Britain into the 1990s: Cracks in the Mirror

This thesis analyses the political discourse on immigration control in Britain between 1997 and 2017 and examines why and how the articulations of policies displayed patterns of rupture and continuity between the Conservative-led and the New Labour governments. In particular, it highlights the significance of the critical engagement with both the structure and organization of the articulations within and across texts and their variability and contingency over time. The thesis adopts a multi-perspective framework: Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985, 1987) discourse analysis underpins all the analytical work in this thesis, supplemented by models of securitization, risk and governmentality. The analysis of political discourses reveals that the Conservative-led governments’ articulations displayed patterns of rupture rather than continuity with those of the preceding New Labour governments. The empirical data reveals that while the articulated discourses were used in a variety of ways simultaneously, the articulation by the first and second New Labour governments was generally exemplified by the evolution of a discourse of opportunity, informed by an opportunity-linked risk logic which clearly and consistently embodied values and beliefs consistent with liberal orientations. The discourse of problematization which was articulated by the third New Labour government hovered between opportunity and threat and brought them together as two dependencies that offered a reconfigured discourse which modified the two discourses as opposite forces through strategic readjustment of the heterogeneous elements. The Conservative-led governments articulated a discourse of threat which was often used to frame quite specific fears as a way to generate constructed meanings in which threat-linked logic informed the articulations. The findings highlight the variability and contingency of the articulations in which the discourses evolved, became intertwined and replaced one another. Moreover, the thesis interrogates the claim that threat and problematization-linked logics represent the unique rationalities of these articulations and puts forward an alternative conceptualization of an advanced understanding of risk.

This thesis contributes to our understanding of the economics of international migration. It consists of three chapters exploring some of the consequences and implications of human migration. Chapter 1, ‘No Country for Young Men’, studies the effects of international migration on the schooling and labour outcomes of left-behind children. While a large literature on the topic already exists and focuses on Latin America and China, little is known about how migration affects left-behind individuals in other parts of the world; and Central Asia in particular. The study concentrates on Tajikistan, the country with the highest level of remittance inflows relative to the size of the economy. Using panel data tracking the same children over time, I find important and gender-differenced schooling and labour supply responses. In a nutshell, young males are found to benefit from the migration of one of their household members, while young women are not. The second chapter, ‘Invasive Neighbours’, provides new evidence on the effect of immigration on electoral outcomes in developing countries. The Dominican Republic is used as case study as it provides a highly interesting context to analyse this issue. The vast majority of its immigrants come from neighbouring Haiti, and together the two countries share the island of Hispaniola. I find robust evidence that higher immigrant concentration is associated with greater support for the right-wing political coalition that has traditionally been more opposed to immigration. At the same time, the popularity of the centre-left coalition is found to decline in localities experiencing larger inflows of foreigners. Political competition, citizenship and identity considerations seem to be shaping voting behaviour and individual attitudes towards immigrants in the Dominican Republic. The third and last chapter, ‘The Elusive Quest for Social Diversity?’, analyses the effect of social housing supply on ethnic and social diversity in France’s largest metropolitan areas. High income countries generally rely on the provision of affordable housing through various schemes to both facilitate access to decent accommodation and encourage social diversity at the local level. The analysis takes advantage of a national policy reform to shed light on the issue. I find strong evidence of a positive relationship between social housing and ethnic diversity in local labour markets with large immigrant networks and strong labour demand. Social housing provision also affects the distribution of households’ income at the local level. This chapter contributes to the small but growing literature on the impact of social housing developments on the neighbourhoods in which they are built.

