A New Book on Migration in Europe by Ayhan Kaya

We are glad to inform you that a new book is now out from Palgrave MacMillan: ISLAM, MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION: The Age of Securitization by Professor Ayhan Kaya, Director of the European Institute. Deriving from the author's own qualitative and quantitative research in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, he discussed the ways in which Muslims have been stigmatized especially after 9/11.

ISLAM, MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION: The Age of Securitization

Ayhan Kaya


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Preface

I have always perceived Migration Studies as an interdisciplinary field providing me with the tools to scrutinize not only the life worlds of immigrants and their descendants, but also the ways in which the receiving countries have politically, socially, culturally, economically and legally changed over time vis-a-vis immigrant origin populations. This is why I have preferred to understand the transformation of the modern nation-state through the lens of Migration Studies. And I have chosen to try to grasp the changing habitats of meaning of migrants and minorities in order to actually comprehend majority societies. Although this book seems to be on Muslim origin migrants living in the West, it is actually not. This book is about the changing face of the nation-state in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands at a time distinguished with (marked by) securitization, prudentialism, Islamophobia and violence. I claim that the fear of migrants and Muslims prevalent in the West cannot have material sources; it is in fact a constructed and fabricated fear, serving the interests of nation-states which are no longer equipped with the tools to redistribute justice and peace relatively equally. Migration has for a long time been a source of content and happiness for the West. But now it is seen as a source of instability and insecurity, or it is portrayed as such by parochial political elites as a form of governmentality to maintain their power. I have come to the conclusion that most of the controversies and debates on migration have essentially been designed to conceal the most persistent structural problems leading to inequality, poverty and discrimination. I also find it very worrying to see that migration is being very disapprovingly perceived at a time when net migration is becoming even (-) minus in most of the European Union countries.

This book has written itself over the years in so many different places and occasions. Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, New York, London, Florence, Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Mersin, Bairut, Jerusalem, Nalchick and so on. Every single individual I met in the fieldworks, interviews, conferences, workshops and lectures have taught me a lot. All these journeys have given me the chance to learn from the act of migrating and travelling. I believe that the act of migration was my own Ithaca which gave me a “marvellous journey”, and I know that “without her I wouldn't have set out” as the prominent Greek poet Constantin P. Cavafy once said in his poem “Ithaca”. The whole journey was “full of adventure” and “full of discovery”...

Ayhan Kaya

Istanbul

Table of contents

Preface
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Figures
Introduction
Germany: From Segregation to Integration
France: From Integration to Segregation
Belgium: A Culturally Divided Land
The Netherlands: From Multiculturalism to Assimilation
Building Communities: Comfort in Purity
Accomodation of Islam: Individualization vs. Institutionalization
Conclusion: Transnationalizing Integration
Bibliography

Availability: Not Yet Published
From Palgrave Macmillan
Pub date: May 2009
304 pages
Tables and Graphs
Size 5 1/2 x 8 1/4
Hardcover (0-230-51679-3)

Description

This work explores contemporary debates on migration and integration, focussing on Euro-Muslims. It critically engages with republicanist and multiculaturalist policies of integration and claims that integration means more than cultural and linguistic assimilation of migrant communities.

Author Bio

AYHAN KAYA is Professor of Politics and Director of the European Institute at Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey. He is the author of Belgian-Turks (with F. Kentel), Euro-Turks (with F. Kentel), and Constructing Diasporas.