Integration and Muslim identities in settlement

Immigrant Integration, understood sets of interlinked social and political projects, take on many different forms and characters. Broadly speaking these range from multicultural to assimilative approaches. Yet the key metaphoric meaning of the term has to do with units fitting into, or being made to fit into, a whole. In western Europe significant Muslim immigration and settlement has been characterized by politicization and securitization. Governments invest heavily in problem-solving social projects to bring about often ill-defined goals. Yet Muslim Integration cannot be reduced to a mere set of social projects. It cannot be separated from its political undercurrents. This book explores some of the politics which drive Integration in Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland. The author argues that inherent domestic security concerns and motivation, present in all three cases, must give way to a more open and negotiative framing of the processes of settlement. Integration must be, as the author argues, "a negotiated process, an ongoing open-ended search for ways to equalise difference and keep a differentiated sense of that equality."

Autorentext

The author grew up in 'The Troubles' of Northern Ireland. He read Philosophy and Political Science at Queens University of Belfast, and successfully completed his doctoral research at the University of St.Andrews in Scotland. He works as an independent researcher, political commentator and writer in Berlin.