Mainstreaming integration governance: A critical analysis
Dr. Peter Scholten, Erasmus University Rotterdam
After the multiculturalism backlash and the assimilationist turn in many European countries, the latest trend would be that countries and cities are ‘mainstreaming’ their policies regarding migration-related diversity into generic policies. Rather than target group-specific and often ad-hoc policies, this would mean policies that are structurally embedded into generic policy areas and target the whole diverse population. But what does the concept of mainstreaming actually imply, and can indeed a trend toward mainstreaming be witnessed in various settings? Based on a broad European research project on governance mainstreaming in the area of migration-related diversity, I will critically analyse and discuss the concept of mainstreaming. The aim is to contribute to a further theoretization of mainstreaming; how does it relate to a.o. interculturalism and superdiversity, in what settings and under what conditions would mainstreaming be relevant, and what would be the main societal implications of mainstreaming?
About the speaker
Peter Scholten is associate professor of Public Policy at Erasmus University Rotterdam and director of IMISCOE, Europe’s largest academic research network in the area of international migration, integration and social cohesion. His work focuses on the governance of migration and migration-related diversity, on multi-level governance, and on the interaction between research and policymaking in the area of migration. Peter published in various international journals and recently published the book ‘Politics of Migration and Immigration in Europe’ together with Andrew Geddes. Also, he is editor in chief of the journal Comparative Migration Studies (link) and member of the editorial board of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis.
Date: 29 March 2017
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CET
