Dal multiculturalismo alla diversity : una ricerca europea sulle politiche locali per gli immigrati

All across European receiving societies, the mainstream political discourse is displaying increasing disaffection with multiculturalism. It is primarily at the level of local policies, though, that the social inclusion of immigrants and the governance of ethno-cultural diversity are negotiated. Building on a comparative study of the urban “adaptations” of multiculturalism in eight European cities, this article addresses three questions: i.) the changing relations between national and (relatively autonomous) local immigrant policies; ii.) the ways in which such policies are locally reframed and reshaped along the continuum between multiculturalism and assimilation; iii.) the involvement of civil society organizations in urban governance processes. Altogether, local policies seem to have been less affected by the multiculturalist backlash than a commonsense understanding would entail. They are increasingly constrained, though, by anti-immigrant stances and budgetary constraints, as well by the search for new political idioms vis-à-vis the delegitimization of the multiculturalist lexicon and agenda