Managing superdiversity? Examining the intercultural policy turn in Europe

This chapter critically assesses an 'intercultural policy turn' evident in many European cities. It identifies the drivers of this turn and asks whether an intercultural policy approach to immigrant integration is an adequate response to the growing reality of superdiversity in urban spaces. The chapter is in conversation with the rich scholarship on immigrant integration in Europe in the political and social sciences. Integration is about 'imagining what the state can actively do to “nationalize” newcomers and re-constitute the nation-state under conditions of growing cultural diversity'. This cultural diversity has become an increasing phenomenon which policymakers in Europe have struggled to come to terms with. The growing diversification of society is particularly evident in cities: places where international migrants mostly settle. An increasing number of cities are not only ethno-culturally diverse, but they have become superdiverse spaces and home to people who vary not only as with regards to their ethnic, national, religious, and linguistic backgrounds, but also with relation to age, gender, migration status, as well as varying degrees of transnational ties, resulting in a complex composition of society. Population groups are not only different from each other but also exhibit significant internal diversity.