From multicultural to diversity policies: Tracing the demise of group representation and recognition in a local urban context

Abstract

This article deals with the question of how and why urban governments have implemented diversity policies in the context of a broader backlash against multiculturalism. The starting point of our analysis is the conceptualization of multiculturalism as a set of institutional arrangements for ethnic minority group representation and recognition. While scholars have largely focused on normative critiques of multiculturalism, arguing that it is unable to respond to the super-diversity in contemporary cities, this article focuses on the empirical complexities of diversity policy-making in a local context. More specifically, we investigate the changes in the policy practices and discourses regarding the representation and recognition of ethnic minorities in Antwerp, the largest city of the Flemish Region in Belgium. The minority policies in Antwerp had taken a multicultural turn by the 1990s, most evident in two strategies for group representation and recognition: the establishment of a migrant council to address the interests of ethnic minorities and the recruitment of an ethnically diverse city staff. We analyse how these measures became contested in the context of a wider backlash against multiculturalism. When multicultural policies became diversity policies, the migrant council was disbanded and a dress code prohibited minorities from displaying religious or other symbols in front-office public functions. With these cases, we argue that diversity discourses can be politicized in the governance of cities, with far-reaching consequences, such as the demise of ethnic minority representation and recognition, eventually reinforcing a neo-assimilationist focus urging migrants and their descendants to adapt to the cultural majority.