Comparative analysis of the impact of religion on liberal political development is hampered by the presumption of secularization in canonical works of historical institutionalism. The prevailing arguments about the origins of liberal political institutions either omit religion completely as a significant factor in political and social life, or presume unique compatibility between Protestant Christianity and liberal democracy. This project challenges both the assumption of secular modernity and Christian exceptionalism as preconditions of liberal political development by examining the debates about religious toleration in early modern England. The toleration debates provide a record of the ideas generated in response to state expansion, and demonstrate the critical role of religion in establishing the modern state as the primary frame of political power. They further illustrate the importance of religious narratives in justifying liberal political principles such as popular sovereignty and accountable government, as well as the fundamental rights to freedom of speech, the press, association and conscience. Drawing upon original readings of pamphlets, newspapers and political tracts from the seventeenth century, I argue that religion promoted political transformation in early modern England not because of the specifics of doctrine or decline in its relevance to social and political life, but because it was the locus of individual experience of state power. The monarchy radically extended its scope and capacity by appropriating the institutional and symbolic resources of the church. It used the church to promote institutional and cultural regularity across the realm. The common experience of civil power through state regulation of religious practice led to the development of a collective interest in securing the right to religious worship that extended across class and regional divisions. The Protestant political identity cultivated by the monarchy in its campaign for religious uniformity created cultural opportunities for political resistance to the state’s encroachment upon communal and individual autonomy. Competing interpretations of the meaning and requirements of this Protestant identity for individuals on one hand, and the requisites of political order and stability on the other, led to a public reconceptualization of the role of government and the rights and responsibilities of political membership.%%%%

© 1998 Helen Jones and Susanne MacGregor, 1998 the contributors. Individual chapters. All rights reserved. With the benefit of hindsight it is possible to argue that education was the major issue of the General Election of 1 May 1997, given that the New Labour government was elected with an overwhelming majority and that Tony Blair, the leader of the Labour Party, had consistently argued throughout the election campaign that ‘Education, education, education’, was the top priority. He targeted in particular the need to improve educational standards ‘for the many, not the few’ and so committed his government to a reduction in the class size of primary schools. Education has been one of the major items on the political agenda over the last two decades but the forms of debate and delivery have changed markedly. This chapter will explore the ways in which education policy had been developed under the Conservative administrations over the previous eighteen years and consider the Labour Party’s counter-proposals, first in opposition and during the general election campaign and second during the first hundred days of Blair’s New Labour government. The education policies adopted by the Liberal Democrats will be addressed briefly.

The advent of ‘Cool Britannia’ during the height of the New Labour era in Britain transformed the image of London into that of a progressive, open and dynamic city, empowering the youth and their contribution to mainstream culture while still preserving a connection to cultural heritage. This paper analyses London as a global city and delineates it as a focal point of cultural, racial and ethnical diversity in the films Wild West (1992), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Bride & Prejudice (2004) and Brick Lane (2007). The aim of this article is to explore cinematic representations of immigrant communities living outside the recognizable West End which anticipate or epitomize the multicultural doctrine and cultural policy of personal responsibility promoted under the Blair administration. These films oscillate between presenting a ‘cruel’ and a ‘cool’ Britain while tracing the search for identity of the young protagonists in multicultural London.

How vital is an immigrant’s native language for group self-affirmation? While the Filipino American community in the US (now the largest group of citizens of Asian descent) has not so far demanded bilingual education in the way the Chinese Americans or Chicanos have, the influx of new immigrants more conversant in “Filipino” (the official term for the national language of the Philippines) than in English is producing changes in ethnic self-identification more serious than before. The demand for college courses in Filipino is only a symptom of the greater awareness of exclusion and marginalization within the larger polity supposedly characterized by pluralism and multiculturalism. Filipino professionals and workers speaking in Filipino are growing, but they have been penalized in many ways. Can language serve as a means to assert national autonomy? The right to speak or communicate in one’s native language is not just a minor attempt in identity politics but represents a crucial index to elucidating and unraveling the liberaldemocratic rationale for the continuing neocolonial subordination of the Filipino people to white-supremacist corporate globalization.

