ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter establishes the primary scope of inquiry for the volume – namely, extending existing minority rights protection to so-called ‘new’ minorities and migrants – and provides an overview of the book’s structure and chapters. The authors begin by discussing prevailing trends in the intersection of European minority rights and migration studies. This is followed by an explanation of the conceptual challenges relating to the categorisation of various minority groups, and a review of existing literature around the definition of ‘new’ minorities. The arguments of the volume’s various authors and chapters are then examined through the lens of a number of key topics, including the importance of historical perspectives and so-called ‘hard cases’, securitisation and de-securitisation, territory and the nation-state, whether policy-makers should look at creating new instruments or modifying existing ones, and the claims common to new and old minority groups. Finally, the authors highlight the shift towards a focus on “integrated societies” in the agendas of both the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention (ACFC) and the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), and call for greater cooperation between academia and supervisory bodies to conduct further research on the specific contexts and needs of diverse communities.
