Immigration integration policies reflect social and political values that are gendered, racialized, classed, sexualized, and traversed by histories of colonialism. This course adopts an intersectional perspective to critically examine how gender norms, racial hierarchies, sexual politics, and colonial legacies inform these political instruments in different geographical contexts and time periods.

Drawing upon readings from different disciplines, we will analyze how the construction of a collective ‘we’ imbued with certain values, in opposition to a collective ‘they’ characterized by other—at times antagonistic—ones, underlies the conception and formulation of immigration policies. In relation to this, we will explore how certain migrant bodies are constructed as desirable and/or willing to integrate while others are read as “failing to integrate” and, in extreme cases, a danger to the social body. To shed light onto these processes, we will focus on the figure of the Muslim immigrant as the quintessential Other in European immigration integration discourses and policies through two case studies: the veil ban and the opposition to the construction of mosques. Closely linked to these questions, we will also examine how LGBTQI+ rights have increasingly become a boundary marker in several European immigration integration policies. From a global perspective, we will also analyze how radical-right parties and movements capitalize upon these tensions to promote more restrictive immigration policies. We will conclude the course by reimagining what integration means and what it should look like in a future guided by principles of interculturality and social solidarity.

The course takes a comparative perspective to situate immigration integration policies within their historical, political, social, and economic contexts. During the semester, students will choose a country/city of their choice to critically examine the discourses and policies aimed at integrating immigrants and present the results of their research in in-class group presentations, a midterm report, and a final paper.

Assessment

The course uses a continuous evaluation method. During the semester, students will be evaluated based on four types of assessment (see breakdown of grades below):

1. Class participation (10%)

2. In-class group presentation (20%)

3. Midterm case study report (30%)

4. Final research paper (40%)

Competences, learning outcomes and teaching activities (PDF)