WZB-Vortragsreihe: Immigrant integration – Is model-thinking convincing in international comparisons?

Dienstag, 30. Juni 2009

17.00 - 19.00 Uhr, Raum A 300

In the 1990s, vivid discussions broke out among migration scholars about different national models of citizenship and integration, such as multiculturalism or assimilation. More recently, these classical models
of citizenship have been challenged by studies claiming a convergence between countries resulting either from the emergence of a supranational model of citizenship or from a de facto convergence of policies. Do Western European nation states converge towards a liberal, American understanding of citizenship and citizenship rights, as Christian Joppke has repeatedly argued? Or does the persistence of fundamental differences justify the distinction of national citizenship regimes, as Ruud Koopmans claims?

Christian Joppke is a professor of political science at the Graduate School of Government at the American University of Paris. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley. His publications include Immigration and the Nation-State (1999) and Selecting by Origin (2005). He has also published numerous book chapters and articles in leading political science and sociology journals.

Ruud Koopmans is a professor of sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Director of the WZB research unit “Migration, Integration, Transnationalization”. He received a Ph.D. in political and social-cultural sciences from the University of Amsterdam. His publications include Contested Citizenship,
Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe (2005) as well as numerous articles and book chapters in internationally renowned journals.