. Seidle (eds.) Belonging? Diversity, Recognition and Shared Citizenship in Canada. Montreal, Canada: Institute for Research on Public Policy.
Joppke, C. (2010) Citizenship and Immigration. London: Polity Press.
Jupp, J. (1996) The new multicultural agenda. Crossings 1 (1): 38–41.
Kesler, C. and Bloemraad, I. (2010) Does immigration erode social capital? The conditional effects of immigration-generated diversity on trust, membership, and participation across 19 countries, 1981–2000. Canadian Journal of Political Science 43 (2): 319–347.
Kivisto, P. (2012) We really are all multiculturalists now. The Sociological Quarterly 53 (1): 1–24.
Koning, E. (2011) Ethnic and civic dealings with newcomers: Naturalization policies and practices in 26 immigration countries. Ethnic and Racial Studies 43 (11): 1974–1992.
Koopmans, R. (2010) Trade-offs between equality and difference: Immigrant integration, multiculturalism and the welfare state in cross-national perspective. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36 (1): 1–26.
Koopmans, R., Michalowski, I. and Waibel, S. (2012) Citizenship rights for immigrants: National political processes and cross-national convergence in Western Europe, 1980–2008. American Journal of Sociology 117 (4): 1202–1245.
Kraus, P. and Schönwälder, K. (2006) Multiculturalism in Germany: Rhetoric, scattered experiment and future chances. In: K. Banting and W. Kymlicka (eds.) Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kymlicka, W. (2001) Politics in the Vernacular. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kymlicka, W. (2007) Ethnocultural diversity in a liberal state: Making sense of the Canadian model(s). In: K. Banting, T. Courchene and L. Seidle (eds.) Belonging? Diversity, Recognition and Shared Citizenship in Canada. Montreal, Canada: Institute for Research on Public Policy.
Kymlicka, W. (2010) Testing the liberal multiculturalist hypothesis: Normative theories and social science evidence. Canadian Journal of Political Science 43 (2): 257–271.
Lenard, P. (2012) The reports of multiculturalism’s death are greatly exaggerated. Politics 32 (3): 186–196.
Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2012) How does interculturalism contrast with multiculturalism? Journal of Intercultural Studies 33 (2): 175–196.
Michalowski, I. and van Oers, R. (2012) How can we categorize and interpret civic integration policies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 38 (1): 163–171.
Migration Policy Group. (2011) The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). Brussels: Migration Policy Group/British Council.
Modood, T. (2007) Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea. Cambridge, USA: Polity.
Modood, T. (2012) Post-immigration ‘Difference’ and Integration: The Case of Muslims in Western Europe. London: British Academy.
Mouritsen, P. (2011) On the liberal plateau? Civic integration policies in North Western Europe. Paper presented at the conference on Multiculturalism and Nordic Welfare States; 21–23 March, Aalborg University, Denmark.
Pal, L. (1993) Interests of the State: The Politics of Language, Multiculturalism and Feminism in Canada. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Paquet, M. (2012) Beyond appearances: Citizenship tests in Canada and the UK. Journal of International Migration and Integration 13 (2): 243–260.
Peucker, M. (2008) Similar procedures, divergent functions: Citizenship tests in the United States, Canada, Netherlands and United Kingdom. International Journal on Multicultural Societies 10 (2): 240–261.
Pierson, P. (1994) Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Pierson, P. (1996) The new politics of the welfare state. World Politics 48 (2): 143–179.
Pempel, T.J. (1998) Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Phillips, T. (2005) After 7/7: Sleepwalking to segregation. London: Commission for Racial Equality, http://www.cre.gov.uk.
Schickler, E. (2001) Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Schmidt, S. (1999) Immigration policy and new ethnic minorities in contemporary Germany. In: K. Cordell (ed.) Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe. London: Routledge.
Schönwälder, K. (2010) Germany: Integration policy and pluralism in a self-conscious country of immigration. In: S. Vertovec and S. Wessendorf (eds.) The Multiculturalism Backlash: European Discourses, Policies and Practices. London: Routledge.
Seidle, L. (2010) The Canada–Ontario Immigration Agreement: Assessment and Options for Renewal. Toronto, Canada: Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, University of Toronto.
Smith, M. (2009) Diversity and Canadian political development. Canadian Journal of Political Science 42 (4): 831–854.
Tavan, G. (2012) No going back? Australian multiculturalism as a path-dependent process. Australian Journal of Political Science 47 (4): 547–561.
Thelen, K. (2004) How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Trudeau, P. (1971) Statement to the House of Commons on Multiculturalism. House of Commons, Official Report of Debates, 28th Parliament, Third Session, 8 October: 8545–46.
Tuohy, C. (1999) Accidental Logics: The Dynamics of Change in the Health Care Arena in the United States, Britain, and Canada. New York: Oxford University Press.
Vertovec, S. and Wessendorf, S. (eds.) (2010) Introduction: Assessing the backlash against multiculturalism in Europe. In: The Multiculturalism Backlash: European Discourses, Policies and Practices. London: Routledge.
Wright, M. and Bloemraad, I. (2012) Is there a trade-off between multiculturalism and socio-political integration? Policy regimes and immigrant incorporation in comparative perspective. Perspectives on Politics 10 (1): 77–95.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Banting, K., Kymlicka, W. Is there really a retreat from multiculturalism policies? New evidence from the multiculturalism policy index. Comp Eur Polit 11, 577–598 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2013.12
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2013.12