Multiculturalism in a Global Society

PETER KIVISTO

Blackwell Publishing

Multiculturalism in a Global Society

2 I ST-CENTURY SOCIOLOGY SERIES EDITOR Steven Seidman, State University of New York at Albany

The 2 1 st-Century SocioIogy series provides instructors and students with key texts in sociology that speak with a distinct sociological voice and offer thoughtful and original perspectives. The texts reflect current discussions in and beyond sociology, avoiding standard textbook definitions to engage students in critical thinking and new ideas. Prominent scholars in various fields of social inquiry combine theoretical perspectives with the latest research to present accessible syntheses for students as we move further into the new millennium amidst rapid social change.

1 CIJLTKJRAL THEORY: AN INTRODUCTION PhiZip Smith 2 CULTURAL SOCIOLOGY IN PRACTICE Laura Desfor Edles 3 CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORY Kenneth H. Tucker, Jr, 4 MULTICIJLTIJRALISM IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY Peter Kivisto

Forthcoming:

SELF AND COMMUNITY AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY Ben Agger THE WORLD OF CITIES Anthony Orum

Multiculturalism in a Global Society

PETER KIVISTO

Blackwell Publishing

0 Peter Kivisto 2002

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Kivisto, Peter, 1948- Multiculturalism in a global society / Peter Kivisto.

p. cm. - (2lst-century sociology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-631-22193-X (hbk. : alk. paper)-ISBN 0-631-22194-8

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To Stanford M. Lyman

Scholar, teacher, friend and keen observer of our multicultural world

Contents

List ofFigures, Maps, and Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Multicultural Societies and Globalization

1 Ethnic Theory in a Global Age 2 The United States as a Melting Pot: Myth and Reality 3 Canada and Australia: Ethnic Mosaics and State-sponsored

Multiculturalism 4 John Bull’s Island: Britain in a Postcolonial World 5 Germany, France, and Shifting Conceptions of Citizenship 6 Multicultural Prospects and Twenty-fust Century Realities

References

Index

viii

ix

1

13 43

84 116 155 186

194

219

Figures, Maps, and Tables

Figures

1 US immigration levels by decade 57 2 Ethnic groups in the US, 2000 75 3 Birthplace of immigrants in Canada, 1996 98 4 Ethnic groups in Germany, 1990s 165 5 Annual arrivals of permanent foreign workers in France,

19 50-99 173 6 Immigrants in France, 1999 174

Maps

1 2 Canadian provinces and territories 3 The United Kingdom 4

Major world migration patterns in the 1990s

Catalonia and the Basque Region in Spain

Tables

1 2 US foreign-born population, 1890-2000 3 Foreign-born persons in Australia 4 Ethnic groups in Britain

Immigrants in advanced industrial nations

3 94

120 130

4 49

111 139

Acknowledgments

A number of people helped me to write this book, and I would like to take the opportunity to thank them. Several individuals provided me with especially sage advice along the way, particularly as I wrestled with getting a handle on the vast literature on multiculturalism and transnationalism that has ap- peared on the scene in recent years. These include Richard Alba, Martin Bulmer, Herbert Gans, Harry Gouldbourne, Tariq Modood, Ewa Morawska, Janusz Mucha, Joane Nagel. Alejandro Portes, John Solomos, and Rudy Vecoli. In addition, friends at my home institution not only supplied valu- able insights at various junctures, but also provided needed encouragement: John Guidry, Rick Jurasek, Mike Kirn, and Rocky Sexton. Readers of the en- tire manuscript are to be thanked. Kevin Fox Gotham’s comments were most helpful. Thomas Faist was especially helpful in preventing me from making a number of factual errors in connection with the European scene. But more than that, Thomas was the most important sounding board I had through- out the entire process, and for that I am most appreciative. I would like to thank Steven Gold for his contribution to this project, Steve provided me with an extraordinarily detailed commentary and analysis of my first draft, which proved to be invaluable in preparing the final version of the manuscript.

Once again Jean Sottos, our departmental secretary, played a key role in assisting me with word-processing, preparing charts and tables, and other related nitty-gritty tasks. Despite the chaos that frequently characterizes our office. she always did so with great aplomb and grace.

