ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on multiculturalism and especially multiculturalism policies. For its defenders, multiculturalism is a distinct approach to integration, which assumes that immigrants and ethnic minorities have a legitimate interest in their culture and traditions, and that public institutions should seek to accommodate this diversity in their rules and practices. Critics, however, have worried that multiculturalism policies lead to social segmentation and parallel societies within the state and the nation. Others have insisted that the multicultural approach weakens cohesion in society as a whole, dissolving the ties that bind a society together and allow it to accomplish great collective projects. This chapter draws on recent social science evidence to contribute to these debates. In the end, two conclusions stand out. First, multiculturalism policies have not declined but have proven highly resilient and compatible with the goals of civic integration and interculturalism. Second, the social science evidence is clear that multiculturalism policies do not generate social segmentation and do not erode social cohesion. Rather, multiculturalism policies emerge as a distinctive form of immigrant integration with important advantages in the context of contemporary diversity.
