Nationalism, Identity and the Governance of Diversity

Fiona Barker examines what happens when the 'new' diversity arising from immigration and the 'old' politics of substate nationalism intersect. Depending on their integration patterns, migrants could become allies of substate nationalists or could instead buttress the statewide majority and undermine substate autonomy claims. Grounded in extensive archival and interview-based research, this comparative study asks how political leaders in Quebec, Flanders and Brussels, and Scotland have responded to immigration, migrant integration and diversity, and what shapes their policy approaches over time. Barker shows that institutional and power configurations of the multilevel state, leaders' perceptions of how immigration impacts on national autonomy goals, and dynamics of competitive nation-building all shape substate responses to immigration and migrants. Barker offers a new dimension to scholarship on immigration by examining policy responses among substate nationalists and in societies already possessing deep diversity. Nationalism, Identity and the Governance of Diversity also explores the implications of political decentralization for how multilevel, multinational democracies govern diversity.