Thanks to Steve Seidman, 2 1st Century Sociology Series editor, for asking me to sign on to this project. I am very happy to be part of such a fine series. Thanks also to my editor, Susan Rabinowitz. Working with Susan proved to be a distinct pleasure: she is a perceptive critic, with a clear sense of how to make a book better and how to get the best out of her authors. Since Susan was away on maternity leave during part of the time I was writing, I was

X Acknowledgments

most fortunate to be able to work closely with the highly capable Ken Provencher for several months and found that to be a rewarding experience.

Once again, the usual suspects at home helped to make this possible. My wife, Susan, is always my main source of inspiration and my biggest cheer- leader. For that, Icannot begin to repay what I owe her. My children, Sarah and Aaron, in their own quiet ways continue to be sources of support.

This book is dedicated to my teacher, Stanford M. Lyman, the person who got me interested in the study of ethnic relations over a quarter of a century ago at the New School for Social Research. Stan’s scholarly contributions to this field, his role as a mentor, his passion, wit, and loyalty all had a pro- found impact on my intellectual development. This book is a small effort aimed at repaying the debt I owe him.

Introduction: Multicultural Societies and Globalization

In recent years, the words “multiculturalism” and “globalization” have cap- tured the imagination of scholars and the public alike. These two commonly used, and frequently misunderstood, terms are increasingly employed as people attempt to make sense of some ofthe most fundamental and dramatic changes that have reconfigured economic arrangements, challenged politi- cal systems, and recast issues related to cultural identities during the past half-century. For those living in what will be the focus of this book, the ad- vanced industrial liberal democracies, two things are abundantly clear about the present. First, their societies are considerably more ethnically diverse - and thus multicultural - than they once were. Second, these societies are now more interconnected and interdependent than ever before, the conse- quence of globalization trends that, though as Karl Mam was aware, were evident as early as the nineteenth century, nonetheless have become far deeper and more far-ranging in their impacts since the Second World War. The purpose of this book is to explore the contours and the implications of these developments.

We live in a world that is at once local and global - and increasingly the distinction between the two is difficult to make, as the use of the term “glocalization” by sociologists such as Ulrich Beck (2000: 45-50) and Zygmunt Bauman (1998) suggests. Whether or not one finds this particular term useful, it is clear that the dramatic increases in capital flows, labor mi- grations, the revolution in communication technologies, and the greater ease in long-distance travel have resulted in the dual processes that theorist of modernity Anthony Giddens (1990: 2 1-7) has referred to as “distanciation” and “disembedding.” With these terms he points to the fact that contempo- rary social relations are no longer necessarily linked to particular places. Instead, we have entered a world in which social relations are less tied to “local contexts of interaction” and we are witnessing their “restructuring

2 Introduction

across infinite spans of time-space.” Postmodern geographer David Harvey ( 19 8 9) has made a similar point in his discussions of the implications of “ti ie- space compression.” Such ideas have informed a growing body of scholar- ship concerned with the process and the significance of globalization. Without delving into these particular theoretical formulations, suffice it to say that what both Giddens and Harvey are addressing is the fact that we have en- tered an era in which our received notions about such things as distance/ proximity and placehpace are necessarily being reconceived.

The implications of the profound economic, political, and cultural changes that have reconfigured the modern world-system during the past half- century are far-reaching, complex, and in many respects not well under- stood. It is the task of this book to look at one of those particularly difficult to comprehend, but extraordinarily important implications: the role of globali- zation in its varied manifestations in defining the contemporary salience of what Arjun Appadurai (1990: 29 7) has referred to as “ethnoscapes.” By this term, he means the social landscapes created by ethnic group affiliations. In exploring the major ethnoscapes of the advanced industrial societies, we will focus on the three interrelated ties of blood: ethnicity, race, and nationalism (henceforth I will use the term ethnicity as a shorthand to encompass all three of these terms: a section of the next chapter entertains a discussion of my understanding of the relationships among the three terms). In turn, the reciprocal role that ethnicity plays in redefining global markets, culture in its varied guises, and received notions of the centrality of the state and the significance of citizenship will also be explored.

The renewed and reconfigured salience of ethnicity in recent decades has manifested itself in two main ways: by the migration of newcomers into vari- ous nations throughout the world, and as a result of the resurgence of na- tionalism among long-established minority groups within existing states.

