Will Kymlicka's diagnosis of the dilemmas involved in integrating culturally dis tinct immigrant groups into multinational societies is characteristically acute, and in this comment I take for granted the basic parameters of his discussion: namely that some version of federalism is the only legitimate form of government in such societies, and that the cultural integration of immigrant groups is an important goal of social policy, in education and elsewhere. This is tantamount to saying that we share the view that questions of collective identity are important, and cannot be sidestepped, as some liberals would advocate, by arguing that so long as the state respects human rights and treats its citizens as equals, no further questions of legitimacy arise. Our philosophical starting points are similar, therefore, and our political dis agreements (which are not great) arise from somewhat different estimates of the likely future of multination states as he describes them. According to Kymlicka, these states 'contain deep and unresolved cleavages around national identity and nationhood'. These cleavages have been handled by developing institutions that give a considerable degree of autonomy to minority nations separate parliaments, for example that allow them to assert their distinct identities and protect their separate interests in areas such as language policies. However, relations between the different national groups remain troubled: what we have are 'at best provisional settlements of these long-standing cleavages, not permanent resolutions', with some nationalists continuing to favour outright secession and others arguing for further transfers of power from central government to devolved institutions. In other words we have a modus vivendi between the various national groups whose precise shape will change over time as different constituencies press their claims. This might seem a recipe for instability, but according to Kymlicka 'most citizens in multination western states take this indeterminacy and contestation in their stride'.