Dean’s Seminar: Immigration and Identity in Western Europe
Psc 801(10): Fall 2010 (CRN 75177)
Wednesdays, 11:10 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Monroe B36
Professor Kimberly Morgan
Office: Hall of Government, Rm 418
Phone: 994-2809, email: kjmorgan@gwu.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays, 1:45-4 p.m. or by appointment
SUMMARY
This seminar is about the politics of immigration, integration, and identity in Western Europe.
The class will explore the historical foundations of national identity; the migratory waves to
Western Europe since World War Two; immigration, citizenship, integration, and antidiscrimination policies; and contemporary clashes over Muslim minorities, including debates
over the Muslim headscarf, the cartoon controversy in Denmark, and the rise of Islamophobia.
Readings will focus in particular on the cases of Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, and the
Netherlands.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
In this class, you will:
 Explore fundamental concepts in the field of immigration, including national identity,
citizenship, integration/assimilation, multiculturalism, and toleration;
 Examine the historical foundations of these concepts and how they have evolved in an
array of European countries;
 Analyze contemporary conflicts over religion and strategies for the incorporation of
religious minorities into European communities and polities;
 Strengthen your writing skills – both the mechanics of writing and your capacity to
construct analytical essays that aim to persuade.
READING
Required texts
The following texts are required and available for purchase at the GW bookstore. They also are
available on reserve. Please note that we will not be reading all of these books in their entirety,
so you may not wish to purchase them.
* Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam (Penguin 2007): ISBN 978-0143112365
* Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Harvard University
Press 1998), ISBN 978-0674131781. NOTE: Also available as an e-book through Gelman
library.
*Christian Joppke, Veil (Polity: 2009), ISBN 978-0745643526
* Jytte Klausen, The Cartoons that Shook the World (Yale University Press: 2009), ISBN 9780300124729
* Leo Lucassen, The Immigrant Threat. The Integration of Old and New Immigrants in Western
Europe since 1850 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2005), ISBN 9780252072949
Blackboard
The other required readings are available as pdf files through the e-reserves on the Blackboard
system – you can either read them on-line or print them out.
To access Blackboard, you must have a Colonial e-mail account and be registered for this course.
To log in, go to http://blackboard.gwu.edu and type in your NetID and email password. If you
have problems or questions, try going to http://helpdesk.gwu.edu. Please try to access
Blackboard as soon as possible, to make sure that you are in the system and that you understand
its various features.
CLASS REQUIREMENTS
Seminar participation
As participation is crucial to the success of the seminar, you need to complete the assigned
readings before class and come prepared to talk about them. To make sure that you’re keeping
up with the reading, each week you will send me three “intriguing issues” that you found in the
readings – three things that struck you, surprised you, shocked you, puzzled you, etc. Each one
should be a couple of sentences. I expect to receive them by 9 a.m. on the day of class, so that I
have time to read them and incorporate your “intriguing issues” into our discussion. You have
two “amnesty” weeks in which you don’t need to send in the questions.
Your participation grade will consist of attendance (see below), your 11 intriguing issues, plus
the quantity and quality of your oral participation in the seminar.
Writing assignments
There will be three writing assignments based on the class readings. For each assignment, I will
give you a question that will require you to think critically about some issues raised in the
weekly readings. Your essays should be between 10-12 pages, or around 2800-3000 words.
You will submit your papers through SafeAssign on Blackboard as well as a hard copy. More
details on the assignments will be forthcoming.