The Turbulence of Migration

Nikos Papastergiadis (2000) has described the first phenomenon as the “tur- bulence of migration.” By this he refers to the fact that millions of people in the world are o n the move, and more specifically, they have exhibited a willing- ness to leave their countries oforigin for other places around the globe, whether they be in neighboring nations or in distant lands (Hammar & Tamas 1997). Given the fluidity of international migratory patterns, it is not surprising that we do not have precise figures on the number of people who can be defined as migrants. Estimates range from anywhere between 80 million and 125 mil- lion international migrants (Castles & Miller 1993: 3; Faist 2000a: 3).

These numbers need to be put into perspective. In the first place, as Thomas Faist (2000: 4) has noted, even the higher of these figures repre-

Introduction 3

& Minor migration stream

M a p I Source: Population Reference Bureau, Population Bulletin, July 1997.

Major world migration patterns in the 1990s

sents only about 2 percent of the world’s population. In other words, the vast majority of people do not opt to leave their nations of origin. Secondly, these people have tended to come from a relatively select number of nations on earth. Figure 1 provides a glimpse into the origins and destinations of major and minor migration streams during the last decade of the twentieth century. Some nations (e.g., Mexico and Turkey) have witnessed large-scale emigration, while many other nations, including some of the poorest in the world, have sent relatively few to other nations. From the point of view of immigrant-sending countries, the impact on their societies varies widely, and because this topic has not received the kind of scholarly attention it deserves, there are unfortunately serious gaps in what we know about the implica- tions of mass emigration on such nations. The advanced industrial nations are not the only immigrant-receiving countries. For example, in some Mid- dle East nations such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, migrant laborers from Asia and poorer neighboring countries con- stitute a significant majority of the work force, sometimes reaching levels between 60 percent and 90 percent. Little research on these migrants has been done, in no small part due to the unwillingness of the rulers of some nations to permit an open inquiry into the lives of their foreign workers. We will not be examining these migrants, but will instead concentrate on those settling in the advanced industrial societies.

In a report published by the Population Reference Bureau, Philip Martin and Jonas Widgren (199 7) contend that the level of international migration at present is at a record high, and they predict that in the foreseeable future, the level will likely increase. Moreover, they note, some of the world’s wealthi-

4 Introduction

Table I

Country Number of immigrants

Australia 4,000,000 Austria 5 12.000 Belgium 900,000 Canada 4,000,000 France 3,600,000 Germany 5,000,000 Italy 800,000 Netherlands 692,400 Sweden 490,000 Switzerland I,200,000 United Kingdom 1,894,000 USA 2 I,000,000

Immigrants in advanced industrial nations

Source: ILOllOMIUNHCR, 1994.

est countries are experiencing significant demographic changes as a conse- quence of the surge of immigration. Table 1 reports on the number of immi- grants in major advanced industrial nations. Seven nations, including the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan, are home to around a third of the world’s migrant population.

In order to suggest something of the flavor of the significance of the immi- gration of peoples from less-developed countries of the South to the most advanced industrial nations of the North, consider as illustrations the fol- lowing examples that will be addressed in further detail in the chapters that follow.

0 In the late 1920s, sociologist Robert Park (1950: 151) predicted the de- mise of Chinatowns in the United States. In the short term, Park was correct in describing the decline of the Chinese population in America, for his prediction was made with the realization that between 1880 and 1924, immigration laws had prevented the Chinese from entering the country legally. Thus, a group that was overwhelmingly male benefited neither Gom newcomers from their homeland nor from a capacity to re- produce in sufficient numbers to grow. Thus, in his view, the Chinese American community was destined to disappear. However, since 1965, when a new immigration law opened America’s gates to mass migration once again, the Chinese population has risen dramatically to reach all- time high levels. Historic Chinatowns in major cities such as New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles have been unable to contain all of the newcomers and have thus spilled out oftheir original boundaries (sec-

lntroduction 5

tions of New York’s Little Italy, for example, are now defacto part of Chinatown), while new suburban Chinatowns in places such as Monterey Park, California, which is the only city in the United States with a major- ity Chinese population, and in the Flushing section of New York City have become the homes of middle-class immigrants (Fong 1994).

