Immigration and multiculturalism

THE GRAND DELUSION , 2018

Chapter 1 provides a brief historical background of the evolution of multiculturalism in the Western world. The purpose of this overview is to understand and then challenge the current political, societal, and economic situations facing our society in Europe in general and Ireland in particular. It also provides analysis of the theory and discourse of multiculturalism with a critical study in relation to power and democracy. A multicultural approach to real democracy is also discussed.

Multiculturalism in the British Commonwealth: Comparative Perspectives on Theory and Practice

Identities, Cultures, Spaces: Dialogue and Change (Fernando Kuhn ed.), 2013

Multiculturalism represents an unjustified shift from “individualism” to “community-centrism”. For multiculturalism, community is an eternal structure that exists prior to and beyond the activities of its constituting members. It is a transcendental form, an ideally proposed frame independent of real, actual human beings. Consequently, multiculturalism attributes essential properties to tradition and culture, romanticizes the past and particular cultural and traditional practices regardless of their content. It not only produces and reproduces social, economic, and political inequalities and injustices but also, by attributing a permanent essence to such human products as culture and tradition, eternalizes “racial,’ “national,” “ethnic,” “tribal,” “religious,” and “sectarian” differences as perpetual identities, ghettoizes the society and justifies its “Iraqization.” Hence, it emerges as a new form of essentialist ideology when it comes to resolving the question of human identity.

American Journal of Sociology, 2002

© 2000 by Bhikhu Parekh All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain First United Kingdom publication in 2000 by Macmillan Press Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Parekh, Bhikhu C. Rethinking multicuhuralism: cultural diversity and political theory / Bhikhu ...

Choice Reviews Online, 2008

Over the past twenty years, debate surrounding cultural diversity has become one of the most active areas of contemporary political theory and philosophy. The impact of taking cultural diversity seriously in modern political societies has led to challenges to the dominance of liberal theory and to a more serious engagement of political theory with actual political struggles. This volume of essays by leading political theorists reviews the development of multiculturalism, surveys the major approaches, addresses the critical questions posed, and highlights new directions in research. Multiculturalism and Political Theory provides a ''state of the art'' overview for both students and researchers.

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

Taylor Francis Publications.

Handbook of Political Theory

If any issue dominates contemporary political theory, it is how to deal with cultural diversity and the claimsmoral, legal, and political-made in the name of ethnic, religious, linguistic, or national allegiance (Kymlicka, 2001: 17). Today, governments are confronted by demands from cultural minorities for recognition, protection, preferential treatment, and political autonomy within the boundaries of the state. Equally, international society and its political institutions, as well as states themselves, have had to deal with demands from various peoples for political recognition as independent nations, and for national self-determination. The turbulent politics of the contemporary world may account in part for this development: the collapse of communist Eastern Europe led to an upsurge of nationalist demands from peoples aspiring to statehood; the challenges to the legitimacy of rulers in such places as Kashmir, Burma, East Timor, and Bougainville have fed demands for national independence as well as attempts at secession; the emergence of an indigenous peoples' movement gave further encouragement to aboriginal groups calling for affirmative action, or compensation for past injustice, as well as rights of self-government; and the mass migrations of peoples, fleeing war or simply seeking better opportunities in new countries, have seen the emergence of substantial cultural minorities in states unprepared for the problems this could bring. Political theory had, until recent times, said relatively little about these matters (exceptions include Plamenatz, 1960; Van Dyke, 1977; 1982; 1985). But the issues raised by cultural diversity and nationalist claims could not be ignored for long, since they posed a challenge to the prevailing political theories-and to liberal and democratic theory in particular. Indeed, the challenge of multiculturalism and nationalism has provoked a reexamination of a great number of issues in political theory, from the role of the state, the limits of toleration and the rights of women, to the proper scope of public education and the nature of citizenship. It has brought about a reconsideration of the basis of political order. This chapter surveys the literature of nationalism and multiculturalism as it has grown and developed over the past 15 years. Its aim, however, is not simply to summarize that body of writing but to draw attention to the problems that have confronted contemporary political theory-and liberal theory in particular-as it has struggled to embrace diversity. How can the many live as one? That is an old question in political theory, and the theorists of nationalism and multiculturalism have, in different ways, tried to offer an answer. What is Multiculturalism? The term 'multiculturalism' predates its use in political theory, but not by very long. Although nationalism is an old concept which has been much discussed in the past century (Kedourie, 1967; Minogue, 1967), multiculturalism did not appear until the 1960s and 1970s, when it was used to describe a new public policy, first in Canada and then in Australia. In both of these cases, this development marked an explicit movement by federal governments away from policies of assimilation of ethnic minorities, and immigrants in particular, toward policies of acceptance and integration of diverse cultures (Lopez, 2000: 2-3). The term did not enter the American (or British) lexicon until the 1980s (Glazer, 1997: 8). When it did enter American debates, however, it did so in the first instance, in discussions about public education. 'Multiculturalism,' according to Nathan Glazer, 'is just the latest in [a] sequence of terms describing how American society, particularly American education, should respond to diversity' (1997: 8). Multiculturalism, then, is a term that describes one particular way of responding to ethnic diversity. 'It is a position that rejects assimilation and the "melting pot" image as an imposition of the dominant culture, and instead prefers such metaphors as the "salad bowl" or the "glorious mosaic", in which each ethnic and racial SAGE © Gerald F