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Mysterious multiculturalism: The risks of using model-based indices for making meaningful comparisons

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

In this article, we discuss key problems of model-based indices and their indicators used by the students of cross-national differences in the field of immigration, integration and citizenship policies. Model-based indices aggregate scores on a variety of indicators. We scrutinize the risks of aggregation by looking closely at the measurement of multiculturalism in the Netherlands. We do so through a critical analysis of the measurement of multicultural policies provided by the Multicultural Policy Index and the corresponding indicators used in the Indicators for Citizenship Rights for Immigrants for the Netherlands since the 1980s. Our findings demonstrate that problems lie not in faulty scoring of individual indicators, but with the aggregation of those scores as measurements of a larger model. Most indicators more or less adequately score for policy developments in the Netherlands, but can hardly be considered to indicate multiculturalism. As we show, a wide variety of indicators, scoring policies in differing domains, cannot be assumed to measure the same coherent, but abstract, entity: ‘Multicultural Policies’, let alone a ‘Multicultural Model’.

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Notes

  1. They are: cultural requirements for naturalization; cultural requirements for family reunification; cultural requirements for granting of residence permit.

  2. They are: allowance of Islamic ritual slaughtering; allowance of Islamic call to prayer; mosques with recognizable architecture; existence of Muslim cemeteries; allowance of burial without coffin; Imams in the military; Imams in prison.

  3. People who live in mobile homes.

  4. Article 6 states: ‘Everyone shall have the right to profess freely his religion or belief, either individually or in community with others, without prejudice to his responsibility under the law. Rules concerning the exercise of this right other than in buildings and enclosed places may be laid down by Act of Parliament for protection of health, in the interest of traffic and to combat or prevent disorders’ (see www.denederlandsegrondwet.nl/9353000/1/j9vvihlf299q0sr/vgrnbhimm5zv).

  5. Dutch Nationality Act 1984, Article 9.

  6. We thank the editors for helping us summarize these problem areas.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their invaluable contributions to this article. Their critical responses were instrumental in improving the argument.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185, Amsterdam, 1012 DK, The Netherlands

    Jan Willem Duyvendak

  2. Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, Amsterdam, 1012 CX, The Netherlands

    Rogier van Reekum

  3. Department of Sociology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185, Amsterdam, 1012 DK, The Netherlands

    Fatiha El-Hajjari

  4. French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) 27, rue de la Procession, Paris, 75740, France

    Christophe Bertossi

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  1. Jan Willem Duyvendak
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Duyvendak, J., van Reekum, R., El-Hajjari, F. et al. Mysterious multiculturalism: The risks of using model-based indices for making meaningful comparisons. Comp Eur Polit 11, 599–620 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2013.13

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