0 Taking advantage oftheir status as Commonwealth citizens, and respond- ing to the job prospects that arose in the postwar reconstruction of Brit- ain, black Caribbeans and residents of the Indian subcontinent residing in British colonies or former colonies migrated in significant numbers to Britain during the 19 50s and 1960s. Though as a percentage of the over- all British population their numbers were low, their concentration in particular locales and in particular occupational niches (for example, public transportation) led many whites in Britain to conclude that they were being overrun by nonwhite immigrants. Very quickly, the newcom- ers confronted the unvarnished racism of a nation unprepared for set- tlers of color in their midst. Race riots broke out in several cities, while an unofficial political slogan of the Conservative Party in a contested parlia- mentary election in Smedley was, “IfYou Want a Nigger for a Neighbor, Vote Labour.” The political demagogue - and at the time cabinet official - Enoch Powell warned ominously of the “rivers of blood” that would flow if immigration was not curtailed. Thus, as they attempted to gain a foothold in their new homeland by finding jobs, raising families, and in various ways learning to adjust and adapt to their new home, the immi- grants were forced to concentrate considerable amounts of time, energy, and meager financial resources on finding ways to combat the racism of a nation where there “ain’t no black in the Union Jack” (Gilroy 1987).

0 The Maghreb nations of northwest Africa, especially Algeria. Morocco. and Tunisia, supply the largest number of contemporary immigrants to France. Their presence raises not only issues about race and, as with the British example, the legacy of the colonial past, but also about religion. The ideal ofFrench republicanism suggests that anyone who is or becomes a French citizen is French. This implies openness to newcomers and to their cultural heritages. However, as L’affaaire dufoulard (translated as “the headscarfde- bate”) vividly illustrated, the republican ideal does not necessarily support diversity. The controversy involved Muslim schoolgirls who insisted on wearing the hijnb, or headscarf, to school in accordance with Islamic prac- tice, and school administrators who contended that this was impermissi- ble because it violated the principle of luicicitk. The administration maintained that insofar as state-sponsored education is secular, schools could not al- low religious expressions that might be construed as acts of proselytizing or promoting a particular religious belief. In 1994, this position became oficial governmental policy when the Education Minister FranCois Bayrou issued a blanket ban on headscanres. The clash of cultures evident in this

6 Introduction

dispute pushed to the forefront of contemporary debates questions about the extent to which the French are actually prepared to wrestle with multiculturalism (Wieviorka 1995a).

0 The resurgence of violence linked to neo-Nazi skinhead groups in Germany has prompted the German government to initiate several initiatives to com- bat what many perceive to be a growing threat to minority groups, be they immigrants, Jews, or both, insofar as about half of Jews living in Germany today are recent immigrants from Eastern Europe. The dilemma for Ger- many is that the economy is heavily reliant on foreign workers, who com- prise about 10 percent of the nation’s population. Without their presence, the overall population of the nation would actually decline. At the same time, disaffected and often unemployed Germans, particularly in the east- ern part of the nation, where the communist regime left the region in eco- nomic ruin, have been drawn to the ranks of right-wing extremism. Government estimates put the number of extremists at around 50,000, of which about 9,000 are considered to be violence prone. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, these groups were responsible for around 14,000 anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic crimes, including 750 that can be categorized as violent crimes. The social democratic government of Gerhard Schroder has undertaken a number of actions designed to com- bat this growing threat. These include a variety ofpublic displays intended to symbolize solidarity with victims, implementing tougher laws against extremists, establishing websites to challenge neo-Nazi propaganda efforts in cyberspace, and initiating court proceedings to ban the National Demo- cratic Party since its xenophobic message has made it a magnet for right- wing skinheads (AE’ Worldstream 2001).

Nations Without States

But immigration is only one key ingredient contributing to the potent role of contemporary ethnicity and ethnic group relations. The other involves the persistence of historically rooted ethnic divisions based on what Walker Connor (1994) describes as “ethnonationalism,” which involves the claims by various ethnic groups to a national identity distinct from the nation-state in which they are located. In other words, those movements working to ad- vance the interests of what Montserrat Guibernau (1999) has described as “nations without states” have increasingly mobilized to promote nationalist agendas. In so doing, they have called into question the ability of existing states to contain these attempts to dismantle and reconfigure existing na- tion-state boundaries. As will be seen in the case studies, contemporary in- digenous peoples in settler states evidence a distinctive yet parallel form of ethnonationalism (Pearson 2001).

