Immigrant integration - Is model-thinking convincing in international comparisons?

In the 1990s, vivid discussions broke out among migration scholars about different national models of citizenship and integration, such as multiculturalism or assimilation. More recently, these classical models of citizenship have been challenged by studies claiming a convergence between countries resulting either from the emergence of a supranational model of citizenship or from a de facto convergence of policies. Do Western European nation states converge towards a liberal, American understanding of citizenship and citizenship rights, as Christian Joppke has repeatedly argued? Or does the persistence of fundamental differences justify the distinction of national citizenship regimes, as Ruud Koopmans claims?

Christian Joppke is a professor of political science at the Graduate School of Government at the American University of Paris. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley. His publications include Immigration and the Nation-State (1999) and Selecting by Origin (2005). He has also published numerous book chapters and articles in leading political science and sociology journals.

Ruud Koopmans is a professor of sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Director of the WZB research unit “Migration, Integration, Transnationalization”. He received a Ph.D. in political and social-cultural sciences from the University of Amsterdam. His publications include Contested Citizenship, Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe (2005) as well as numerous articles and book chapters in internationally renowned journals.

Organizers: Ines Michalowski (WZB) and Claudia Finotelli (Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset, Madrid). The debate is funded by the German Research Council (DFG) and is under the wing of the research network “The heuristic potential of national models for the understanding and international comparison of migration and integration policies”.

The WZB provides for child care during the discussion. If you are interested, please respond by June 16, 2009, indicating the number of children and their age.