2010 International Symposium
Immigration debates and the rise of human mobility in many European and North American countries, but as well in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa reflect a number of transnational discursive productions, such as the perception of porous national borders, socio-economic insecurity, and rising political instability. As a response to this rise in immigration flows and human mobility, many émigré-societies (excluding France) have heavily relied on multiculturalism as social policy response to deal with settlement’s related issues of new immigrants, but also to reflect on different social topics such as the meaning of citizenship, social justice, intercultural tensions and related social problems.
However, recently, multiculturalism has come under attack and gradually started to retreat as a meaningful concept for dealing with political, cultural and religious diversity in the wake of today’s economic difficulties and security risks and uncontrollable human mobility. Indeed, multiculturalism is now being replaced by stronger discursive practices, which tend to encourage a commitment to particular values of national identity. Within this retreating version of multiculturalism, which discursive trajectories seem to move from cosmopolitanism to assimilationism, migrant populations in the Western émigré countries, as well as national western nationals with visible and invisible non-western markers, are increasingly engaging and challenging notions of representations, national belonging, and cultural identity.
This symposium features a body of prominent international scholars who will discuss and present their latest research and reflection on multiculturalism. Among others themes, the participants will talk about the following key-themes:
- Rethinking multiculturalism in/for the context of 21st century
- Transnational multiculturalism
- Multiculturalism and cultural representations
- Visibility/invisibility of racial, cultural, and religious minorities in émigré societies
- The state of multiculturalism and indigenous communities
- The contradictory manifestations of multicultural ideologies and the ethics of political membership