Introduction 7

Of particular significance is the fact that these nationalist challenges to existing state configurations are occurring in democratic regimes. It is worth noting that when speaking of the advanced industrial states we are simultaneously speaking about liberal democratic political systems which place a premium on the rule of law and on valuing individual (though not necessarily group) rights. Thus, the question arises about the capacity and the willingness of states to consider the possibility of granting greater au- tonomy (such as rights to limited self-government and control over educa- tional and cultural policies), or in some instances outright independence, to various regions. Indeed, at the core of the debates over contemporary nationalist movements is which of these two possibilities - autonomy or independence - ought to be the ultimate goal. Linked to the matter of goals is the issue of means. Must nationalist movements operate within the pa- rameters of the legal system of a state they find in some ways to be illegiti- mate and repressive, or are extralegal activities permissible? Expressed in the bluntest possible terms, should nationalist campaigns be waged at the ballot box or with bullets? Consider, if you will, the following examples that will be analyzed in greater detail in subsequent chapters, and it is clear that depending on the particular movement, each of these options is cur- rently being embraced.

0 A new Scottish Parliament convened in 1999, one of the major conse- quences of a policy undertaken by the Labour government of Tony Blair known as “devolution.” This term refers to the process of shifting power from the center of the British state to the regions that have demanded greater autonomy. It marked the first time that a Scottish Parliament has assembled since the Act of Union between Scotland and England in 1707. The main political force backing the nationalist campaign has been the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP). For many in the SNP devolution is not an end, but the fist step in the move to total independence. In other words, psychologically they no longer consider themselves to be British, and they want to translate that sense of identity into concrete political practice by affecting the break-up of Britain (Nairn 1977). They do not think it desirable to forge an identity that is at once Scottish and British. Instead, they envision Scotland as part of Europe, without the need for the intermediary identity associated with Britishness. Others in Scotland disagree - particularly those afiliated with the Labour Party, but even many in the SNP - contending that while they want to rectify centuries of English domination, promote Scottish culture, and improve the Scot- tish economy, think this can best be accomplished by remaining a part of Britain (Nairn 1999). This debate has taken place at the ballot box and in the court of public opinion. It has not been advanced by recourse to violence.

8 Introduction

0 Nationalism in Northern Ireland provides a stark contrast to that in Scot- land. In the fxst place, it reflects a society divided nearly in half along religious grounds, with the majority Protestant population seeking to remain a part of the United Kingdom, while the Catholic minority seeks to reunite with the rest of Ireland - the outcome of the movement’s fail- ure earlier in the twentieth century to remove the British from all of Ire- land (O’Brien 19 72). During the 1960s the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association emerged to press for an end to Protestant discrimination against Catholics in areas such as housing and employment, influenced in no small part by the civil rights movement in the United States. But British intransigence, combined with the revival of militant groups such as the Irish Republican Army, resulted in an escalation of the conflict and the beginning of a long period known as “the Troubles.” Three forces were pitted against each other: militant republicans’ from the Catholic community, militant loyalist organizations from the Protestant camp, and the British military. Armed with what Michael Ignatieff (199 7) has called the “warrior’s honor,” republicans and loyalists alike have waged campaigns of terror, including bombings and assassinations. The result is that over a period of 30 years, 3,600 people have been killed, most of them civilians. After years of efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the conflict, in 1998 both sides in the conflict entered into the Belfast Agree- ment under the auspices of the combined efforts of the British and Irish governments. Whether this effort to institutionalize and manage the con- flict will ultimately succeed remains at the moment an open question.

0 In Canada, the nationalist Parti Quebecois has waged a political cam- paign since the 1960s designed to loosen the ties of a province with a French-speaking majority from the rest of Canada. Parallel to the Scot- tish case, members of the nationalist movement are divided about whether the goal is to obtain greater autonomy or complete independ- ence. To date, the province remains a part of Canada, but the French- speaking population in the province is as deeply divided as the Scottish about the desirability of remaining within the Canadian confederation. Given the uncertainty about the future of Quebec’s status, many Eng- lish-speaking Canadians have left the province. Efforts on the part of the federal government to recognize Quebec as a distinct society while si- multaneously preserving the unity of the nation have not succeeded. It has not managed to articulate a resolution to the conflict that is accept- able to the majority of the Francophone community in Quebec and to the citizens of Canada’s other provinces. It has, however, succeeded in eliciting hostility from some other provinces that resent the idea that one province would be singled out for distinctive treatment (Thomson 199 5). Making the situation more complex is the fact that Montreal, the largest city in Quebec, has been the recipient of a large influx of non-Francophone

Introduction 9

immigrants. These newcomers are not enthusiastic about the independ- ence movement, and as a result have been the victims of nativist hostil- ity by some militant sectors of the Francophone community.

