Framing Immigrant Integration : Dutch Research-Policy Dialogues in Comparative Perspective

The Coproduction of National Models of Integration: A View from France and the Netherlands

“…Although the Netherlands had been depillarising already since the 1960s, this suggests what Vink (2007) describes as a 'pillarisation reflex. ' This Ethnic Minorities Policy approximated what in the literature is described as a multiculturalist approach to migrant integration (Scholten 2011). It was firmly rooted not just in policy discourse, but also in academic discourse.…”

“…The problem here is that scholarly notions of integration models reflect and are influenced by public debates, which in turn are structured by the frames of the dominant elite, which includes influential scholars (see Scholten 2011). As a result, scholarly writings that are presented as analysing social and political phenomena can be normative as well.…”

“…In fact, even when policymakers claim to operate according to a specific policy model, their reasons for doing so may be based more on pragmatism and flexibility than on support for the policy model itself in its ideal-typical form. For instance, the reason why some politicians in the 1980s framed immigrant integration in terms of the multicultural model may have much more to do with their fear of anti-immigrant parties playing the race card than with their so-called multicultural policy beliefs (Scholten 2011).…”

The ‘epistemic turn’ in immigration policy analysis

“…He distinguished between enlightenment, engineering, technocracy and bureaucracy configurations of research-policy relations. This framework has been usefully applied to comparative analysis of the role of research in European national and EU-level integration policies (Scholten, 2011), notably in the context of the DIAMINT project (Scholten et al, forthcoming). Applying this comparative approach, Scholten and Timmermans (2010) find evidence of a shift from technocratic to enlightenment and then to engineering configurations, not just in Dutch integration policy, but also in French and UK approaches (albeit the shift occurred earlier).…”

Migration Policymaking in Europe : The Dynamics of Actors and Contexts in Past and Present

“…For example, 2004 witnessed the fierce contestation of the role of experts in this policy domain. Politics and media criticism emerged concerning how the development of policy ideas might in fact be in the hands of 'scientists who have multiculturalist biases' (see Scholten 2011). The technocratic relationship between science and politics characterising this domain in earlier periods was now dismissed as undemocratic.…”