22 - Governing migration: political contestation and policy formation

Summary

Over the past decades, Europe has turned into a “continent of immigration” that is increasingly shaped by cross-border mobility and a growing ethno-cultural diversity of its population. The end of the Cold War divide in 1989, the completion of the single European market, and the accelerating speed of globalization have been the main driving forces behind this development. Clearly there is variation in this trend across Europe, but in general terms, Europe now shares some of the experiences of larger and sustained levels of immigration that are characteristic of immigrant settler states such as the United States or Canada. With the gradual, yet momentous, sociopolitical transformation of European societies through migration, the governance of cross-border movement, settlement, and cultural diversity poses some fundamental political and policy challenges.

The politicization of “them” and “us”

The most obvious of these challenges arises at the interface between political contestation and identity politics. Migration has become a highly contested and emotionally charged issue that has transformed competitive party politics in Western democracy. In particular, nationalist-populist actors have made migration and the protection of national borders the central theme around which their political mobilization revolves. Anti-migrant rhetoric and the scapegoating of migrants have become the cornerstone of right-wing populist ideologies across Europe. The resurgence of exclusionary nationalism and anti-immigrant forces has the potential of developing into a veritable threat to the viability of liberal democracies in general and the rights of minorities in particular. The politics of migration is likely to continue dominate electoral agendas and public debates on citizenship, identity, belonging, and community. In this respect, the politicization of migration is critically tied to a wider public debate about the transformation of traditional collective identities that historically have been shaped by legacies of colonialism and images of ethno-cultural homogeneity.

It is a short step from identity politics to the racialized exclusion of migrants. The xenophobia, scapegoating, and populist backlash linked to the refugee crisis, ongoing refugee movements, and demographic change has a strong racialized and racializing element, particularly when it comes to characterizing Muslims