In the immediate aftermath of the approval of the ban on constructing minarets in a national referendum in late 2009 initiated by right wing populist parties to support their anti-immigration politics, the Swiss Muslim debate took an ironic turn, as a number of Swiss converts to Islam entered public arenas in an ostentative salafi guise, triggering heated debates on the “integratedness” of Switzerland’s Muslim “minority. Dominating news coverage on Muslims and Islam in Switzerland in the first half of 2010, the Swiss converts heading the newly founded Muslim organization, the Islamischer Zentralrat Schweiz, were to replace the minarets as nodal points of problematizing a perceived lack of common symbolic ground between Swiss society and the Muslim migrant population. This thesis places the symbolic stakes of Swiss converts to Islam in both public and Muslim arenas into the centre of its analytical focus in order to reconstruct the Swiss Muslim debate and the shaping of Muslim selves as interrelated processes by the analysis of media coverage on the IZRS and ethnographic data gained in Muslim fields between 2008 and 2011. To do this, the symbolic stakes of Swiss converts to Islam of either gender are reconstructed before the epistemic background of what is often rhetorically invoked as a „crisis of multiculturalism“ (see for example Grillo 2003; Turner 2006; Lentin and Titley 2001; Van Reedom, Dyuvenadak and Bertossi 2012; Vertovec 2011) fuelled by a global „hyperdiscourse“ on Islam that has undergirded public debates on immigration, integration, nationalism and secularism in Swiss public debates just as in other national European contexts. The analytical focus chosen brings together a range of research perspectives and conceptual outlooks. Differing from existing research on European converts to Islam that focusses on questions developed in the field of religious sociology or phenomenological sociology, this study adopts a performative approach on conversion to Islam as a paradigmatic form of subjectivation in line with a Foucauldian discourse analytical perspective. To do this, it develops a deconstructive reading on subjectivation that draws on approaches developed in the field (post)structuralism, psycholanalysis and gender studies which it combines with narratological perspectives on religious conversion as a theme and dramaturgy.

The politics of belonging - some theoretical considerations, John Crowley immigration and minority policy debate in Britain -multicultural political narratives contested, Shamit Saggar re-imagined communities? education policies and national belonging in Britain and France, Erik Bleich the politicization of belonging -post-war legal developments in the administrative identities of non-nationals in France, Christine Barats-Malbrel coming home? ethnic German repatriates and the transformation of national identity in the Federal republic of Germany, Daniel Levy the perception of the "other" and the integration of immigrants in Greece, Anastassia Tsoukala immigrants and the changing relations of trust between government and electorates - the effects of referenda in Switzerland, Silvia Kovi the ethno-national mobilisation of Croat immigrants in Vienna - some problems with an undifferentiated notion of the politics of belonging, Sasa Bozic the effects of the construction of Europe on national immigration and refugee policies - the case of Belgium, Marco Martiniello, Andrea Rea the development of EU immigrants policy -supranationalisation and the politics of belonging, Andre Geddes is there such a thing as "global belonging? transnational protest during the "Rushdie affair", Amelie Blom to belong or not to belong - the postnational question, Adrian Favell.

In his contribution, Joppke justifies his selection of foundational scholars by linking each to what he sees as the three key facets of citizenship: status, rights and identity. Maarten Vink explicitly links his research agenda to the first, status, and outlines why it is so important. In identifying three facets of citizenship, Joppke acknowledges that some academics would include political participation, but he ultimately decides against it. But here we can, and should, broaden citizenship studies by bringing in insights from the behavioral politics tradition in domestic politics - when and why people engage in political acts - and from the social movements literature in sociology. I believe that the American debate on immigration reform, admittedly stalled, would not have advanced as far as it has without the social movement activism of DREAMers - unauthorized young people pushing for a path to citizenship - and the belief that Barack Obama won re-election in part because of the Latino vote. Importantly, one type of political activism demands formal citizenship, the other does not. As many contributors note, the “national models” approach has had a significant impact on citizenship studies. Whether one views such models through a cultural, institutional or historical lens, this tends to be a top-down, macro-level framework. What about immigrants’ agency? In Canada, although the ruling Conservative government is shifting citizenship discourse to a more traditional language - as Winter points out - it has not reduced immigration, ended dual citizenship, or eliminated multiculturalism, all goals of the Reform Party that the current prime minister once helped build. “Lock-in” effects (or policy feedback loops) based on high immigrant naturalization and the coming of age of a second-generation with citizenship also d emands study, in North America and elsewhere. Much of the research thus far suggests that political decisions over citizenship status and rights do not seem linked to immigrants’ political activism. State-centered decision-making may have characterized policy in the early post-World War II period in Europe (and East Asia?), but does it continue to hold today? Majority publics and immigrant-origin residents are increasingly politicized around citizenship and immigration. Does immigrant agency extend citizenship status, rights and identity to those born outside the polity? Is electoral power key, or is protest necessary? How is citizenship practiced, and contested, irrespective of formal status? These are important and understudied empirical questions, ones that demand theoretical creativity - across sub-fields and disciplines - in conceptualizing and understanding citizenship in contemporary times.

