Middle class nation building through immigration?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This special issue examines the increase in scale and intensity of merit-based (im)migration policies as a means to revive aging populations and boost national economies in countries around the world. It proposes the idea of ‘middle class nation building through immigration’ to characterize this phenomenon, to relate it to previous versions of nation building and (im)migration policies, and to highlight the puzzle of middle class (im)migration at times of increasing socio-political polarization in receiving societies. In this foundational introduction, I define the three concepts at stake, situate them within their respective bodies of literature, and address the following three questions: How to characterize the type of nation building at stake in today’s democracies? Who gets to belong to the new educated middle class? Can we still speak of immigration or do we, instead, observe an end of settlement policies? This allows me to sketch-out the contours of ‘middle class nation building through immigration’ as an ideal-type: a heuristic theoretical construct (not to be found empirically in its pure form) that kindles our imagination, allows us to examine empirical cases, and invites debate.