Contrary to mid-twentieth century predictions, ethnic pluralism has increased dramatically in North America and significantly in Europe. Neither the post 9/11 emphasis on international border security nor anti-immigration and anti-multiculturalism movements have affected the fifty year trend of increasing labour mobility and sustained levels of migration. The ethnic pluralism accompanying this powerful trend has fueled academic research and public debate. Contributors report on and develop a conceptualization of ethnic social incorporation and multiculturalism in Canada, the United States, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy. This group of countries displays a remarkable variety of both ethnic diversity and public policy responses to ethnic social incorporation over the past four decades.
It includes two countries (Canada and the United States) built upon very large-scale immigration over the course of more than a century, two countries (Greece and Italy) which until recently were characterized by large-scale emigration but now are grappling with immigration, one country (Bulgaria) that was until the 1990s insulated from extensive migration and faces a demographic slump, and one (Germany) that has experimented with isolating temporary populations but is now addressing the responsibilities of permanent immigration. Multicultural Variations includes national reports describing each of the six countries under investigation and is book-ended by introductory and concluding chapters that present a new understanding of and synthesis on multiculturalism that is distinct from either enthusiastic support or ideological critiques.
Contributors include Mathias Bos (Philipps-Universitat Marburg; Germany), Antonio Chiesi, (Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy), Jason Edgerton (University of Manitoba, Canada), Barry Ferguson (University of Manitoba, Canada), Nikolai Genov (Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany), Louis Hicks (St Mary's College of Maryland, USA), Paul Kingston (University of Virginia, USA), Laura Maratou-Alipranti (National Centre for Social Research, Athens, Greece), Lance W. Roberts (University of Manitoba, Canada), Sonia Stefanizzi (Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy), and Susanne von Below (Johann Wolfgang Goethe- Universitat Frankfurt, Germany),