Banting, Keith, and Will Kymlicka. "Is there really a retreat from multiculturalism policies? New evidence from the multiculturalism policy index". Comparative European Politics, Vol. 11, No.5 (2013): 577-598.

Banting, Keith, and Will Kymlicka. "Is there really a retreat from multiculturalism policies? New evidence from the multiculturalism policy index". Comparative European Politics, Vol. 11, No.5 (2013): 577-598.

• By the early 2010s, there was a general perception in European politics that multiculturalism had failed to promote integration and instead allowed de facto segregation between immigrant groups to emerge in European states. Politicians have suggested that multiculturalist policies be replaced with civil integration policies which demand that immigrants immesh themselves in the culture, language, history, and public institutions of their host countries (578).
• This view is not universal, and many dispute the failure of multiculturalism, noting that countries which have adopted mutlicultural approaches to immigration have generally done a better job integrating immigrants than countries which have refused to accept multiculturalism (578).
• The authors have created a 'multiculturalism policy index' designed to track the implementation of multiculturalist policies across 21 OECD countries, mainly in Europe. This index shows that, although there has been a replacement of multiculturalist policies with civic integration in some countries, in the majority of OECD states the growth of civic integration policies have not been at the expense of multiculturalism (579, 581).
• The multiculturalism policy index actually covers policies regarding immigrant groups, historical national minorities, and indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Antipodes, but this article will only focus on changes in Europe regarding the treatment of immigrants (583).
• Multiculturalist policies for immigrants measured by the index are the presence of constitutional or legal recognition of multiculturalism, educational policy, public media policy, exemptions from dress codes, legality of dual citizenship, state support for cultural organizations, state funding of billingual programs, affirmative action programs (583).
• Current scholarly opinion is split on the way in which policy institutions develop. Some argue that policy change occurs in 'punctuated equalibrium', where sudden changes occur after long periods of stability, whereas the other camp contends that there is a gradual and continuous evolution of policies and their practice (580-581).
• Historically, nation states have been distrusted of minority populations, viewing them as disloyal and suspicious. This attitude began to seriously change in Europe during the 1960s, when it became increasingly accepted that minority groups expressing their rights and unique cultural institutions represented a normal aspect of democratic politics. In the 1960s this process emerged in removing explicit discriminatory policies against minorities, but expanding by the 1980s into securing unique rights of expression and cultural or linguistic protections to minority groups (582).
• Most European countries have adopted at least some multiculturalist policies since the 1980s, and these policies have generally not been abandoned in the 21st Century. The exceptional cases are the Netherlands, which witnessed a repeal of previously extensive multiculturalist policies in the 21st Century, and Denmark and Italy, which repealed the small number of multiculturalist policies which had been implemented (584-585).
• What stands out in the scores on the index is that differences between countries have steadily increased since the 1980s. The national differences in multiculturalist policy would be even larger if the index took into account policies designed to deter multiculturalism, like hijab bans in France or mosque-building bans in Switzerland (586).
• Civic integration policies generally attempt to better integrate immigrants into national societies in Europe, focusing mainly in employment, knowledge and respect for liberal and democratic 'European' values, and knowledge of national language and history. These policies attempt to limit difference between immigrants and the general population (587).
• These policies, especially in Northern Europe, have been increasingly implemented through requirements that immigrants take various tests or examinations to 'prove' integration before receiving benefits or advancing in legal status in the host country. They have expanded enormously since the turn of the 21st Century (587).
• Canada represents a model of 'multicultural integration', where multiculturalist and integrationist policies coexist. Multicultural policies in the 1970s were introduced by the Trudeau government with these aim in mind, encouraging respect for diversity through integration programs and visualizing language assistance as a method of encouraging immigrants to become full members of the Canadian polity (587).
• The Canadian system simultaneously protects the rights of new immigrants from any form of discrimination and demands that new immigrants learn about and support these systems of rights and the liberal political order which established them (588).
• Canada does not apply integrationist policies in a coersive fashion, however, providing the resources to integrate free-of-charge, but not linking integration with social welfare benefits. The only reward associated with integration is citizenship (588).
• Canada's history as a multicultural society with high rates of immigration, one emphasized in particular in opposition to British or French identity following independence in 1982, also allowed for multiculturalism to coexist with integrationist policies, since diverse cultural practices did not conflict with national identity (588).
• Australian policy has also accepted both multiculturalist and integrationist policies, again reflecting a history of diverse immigration requiring early acceptance of different cultural practices. The Australian government asserts that the only condition for integration is acceptance of liberal values, which then allow different people to practice different cultures in peace and harmony (588).
• Different methods of combining multicultural and civic integrationist policies exist. The Canadian and Australian models demonstrate a combination of multiculturalism with voluntary civic integration, with resources made available for inclusion, but integration not explicitly required. Europe has generally adopted a more coercive approach, where the state makes access to certain services or benefits contingent on integration. European states also generally demand that immigrants abandon their old cultural practices in favour of native ones, something not found in the Americas or Antipodes (589-590).
• European states have enforced this idea that new national identity must entirely replace old cultural practices through dress codes prohibiting foreign dress, prohibitions on dual citizenship, and demanding extensive knowledge of native cultural practices (590).
• More exclusive conceptions of national identity and coercive integraitonist measures usually occur together in European states, but this is not always the case. France, for example, does not tie benefits to integration, but its general culture and many laws demand that immigrants abandon foreign cultural practices (590).
• "The combination of enabling civic integration and multicultural accomodation is the option most in line with fundamental liberal values of freedom and fairness. There are valid justification for the state to promote civic integration, including promoting a common language and national identity. However, these policies risk being oppressive and unfair to minorities if they are ot supplemented by MCPs [multicultural policies]. Conversely, there are valid justifications for minorities to claim multicultural accomodations, but these policies may become unreasonable and destabilizing if they are not supplemented by civic integration policies. The combnation of civic integration and multiculturalism is mutually, normatively reinforcing: each helps to both justify and constrain the other" (592).
• The author recommends that European states adopt the voluntary and liberal, rather than coercive and illiberal, approaches to integration used in the Americas and the Antipodes (592-593).