The Politics of Belonging

Commentators on immigration, cutural diversity and ethnic conflict often speak in passing of "politics of belonging". As an analytical term, close but distinct from "membership", "inclusion/exclusion" or "national identity" the idea of belonging is also coloured by the fact that it often appears in the rhetoric of nationalist of xenophobic politicians: using "belonging" as a criteri on to restrict access to goods, rights of entitlements, to the "true" nationals or citizens. This volume explores the theme of "politics of belonging" in the study of migrant and minority politics in contemporary Europe. The "politics of belonging" encompasses both the formal institutional and symbolic dimensions of political tension about these questions. In part it is about the formal rules and laws that enable membership or exclude minorities from the national community. But it is also about the informal symbolic, linguistic and cultural processes by which majority groups react to new groups, and by which these newcomers organize and defend their interests.
This volume has accounts exploring the effects of laws and political institutions on majority and minority populations and ways in which the ethnic groups react to their situation, and mobilize in terms of cultural and political opportunities available. When examining the "politics of belonging" the following questions arise: are there specific political struggles about access to housing, to welfare benefits, to education?; what about special cultural rights for ethnic minorities?; how does unemployment affect the issue?; and how is the new European institutional context affecting the national level struggles? The volume moves from work focusing on migrant and minority issues within bounded national context, to ones that take place against the emerging framework of transnational politics, European integration and globalization. The main objective of this text is to present grounded research located in a theoretical context that discusses the politics of belonging in relation to national particularities, while exploring the ways in which developments above and beyond the nation state challenge people's understanding of the role of the state in immigration-related politics.