The Limits of the Liberal State:
Migration, Identity and Belonging in Europe

A Research Workshop of the CES Immigration Research Group
December 1-2, 2006

The CES Immigration Research Group convened a two-day meeting on December 1-2, 2006 at University College London. Attendees included: Aristide Zolberg, Phil Triadifilopoulos, Randall Hansen, Goekce Yurdakul, Erik Bleich, Fiona Adamson, Pontus Odmalm, James Hampshire, Galya Ruffer, and Saime Oezcueruemez. Generous funding was provided by the Foundation for Migration, Population and Environment.

The workshop began with presentations by Zolberg and Triadifilopoulos. Zolberg examined the extent to which religion posed a different challenge to integration policies compared with language. As he pointed out, it is possible to be bilingual and hold multiple linguistic identities, but more challenging to do so with religious identities. Triadifilopoulos examined the use of illiberal forms of integration policies to achieve liberal aims within a post-9/11 context. He made comparisons between aggressive liberal integrationist policies and American neoconservative foreign policies, raising the question of whether we are witnessing the emergence of a form of "Schmittian liberalism." The workshop continued with Hansen provocatively arguing that the ideal liberal integration policy may combine an American approach to labor markets with French republicanism. Bleich examined the history of hate speech legislation in Europe and North America, focusing on the trade-offs between freedom of expression and the promotion of social cohesion. Adamson examined the challenge posed to liberal civil society by diaspora politics and transnational actors.

The Saturday session of the workshop began with two surveys of contemporary citizenship policy in Europe. Odmalm's paper traced empirical trends in Europe over the past decade, whereas Hampshire's paper asked what liberal states could legitimately be expected to demand from future citizens. His paper focused specifically on the question of citizenship tests and civics courses. Finally, the workshop ended with presentations by Ruffer and Oezcueruemez, who examined dilemmas of integration posed by both supranational legal institutions and national health systems.

Some key themes that emerged in the sessions included: competing definitions, principles and aims of "liberalism" and which definitions to use when; how to characterize whether particular state practices were liberal or illiberal; the extent to which "illiberal" means can legitimately be employed for "liberal" policy ends; liberalism as consisting of a bundle of competing and at times contradictory goods.

The revised papers from the workshop have been submitted for review to the Journal for Ethnic and Migration Studies for consideration as a special issue on "The Limits of the Liberal State: Migration, Identity, and Belonging in Europe."