Becoming Europe: Immigration, Integration, and the Welfare State

Extract

Becoming Europe: Immigration, Integration, and the Welfare State. By Patrick Ireland. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 2004. 288p. $27.95.

Patrick Ireland begins this detailed and clearly presented discussion about belonging in relation to patterns of European Union migration by raising a critical issue with the concept of ethnicity, defined as a “collective group consciousness that imparts a sense of belonging derived from membership in a community bound putatively by common descent and culture” (pp. 2–3). Ireland's study finds that belonging is context specific, rather than derived from common descent. This finding implies that there is by definition no readily available general policy applicable to one type of immigrants, say, Turks or Moroccans across all EU member states. Instead, each country's possibilities for integration differ. To Ireland, ethnicity “is not so much a category as a dynamic, elastic entity. Its value as a social, economic, and political resource varies; the appraisal depends considerably on institutions and policies.” (pp. 4–5).