In today’s globalized world, migration has changed the social, cultural, political, and economic landscape of many countries. The influx of immigrants increases the cultural and ethnic diversity of host countries as well as the needs of social services in these countries (Gesthuizen, van der Meer, & Scheepers, 2009; Jenkins, 1988; Padilla, 1997). Ethnic associations, including mutual aid organizations, hometown associations, and various other types of ethnic and immigrant organizations, emerged to respond to the particular needs of specific immigrant communities (Smith et al., 1994, 1999). For countries with a tradition of civic participation, integrating immigrants into civic life becomes an important issue. Since immigrants, particularly newcomers, tend to involve themselves more in ethnic/immigrant organizations than in mainstream organizations in a host country (and they also engage more in informal volunteering and mutual help than their native-born counterparts), it is important to study ethnic/immigrant organizations and immigrants’ voluntary participation, including informal volunteering, which could help us better understand immigrants’ integration into the civic life of a host country.This article reviews the literature on ethnic/immigrant associations and minorities’/immigrants’ voluntary participation in major developed countries in North America, Europe, and Oceania, including countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand, which have experienced a significant increase of immigrants or a surge of foreign-born population since World War II , and particularly after the 1990s.In terms of ethnic/immigrant associations, the author reviews the historical background of research in this area, the size and scope of ethnic/immigrant associations, the formation and development of ethnic/immigrant associations, the memberships, the financial well-being of these associations, the roles they play in helping immigrants adapt and acculturate into the host countries, and the classification of ethnic associations. Particular attention is given to immigrants’ mutual aid organizations, ethnic cultural organizations, ethnic-oriented religious organizations, and hometown associations. The characteristics of ethnic/immigrant associations vary by culture or ethnic groups and by the context of their host countries. The author reviews the English literature on ethnic/immigrant associations formed by people from various backgrounds, such as European, African, Latin American, and Asian immigrants/ethnic groups in the United States, as well as similar immigrant/ethnic groups in Western developed countries that have a large number of immigrants.Research on immigrant voluntary participation tends to show that immigrants participate in or volunteer less for mainstream nonprofit organizations than native-borns (Sundeen, Garcia, & Wang, 2007). Some studies further examine the barriers for immigrants to participate in formal volunteering, such as language, cultural perception of volunteering, time constraints, lack of information or connection to organizations, and lack of transportation (i.e. Baer, 2008; Campbell & McLean, 2002; Scott et al., 2005). Others have also examined immigrants’ motivation to participate in formal volunteering, such as developing social networks, resume building, and so on (Handy & Greenspan, 2009). Several studies, however, find that after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, there is little or no difference between immigrants’ and non-immigrants’ likelihood of voluntary participation (Andersen & Milligan, 2011; Baer, 2008). In addition, studies show that ethnic minorities and immigrants may involve more in ethnic/immigrant associations or ethnic-oriented religious groups and engage in informal volunteering or mutual help (Smith et al., 1994, 1999). This study reviews the literature on both formal and informal volunteering of minorities and immigrants.Ethnic-oriented religious associations play an important role in helping immigrants adapt to the new environment and providing a venue for voluntary participation (Handy & Greenspan, 2009; Wang & Handy, 2014). Studies of different religious organizations (such as Catholic vs. Protestant or Buddhist) show that the influences of religion on immigrant volunteering vary by the religious beliefs. The author reviews studies that examine the scope of religious organizations in a host country, the formation of ethnic-oriented religious organizations, their structures, and the roles of these religious organizations in helping immigrants integrate into the host country and encouraging ethnic groups’ and immigrants’ voluntary participation.Immigrant youth have different patterns of voluntary participation from adult immigrants and their native counterparts. Those who moved to the host country at a younger age are more likely to adopt the civic culture of the host country and thus volunteer more (Kawashima-Ginsberg & Kirby, 2009). School is a main venue where immigrant youth are exposed to the civic culture (Ishizawa, 2015; Oesterle, Johnson, & Mortimer, 2004). This study reviews the literature on immigrant youths’ voluntary participation, including the factors that influence immigrant youths’ participation and the consequences of their participation.

