Ethnic Minorities and Integration Process in France and the Netherlands: An Institutionalist Perspective

Abstract

Introduction During spring of year 2005, both French and Dutch voters rejected project of European Constitution. A few months later, French riots shed light on plight of children from immigrant backgrounds. It seems that these young people, most of them second-or third-generation immigrants, do not feel to fully belong to society. Likewise, in Netherlands, murders of politician Pym Fortuyn in 2002 and film-maker Theo Van Gogh in 2004 highlighted same issues. Fortuyn and Van Gogh's harsh criticism of Islam made them infamous by proclaiming failure of Dutch model. These events left a deep impression in France and Netherlands. They led columnists and scholars to question challenges for two models of integration. The goal of this article is thus to explain evolution of attitude of French and Dutch governments toward of ethnic and religious minorities. This issue is a fundamental matter of Western societies because it plays a key role in social process. As Allan Gruchy argued, institutionalism is precisely the science of social provisioning (Gruchy 1987: 21). In this respect, I provide an analytical framework to highlight what underpins changes of last years relying on North's views on institutions and institutional change. Indeed, despite fact that it could be said to be close to standard theory (Milonakis and Fine 2007), new institutionalism of North indisputably deals with aforementioned process insofar as it endogenizes institutions. From this viewpoint, French and Dutch experiences are very worthwhile to be studied as they illustrate relationships between beliefs and institutional scaffoldings in maintaining relatively smooth functioning of social order. The transformation of scaffolding of both countries is significant too. Although initial conditions of France and Netherlands were different, their experiences over time made them adopt rather similar policies. This theoretical framework has been applied successfully to economic subjects (see, for instance, North 1990, 2005) while, to my knowledge, it has not yet been applied to issue of of migrants and their offspring. This article aims at filling a void in field of ethnic minorities integration. It uses a narrative approach (see McCloskey 1990) to provide a reading of French and Dutch institutional trajectories: economic analytical tools are therefore used to tell a story about a sociopolitical subject. The article is divided into three sections. The first one sets out issue and main theoretical concepts used in study. The second states doctrinal background of French and Dutch models. The third part analyzes, adapting an institutional perspective, French and Dutch trajectories. It also sets out recent evolutions of policies in these countries. Institutions, Integration, and Institutional Change: Clarifying Issue From an institutionalist perspective, this article aims at scrutinizing changes regarding policies in France and Netherlands. In this respect, idea of institution and institutional change must be clarified. What is more, word integration is often used to allude to problems associated with ethnic and cultural diversity at national level. Despite fact that it has been widely used both by general public as well as scholars, it remains, however, difficult to embody a unanimous definition. The main purpose of this section is thus fourfold: 1) to describe four levels of social analysis that shape background of study; 2) to lay out method of analysis; 3) to give a theoretical framework that centers upon institutional change; and 4) to give a theoretical clarification of idea of integration. Four Levels of Social Analysis Institutional change can be studied within four main levels of social analysis identified by Oliver Williamson (2000). …