0 According to historians Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (1983), one can speak about the ideologies underlying contemporary nationalism as the product of “invented traditions.” By this, they mean that the past is manipulated in the interest of current political concerns. Nowhere per- haps is this idea of invention more evident than in the case of Italy’s Lega Nord (Northern League). The organization is committed to fighting for the secession of the more modernized and amuent region of northern Italy from the more economically and politically underdeveloped regions of southern Italy. In attempting to define Italy as an artificial construct that brings together two distinct peoples, the Lega Nord has been accused -quite accurately -by critics of promoting a Social Darwinian-inspired form of racism that depicts southern Italians as inherent inferiors. In re- sponse, they claim that the people of the north have been the victims of cultural oppression, the consequence of their “annexation” to Italy in the 1860s. The organization has argued for the creation of a new repub- lic of the north that it dubs “Padania,” and it has produced various trap- pings of an independent state such as a flag, national anthem, and capital (Venezia). In advancing its cause, it has identified with the idea of a new Europe of Regions and seeks to articulate a vision of Padania independ- ent ofItaly, but embedded within the European Union (Lega Nord 199 6).

Overview of the Book

The topic of this book is the power of ethnic identity in the twenty-first cen- tury, in a novel world that Manuel Castells (1997) has aptly characterized temporally as the “information age” and spatially as the “network society.” In order to appreciate the protean character of ethnicity in this new global age, and its capacity to take varied shapes and forms while producing an equally varied array of outcomes, I will examine a number of case studies from the major advanced industrial nations in the world.

However, the purpose of this book is not simply to offer journalistic ac- counts of various contemporary manifestations of the significance of ethnic identities, allegiances, and interactions. Rather, I intend to provide a way of interpreting these particular manifestations in a comparative framework. In order to accomplish this task, it is fEst necessary to engage in an extended discussion of the theoretical issues that inform current scholarly debates about ethnic phenomena. Chapter 1, “Ethnic Theory in a Global Age,” sifts through some of the central concerns ofcontemporary theorists of ethnicity. The chapter begins by deconstructing three crucial terms: race, ethnicity,

10 Introduction

and nationality. It then proceeds to explore the ways the role of ethnicity in contemporary social lie has been portrayed by modernization theory - rep- resented in particular by the work ofTalcott Parsons- and by Marxist theory. This leads to a discussion of current theoretical efforts to rethink modes of inclusion and exclusion, focusing on assimilation, cultural pluralism, transnational immigration, and multiculturalism.

Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to sustained case studies of the three major settler states in the world: the United States, Canada, and Australia. The populations of each of these nations consist of substantial majorities who are either immigrants or the offspring of immigrants. In each of them, the comparatively small indigenous populations - the American Indians in the US, First Nations peoples in Canada, and the Aboriginal peoples of Australia - lost their lands to the colonial conquest of Europeans and live today as marginalized and disadvantaged groups. The ethnic composition of each of these nations is exceptionally heterogeneous.

Chapter 2 is concerned with, as the title indicates, “The United States as a Melting Pot: Myth and Reality.” It begins with an overview of the formative period of the American republic and of the period known as the Great Migra- tion, between 1880 and 1930, that is intended to provide a historical con- text in which to assess the present. This background will set the stage for the following sections, wherein the central factors shaping the nature of intergroup relations in the post-civil rights era and in a period of mass immi- gration are analyzed. Specifically, we shall inquire into the particular cir- cumstances of each of the major panethnic groups that comprise what David Hollinger (1995) has referred to as the “ethnic pentagon.” These include European-origin whites, African Americans, American Indians, Latino Americans, and Asian Americans. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the content of a peculiarly American multicultural vision and the discontents such a vision has provoked.

