Doing Both Class and Culture? Multiculturalism in Light of the Transnational Social Question

Abstract

What is the role of multiculturalism in the incorporation of immigrants in contemporary Western societies in the face of both market liberalization and (right-wing and) anti-immigrant populism? In order to answer this question, this analysis sketches the emergence of politics around culture in general and multiculturalism more specifically. It also outlines the triad of master processes driving the politics around multiculturalism. This triad consists of market liberalization, securitization and the rights revolution - with oppositions between market liberalization vs. social rights in the economic realm and securitization vs. multicultural rights in the cultural realm. Given this background, the analysis proceeds in greater detail to discuss the antinomies between securitization and cultural rights. The analysis develops a typology of migrants as ‘wanted’ (economically) and/or ‘welcome‘ (culturally), which leads to four modes of immigrant inequalities and insertion: incorporation, discrimination, tolerance and exclusion. The analysis concludes with reflections on the increasing significance of cultural and status politics without, however, implying the disappearance of class politics. The two are rather intertwined in that doing class co-structures the ways of doing culture.