Migration and the Politics of Integration: IMISCOE Short Reader

This open access short reader provides an introductory yet critically analytical exploration of migration and the politics of integration. Drawing inspiration from Nira Yuval-Davis' concept of the 'politics of belonging,' we define the 'politics of integration' as various political projects aimed at constructing integration, belonging, and cohesion within different collectivities. The book explores theoretical debates, such as the cultural, civic, and local turns, governmentality, subsidiarity, nationalism, nativism, securitization of migration, ultra-politics, sub-politics, populism, nativism, multiculturalism, and interculturalism. Based on the authors' empirical research findings, the book analyzes the directions the politics of integration have taken in Europe during the neoliberal era. This era is characterized by a bipolar, Manichean view of the world, which exacerbates the divide between "us" and "them". Written in an assessable way, the book offers valuable insights for social science students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as for policymakers and practitioners grappling with the challenges posed by migration and its political dimensions.

Karin Borevi is Professor of Political Science at Södertörn University, Sweden. She is also an affiliated researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society (CRS) at Uppsala University. Borevi is also part of the Center for the Study of Political Organisation (CPO) and the Institute for Research on Multireligiosity and Secularity (IMS), both at Södertörn University. Borevi’s research revolves around issues of immigration, citizenship, multiculturalism, religious diversity, and the welfare state within three thematic areas: historical analyses of the emergence and development of Swedish policies on immigrant integration; comparative analyses of contemporary European integration and immigration policies; political theoretical debates on multiculturalism, justice, equality, etc. She has analyzed policy developments in the fields of multiculturalism, family migration, refugee settlement and housing, state governance of religious diversity and civil society; approaches towards marginalised Roma EU-migrants, border politics, and more. She is currently completing two large research projects: one examining attitudes toward family migration in Sweden, Germany, and Italy, and another studying the post-war history of Swedish governance of religious diversity, with a particular focus on state approaches toward Muslim organisations. She is also initiating a new project on migrants’ experiences of post-2022 securitised membership policies in the Baltic Sea region, based on interviews and policy analyses in Sweden, Finland, and Estonia. Borevi has published in journals such as Journal of Social Policies, Identities, International Migration Review, Urban Studies, and Comparative Migration Studies, and she has also contributed to many international edited volumes. Borevi also has long experience as a lecturer in political science, from bachelor’s level up to PhD level and is the Master’s Program coordinator of Political Science at Södertörn University. For twelve years, she has been responsible for a course within the Bachelor’s Programme in International Migration and Ethnic Relations that introduces students to political science through analyses of migration and politics.

Ayhan Kaya is Professor of Politics and Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics of Interculturalism at the Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University; Director of the European Institute, and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence; and a member of the Science Academy, Turkey. He is currently a European Research Council Advanced Grant holder (ERC AdG, 2019-2024). He received his PhD and MA degrees from the University of Warwick, England. Kaya was previously a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence, Italy, and an adjunct lecturer at New York University, Florence, between 2016 and 2017. He previously worked and taught at the European University Viadrina as Aziz Nesin Chair in 2013, and at Malmö University, Sweden, as the Willy Brandt Chair in 2011. He works on youth radicalism, nativism, Islamism, Islamophobism in Europe, Turkish-origin migrants and their descendants in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the Circassian diaspora in Turkey, the construction and articulation of modern transnational identities, refugee studies in Turkey, conventional and nonconventional forms of political participation in Turkey, and the rise of populist movements in the EU. His recent manuscripts are Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Between Reception and Integration (Switzerland: Springer IMISCOE, 2023, co-authored with Z. Şahin-Mencütek, E. Gökalp-Aras, and S. B. Rottmann), and Populism and Heritage in Europe. Lost in Diversity and Unity (London: Routledge, 2019). His recent edited volumes are Nativist and Islamist Radicalism: Anger and Anxiety (London: Routledge, 2023, with Aysenur Benevento and Metin Koca); Memory in European Populism (London: Routledge, 2019, with Chiara de Cesari). Some of his books are Turkish Origin Migrants and their Descendants: Hyphenated Identities in Transnational Space (Palgrave, 2018), Europeanization and Tolerance in Turkey (London: Palgrave, 2013); Islam, Migration and Integration: The Age of Securitization (London: Palgrave, 2012); Contemporary Migrations in Turkey: Integration or Return (Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 2015, in Turkish, co-edited with Murat Erdoğan), Belgian-Turks, Brussels: King Baudouin Foundation, 2008, co-written with Ferhat Kentel), Euro-Turks: A Bridge or a Breach between Turkey and the EU (Brussels: CEPS Publications, 2005, co-written with Ferhat Kentel, Turkish version by Bilgi University); wrote another book titled Sicher in Kreuzberg: Constructing Diasporas, published in two languages, English (Bielefeld: transkript verlag, 2001) and Turkish (Istanbul: Büke Yayınları, 2000).