Twenty-first century Europe is home to a mixture of ethnicities, religions and cultures. Alongside this diversity is a fear of and hostility towards immigrants – to Muslims in particular – and an unresolved debate on how and to what extent the individuals and groups in question should integrate within society.
Here Tariq Modood presents four different options for integration and equality of opportunity for all citizens. Some ethnic minorities may wish to assimilate; some to have the equal rights of integrated citizens; some to maintain the cultural differences of their group identities; and some to be free to choose cosmopolitan mixed identities.
Professor Modood argues that all of these approaches have value, and if citizens are to have not just rights but a sense of belonging to society the government should not seek to impose one particular option. No one approach fits all and none should be dismissed.
Post-immigration 'difference' and integration is the fifth in the New paradigms in public policyseries, chaired by Peter Taylor-Gooby FBA.
The project reviews some particularly difficult issues in public policy: climate change, multiculturalism, recession and recovery, population ageing, neighbourhood problems and the Third Sector, rebuilding democratic engagement and managing the demands of an increasingly assertive public. The series reviews current understanding of the issues, situated within academic theory-building, and discusses possible ways forward.
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