GRADING
Participation
Assignment #1
Assignment #2
Assignment #3
25%
25%
25%
25%
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
I personally support the GW Code of Academic Integrity. It states: “Academic dishonesty is
defined as cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one's own work, taking credit for the
work of others without crediting them and without appropriate authorization, and the fabrication
of information.” For the remainder of the code, see: http://www.gwu.edu/~ntegrity/code.html
Plagiarism is a serious offense that will be dealt with accordingly. We will discuss the
problem of plagiarism before the first writing assignment. If you are uncertain about what
plagiarism is, you can consult the follow websites for discussions about what counts as
plagiarism:
-- http://libguides.gwu.edu/content.php?pid=56080&sid=410568
-- http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml#wwwplagiarism
SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES (DSS)
Any student who may need an accommodation based on the potential impact of a disability
should contact the Disability Support Services office at 202-994-8250 in the Marvin Center,
Suite 242, to establish eligibility and to coordinate reasonable accommodations. For additional
information please refer to: http://gwired.gwu.edu/dss/
Please speak with me in the first week of class to discuss what kinds of accommodations can be
made for you.
OTHER CLASS POLICIES
University Policy on Religious Holidays:
Students should notify faculty during the first week of the semester of their intention to be absent
from class on their day(s) of religious observance.
Absences from class:
Everyone gets one “no-questions-asked” absence from class. Otherwise, you will need to justify
any further absences with sufficient documentation. Unexcused absences will count against your
participation grade.
CLASS SCHEDULE AND READINGS
September 1: Introduction
Historical foundations of European identities
September 8: How did national identities form in Western Europe?
Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany, introduction and
chapters 1-6 (137 pages).
September 15: The impact of historic conflicts over religious and ethnic differences
Leo Lucassen, The Immigrant Threat. The Integration of Old and New Immigrants in Western
Europe since 1850, pp. 1-109.
* Thomas Rochon, “The Organization of Dutch Society,” READ pp. 25-48 ONLY.
September 22: Anti-Semitism
* Durkheim, “Anti-Semitism and Social Crisis,” (1899), 2 pages.
* Richard L. Rubenstein and John K. Roth, “The Irony of Emancipation: France and the Dreyfus
Affair,” pp. 77-96.
* Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, “Introduction: Reconceiving Central Aspects
of the Holocaust,” pp. 3-24.
* William I. Brustein, “Introduction: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust,” pp. 1-48
in Brustein, Roots of Hate (Cambridge: CUP, 2003).
September 29: Colonialism and De-Colonization
* Charles Hirschman, “The Origins and Demise of the Concept of Race,” Population and
Development Review, 30, 3 (Sep., 2004): 385-415.
* Modern History Sourcebook: Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man's Burden,” (1899).
* Alice Conklin, “Colonialism and Human Rights: A Contradiction in Terms? The Case of
France and West Africa, 1895-1914,” American Historical Review 103, 2 (April 1998): 419-42.
* Michael Mann, “’Torchbearers upon the Path to Progress’: Britain’s Ideology of a ‘Moral and
Material Progress’ in India,” pp. 1-26 in Colonialism as Civilizing Mission, eds. Harald FischerTiné and Michael Mann (London: Wimbledon Publishing 2004).
* Johann Hari, “The Two Churchills,” New York Times August 12, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/books/review/Harit.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=winston%20ch
urchill&st=cse
* Todd Shepard, “Algeria,” Dissent (Winter 2009): pp. 48-52.
October 6: The Great Migrations
Lucassen, The Immigrant Threat, pp. 113-213.
Randall Hansen, “Migration to Europe since 1945: Its History and Lessons.” Political Quarterly
2003, pp. 25-38.
FIRST PAPER DUE TUESDAY OCTOBER 12.
Immigration and Integration: Politics and Policies
October 13: Immigration, asylum, and citizenship policy
* Christian Joppke, “Why Liberal States Accept Unwanted Immigration,” Vol. 50, No. 2 (Jan.,
1998), pp. 266-293.
* Jeff Crisp, “Refugees and the Global Politics of Asylum,” The Political Quarterly (August
2003): 75-87.
* Randall Hansen and Desmond King, “Illiberalism and the New Politics of Asylum:
Liberalism’s Dark Side.” The Political Quarterly (October 2000): 396-403.
* Marc Howard, “Comparative citizenship; An Agenda for Cross-National Research,”
Perspectives on Politics, Sept 2006: 443-54.
* Stanford Encyclopedia entry on liberalism.
Please skim this and focus in particular on section four.
