ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered subsequent chapters of the book. The aim of this book is to examine public discourses on national identity and immigration in contemporary Italy. The book sets out to fill the gap in the literature on the relation between public debates on identity and immigration by following a chronological and thematic approach. It starts with an overview of the concepts of identity and otherness as presented in classical literature and the dominant models of integration developed by individual countries according to their political and historical traditions. The book describes the main issues related to the representation of minority groups as they have been addressed in the complex and articulated dialogue between liberals and communitarians. It addresses the main positions of, as well as criticism directed at these two strands of thought, and the models they inform: assimilation and multiculturalism.