Chapter 3, “Canada and Australia: Ethnic Mosaics and State-sponsored Multiculturalism,” offers a comparative portrait of two other large settler states that, unlike the US, remain part of the British Commonwealth. Again, brief historical sketches will serve to put into context current developments. Of particular importance in the Canadian case is the fact that two groups claim to have “charter group” status: the Anglophone and Francophone communities. The significance of this fact is discussed in terms of the self- defined ideal of Canada as a mosaic - and thus as a society that fosters the perpetuation of a pluralist or multicultural vision of itself. The implications of this vision, at a time when Qukbecois nationalism threatens the integrity of the nation-state and when new levels of immigration have produced a considerably more diverse society, will be explored. Australia, which re- mained far more ethnically homogeneous than Canada until recently, will afford an instructive comparison. The federal governments of both nations

Introduction I I

have played instrumental roles in forging explicit multicultural policies. The chapter will conclude with an analysis of the nature of those policies, the reasons they came about, and their implications.

Chapters 4 and 5 turn to those western European nations that have not historically defined themselves to be immigrant-receiving nations, but have experienced significant levels of immigration during the second half of the twentieth century. The result is that they are at present characterized by an ethnic heterogeneity previously unknown. At the same time, nationalist movements have arisen in some of these nations that, parallel to the situa- tion in Canada, call into question the long-term viability of existing nation- state arrangements.

Chapter 4 looks at “John Bull’s Island: Britain in a Postcolonial World.” The first sections of the chapter are concerned with three nationalist politi- cal movements that have had a significant impact on the post-Second World War United Kingdom: the irredentist struggle in Northern Ireland led by the Irish Republican Army, the campaign for Scottish independence promoted by the Scottish Nationalist Party, and the parallel independence movement in Wales. We will attempt to discern whether or not, as Tom Nairn (1977) has argued, these movements signal the “break-up of Britain.” These par- ticular movements will be compared to parallel movements elsewhere in western Europe. The second half of the chapter turns to the impact of immi- gration. While the primary focus will be on groups from various Common- wealth nations that began to enter Britain in significant numbers after 19 50, we will also look briefly at the presence of the Irish and other European im- migrants. Chiefly from the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbean, and Africa, the new Commonwealth immigrants changed the racial composition of Brit- ain and added to the religious pluralism of the nation as well. The conclu- sion of the chapter will look at the implications of immigration for both the immigrants and British society.

Chapter 5 offers a comparison and contrast between the two largest nations of continental western Europe: “Germany, France, and Shifting Conceptions of Citizenship.” These two countries have become major immi- grant-receiving nations. In both instances, considerable ambivalence about and resistance to the presence of newcomers has resulted, and has fueled the rise of extremist right-wing organizations that have sought to repatriate im- migrants and, in their more violent and illegal manifestations, have engaged in assaults, arson attacks, and murders in an effort to terrorize immigrants. At the same time, many progressive elements in each country have come to the support of immigrants.

Despite these parallels, the two nations offer an interesting study in con- trasts. Germany, with a longstanding conception of a “blood and soil” ver- sion of citizenship. has been ideologically ill-equipped to deal with newcomers, and thus the presence of immigrants - particularly from Turkey and the

I 2 Introduction

former Yugoslavia - poses difficult questions about the willingness or ability of the nation to include them as genuine members of German society. In con- trast, the republican ideals of France - embedded in their idea of citizenship based on the principle ofjus solis - suggest that anyone can become a citizen of the nation merely by embracing its values and swearing allegiance to it. As recent history amply attests, as a result of the presence of the new immi- grants, not so much from other places in Europe, such as Portugal, but par- ticularly from north Africa, the reality of the situation diverges considerably from the ideal. Indeed, the racialization of French society as a result of immi- gration raises challenges about inclusion quite similar to those evident in Germany. Given the fact that the European Union is developing policies per- taining to immigration and citizenship that are to be uniformly implemented by the member nations, the role of this suprastate organization in shaping the futures of immigrants in both countries will be considered briefly.

Chapter 6, “Multicultural Prospects and Twenty-first Century Realities,” attempts to tie the preceding case studies together in a succinct summary. It is intended to distill from them a general sense of the shared problems and the possibilities confronting the liberal democracies of the advanced indus- trial nations as they experience unprecedented levels of immigration and the challenges of nationalist minorities in a global era. Since much hinges on the capacity of these nations to reconceptualize and revitalize received no- tions of citizenship, the book concludes with a brief disquisition into the cru- cial historical choices of the twenty-first century.