October 20: Models of integration policy
* Will Kymlicka, “The Forms of Liberal Multiculturalism” pp. 61-86 in Kymlicka, Multicultural
Odysseys: Navigating the new International Politics of Diversity (Oxford 2007).
* Susan Muller Okin, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” pp. 9-24 in Okin, Is
Multiculturalism Bad for Women? Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
* Aristide Zolberg, “Why Islam is Like Spanish: Cultural Incorporation in Europe and the United
States,” Politics & Society (March 1999): 5-38.
* Jeremy Jennings, “Citizenship, Republicanism and Multiculturalism in Contemporary France.”
* Christian Joppke, “Transformation of Immigrant Integration in Western Europe: Civic
Integration and Antidiscrimination Policies in the Netherlands, France, and Germany,” World
Politics 59, 2 (January 2007): 243-73.
* Elaine Sciolino “Britain Grapples with Role for Islamic Justice,” New York Times November
19, 2008: A1.
October 27: Immigrants and the Welfare state
* Gary Freeman, “Migration and the Political Economy of the Welfare State,” Annals AAPPSS
485 (May 1986): pp. 51-63.
* Mark Kleinman, “The Economic Impact of Labour Migration,” The Political Quarterly
(August 2003): 59-74.
* Carl-Ulrik Schierup, Peo Hansen, and Stephen Castles, “Britain’s ‘Neo-American’ Trajectory.”
Pp. 111-36 in Migration, Citizenship and the European Welfare State (NY: Oxford UP, 2006).
* George Menz, “’Useful Gastarbeiter, burdensome asylum seekers, and the second wave of
welfare retrenchment: Exploring the nexus between migration and the welfare state.” Pp. 393-
418 in Craig A. Parsons and Timothy M. Smeeding, eds., Immigration and the Transformation of
Europe (Cambridge UP 2006).
* Fadela Amara, “From Neighborhood to Ghetto,” (2006).
November 3: Racism, Right-Wing Parties, and the Policy Response
* Meindert Fennema, “Populist Parties of the Right,” (2005).
* Michele Lamont, “Immigration and the Salience of Racial Boundaries among French
Workers,” 2002.
* Erik Bleich, “Antiracism without Races: Politics and Policy in a ‘Color-Blind’ State,” French
Politics, Culture & Society 18, 3, Fall 2000: 48-74.
* Paul Statham, “Understanding Anti-Asylum Rhetoric: Restrictive Politics or Racist Publics?”
The Political Quarterly (August 2003): 163-77.
* Folder of articles about Geert Wilders in the Netherlands:
SECOND PAPER DUE TUESDAY NOVEMBER 9.
Islam in Western Europe: Conflicts and Debates
November 10: Security, Terrorism and the Rise of Islamophobia
* Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations.”
*Justin Vaisse, “Eurabian Follies.”
* Erik Bleich, “State Responses to ‘Muslim’ Violence: A Comparison of Six West European
Countries,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2009), 361-79.
* European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, “Muslims in the European
Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia,” (2006). This is a huge report, read only pp. 60-6, and
look through country examples of Denmark, Germany, France, Netherlands, UK.
* Matti Bunzl, “Between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” 2005.
* Kenan Malik, “Islamophobia Myth.” Prospect. January 20, 2005.
November 17: Sexual Politics and the Headscarf Debates
Christian Joppke, Veil (2009).
* Folder of articles about headscarf/burqa/niqab bans
November 24: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY; NO CLASS.
December 1: The Demise of the Dutch Model of Accommodation?
Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam (2006).
TUESDAY December 7: Freedom of speech and the Danish Cartoon Controversy
Note: this class will be held on the official make-up day in a location TBA.
Klausen, The Cartoons the Shook the World (2009).
* Hitchens, Christopher. The Case for Mocking Religion. Slate, Feb 4, 2006.
* Patricia Cohen, “Yale Bans Images of Muhammad in New Book,” New York Times, August
12, 2009
LAST PAPER DUE: DATE TBA.