Challenge to the Nation-State: The European Question

Abstract

In this work, I have sought to cast light on a key area of public policy in Western Europe — the integration of immigrants and new ethnic groups — by comparing and contrasting the distinct political responses of two of the continent’s most peculiar old nations: France and Britain. In the reversed mirror images of their ideas about citizenship and nationality, they have proven to be a particularly apt coupling. In the first half of the study, I identified the two dominant public philosophies underlying the policy frameworks in the two countries, showing how and when they came together in each case to solder a broad cross-party consensus on the best way of dealing with the policy dilemmas involved: particularly on the core language and conceptual terms for addressing these issues. I then went on to show how the triumph of the philosophy in each case has over time constrained and delimited responsive adaptation to new issues and circumstances, most notably international developments taking place outside their borders. The predominant picture that emerges from the second, critical, half of this study is rather negative.