Migration and Nation State

Astrid Ziebarth (German Marshall Fund)

1. Migrant Incorporation in Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspective

Setting the stage:

• mobility in times of global change
  
  
• migration – political/ethnical, economical, environmental reasons; immigration and citizenship policies (‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ countries); xenophobia
  
  
• examining differing patterns of immigrant incorporation in the U.S. and Europe, and the linkage of these patterns to differing ideas of minorities, ethnicity and national identity
  
  
• defining the field: most transatlantic conversations about migration, assimilation, ethnicity, nationality and citizenship are often distorted by the radically different meanings of these seemingly universal concepts on either side of the Atlantic.

2. Transatlantic Perspectives on Citizenship- Discussing Dual Nationality and Transnationalism among migrants in Germany, Europe and the United States

3. Who Are We?-(Re) Imagining the Nation: Current European and American debates about changes in naturalization laws and the broad public discourse accompanying the debates about national identity. (primordialists versus constructivists versus primordialist constructivist)

4. Community Relations and Religious Pluralism- Debating the impact immigration has on religious pluralism, "traditional values" and legal systems in receiving countries and how the rights of minority religions are respected or at stake. Managing Religious Pluralism – a comparison: Muslims in Europe and the US

5. Comparative Lessons: Incorporation of immigrants in the U.S. and European Countries, what can we learn from each other?

• Role of education, language aquisition, political empowerment, labor market participation, role of media etc.
• role of state versus community in incorporating immigrants
  

X. Current Policy Session (Summer 2008):

• Migration Policy in the US elections