The Migration-Mobility Nexus: Rethinking Citizenship and Integration as Processes1

In Western societies multiculturalism is increasingly perceived neither as a legitimate nor an efficient way to promote a fair conception of citizenship and an efficient integration of religious and cultural minorities. This has led to a higher political relevance of the notion of integration, defining the perimeter and the modalities of accommodation of minority groups. However, the dominant existing conceptions of integration and citizenship implicitly assume the immobility of immigrants. The chapter aims at thinking about a conception of democratic integration which is suited to tackle issues related to mobility of individuals and groups. It discusses the concept of integration in distinguishing two main conceptions of it, namely integration as adjustment and integration as an inter-subjective process of negotiation and/or reinterpretation of the specific content of common values and of common belonging. On the basis of the moral superiority of integration as process over integration as adaptation, there are not compelling reasons that this should preclude mobile individuals. Immobility is not needed to deliberate about democratic norms of common belonging. But this cannot result in the diminution of rights and resources of individuals who do not have the choice of mobility. Multicultural terms of fair integration are therefore still needed to accommodate societies where minority groups are marked by difference.