Immigration and the resulting increasing ethnic diversity have become an important characteristic of advanced industrialised countries. At the same time, the majority of the countries in question are confronted with structural transformation such as deindustrialisation and changes in family structures as well as economic downturn, which limit the capacities of nation-states in addressing rising inequality and supporting those individuals at the margins of the society. This paper addresses both issues, immigration and inequality, by focusing on immigrants’ socio-economic incorporation into the receiving societies of advanced industrialised countries. The aim of this paper is to explain cross-national variation in immigrants’ poverty risks. Drawing on the political economy as well as the migration literature, the paper develops a theoretical framework that considers how the impact of the national labour market and welfare system on immigrants’ poverty risks is moderated by the integration policies, which regulate immigrants’ access to the labour market and social programs (or immigrants’ economic and social rights). The empirical analysis draws on income surveys as well as a newly collected data set on economic and social rights of immigrants in 19 advanced industrialised countries, including European countries as well as Australia, and North America, for the year 2007. As the results from multilevel analysis show, integration policies concerning immigrants’ access to the labour market and social programs can partly explain cross-national variations in immigrants’ poverty risks. In line with the hypothesis, stricter labour market regulations such as minimum wage setting reduce immigrants’ poverty risks stronger in countries where they are granted easier access to the labour market. However, concerning the impact of more generous social programs the reductive poverty effect is stronger in countries with less inclusive access of immigrants to social programs. The paper concludes by discussing possible explanations for this puzzling finding.

Radicalism or Revolution? Power and Resistance in Iran

There is a significant population of Muslims living in Western Europe and also a significant concern that these Muslims are marginalised due to Islamophobia. While the role of sensationalist media and Far Right groups in perpetuating Islamophobia has been widely commented on, not enough attention has been given to the role played by mainstream politicians in fostering Islamophobia. This paper considers how Tony Blair's New Labour government represented Islam and Muslims in speeches given between 2001 and 2007 arguing that the representations were often Islamophobic. Using discourse analysis, the analysis engages with 111 speeches made by these influential ministers. The paper also discusses the discourse surrounding related issues such as multiculturalism, Britishness, integration, and terrorism. It is argued that Islamophobia based on generalisations, assumptions and stereotypes of Islam and Muslims are present in the speeches. Thus, this article calls for an awareness of the way in which mainstream politicians have been involved in stigmatising Islam and Muslims, and perpetuating Islamophobia. This paper contributes to discussions about anti-Muslim prejudice as well as reflecting on the legacy of an important recent political dynasty.

Immigration controls and citizenship in the political rhetoric of New Labour

Modern counter-insurgency has usually been studied from a single case-study perspective (for instance, Malaya, Algeria, or Cuba) or with a focus on particular national styles and experiences (among which the so-called ‘British way’ of counter-insurgency is perhaps best known). However, recent comparative history scholarship has highlighted important similarities among Western democracies’ handling of insurgent challenges from the early Cold War era of decolonization to the most recent so-called Global War on Terror. This paper attempts to offer some insights into how these similarities might be approached from a transnational perspective. Focusing on the three main Western powers involved in counter-insurgency (Great Britain, France, and the United States), it draws connecting lines between their respective experiences, stressing the importance of the sharing of lessons learned, liaison exchanges, organizational learning, and even doctrinal standardization processes, both at bilateral and multilateral levels. While one should not overestimate the practical influence of such knowledge circulation, one also has to take it into account to achieve a more global history of late-colonial conflict and state-building.