Introduction: Theorizing the civic turn in European integration policies

TY - JOUR

T1 - Introduction

T2 - Theorizing the civic turn in European integration policies

AU - Mouritsen, Per

AU - Kriegbaum Jensen, K.

AU - Larin, Stephen J.

PY - 2019/8

Y1 - 2019/8

N2 - Many authors have written about the ‘civic turn’ in European immigrant integration politics and policies that began in the late 1990s, but few have focused on the conceptual or normative dimensions of this turn. The purpose of this special issue is to help correct this situation. In this substantive introductory article, we begin with a discussion of the ‘convergence or national models’ debate that dominated early work on the subject. The next section presents the argument that civic integration is best understood as an ideological turn. It expands ‘good citizenship’ into personal conduct and values, shifts the responsibility for integration from the state to individuals and institutionalizes incentivizing and disciplining integration processes, which are often really just a means of migration control. This is accompanied, we argue, by a civic nationalist conception of membership that appeals to shared political values but defines those values through the culture of the state’s national majority. We then move on to the mechanisms and effects of civic integration, followed by a discussion of its normative analysis, before finally summarizing the articles included in this special issue and how they address the concerns that we have raised.

AB - Many authors have written about the ‘civic turn’ in European immigrant integration politics and policies that began in the late 1990s, but few have focused on the conceptual or normative dimensions of this turn. The purpose of this special issue is to help correct this situation. In this substantive introductory article, we begin with a discussion of the ‘convergence or national models’ debate that dominated early work on the subject. The next section presents the argument that civic integration is best understood as an ideological turn. It expands ‘good citizenship’ into personal conduct and values, shifts the responsibility for integration from the state to individuals and institutionalizes incentivizing and disciplining integration processes, which are often really just a means of migration control. This is accompanied, we argue, by a civic nationalist conception of membership that appeals to shared political values but defines those values through the culture of the state’s national majority. We then move on to the mechanisms and effects of civic integration, followed by a discussion of its normative analysis, before finally summarizing the articles included in this special issue and how they address the concerns that we have raised.

KW - citizenship

KW - Civic integration

KW - civic turn

KW - convergence

KW - immigrant integration

KW - national models

KW - nationalism

KW - theory

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065214971&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1468796819843532

DO - 10.1177/1468796819843532

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85065214971

SN - 1468-7968

VL - 19

SP - 595

EP - 613

JO - Ethnicities

JF - Ethnicities

IS - 4

ER -