This article examines mainstreaming as a governance strategy in immigrant integration governance. Diversity mainstreaming involves a whole society approach for raising awareness about migrationrelated diversity, mobilising a network of actors to embed diversity across policy areas. Bringing together the literature on superdiversity, policy targeting and governance mainstreaming this article examines empirically whether, and if so, why, and how, mainstreaming is applied as a governance strategy in France, the Netherlands and the UK. Based on a qualitative policy analysis covering the period 2000–14, we find mainstreaming ‘incomplete’ and driven by political and economic motives rather than considerations of superdiversity.
Rotterdam is commonly characterised as pioneering in immigrant integration governance, often functioning as a predecessor for national and local policies in other cities. Before the first national integration policies were drafted in the Netherlands, Rotterdam already developed integration policies to deal with the interethnic tensions in the ‘Afrikaanderwijk’-neighbourhood. Also more recently Rotterdam’s policies were marked as pioneering, setting an example for other national and local policies. The best known example is the national law ‘Wet Bijzondere Grootstedelijke Problematiek’, also known as the Rotterdam Act. This national law was developed in Rotterdam and offers large cities the discretion to develop measures for specific urban problems in their city. Ethnic segregation and inequalities were the main underlying reason for Rotterdam to develop this policy. A local motto – ‘deeds, not words’ (in Dutch ‘Geen woorden maar daden’) – expresses the hands-on attitude for which the city and its citizens are known. This maxim is reflected in the city’s integration policies as well.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.