Contours of the book

This book is the result of my reflections on the deepening crisis of multiculturalism that has been developing across the Euro-Atlantic region, in European countries in particular since the turn of the millennium. I critically evaluate multiculturalism's contemporary alternatives in terms of secularism, assimilation and (civic) integration, while also tracing the interconnections between these. I furthermore examine why these alternatives are problematic, not only from the standpoint of the migrants and minorities concerned, but also because these notions stem from, and will increasingly lead to, nationalist, Eurocentric and insufficiently democratic conceptions and practices of citizenship. This book, finally, sketches the contours of what could be considered fair and democratic conceptions of citizenship in multicultural societies, drawing from the debates on multiculturalism, secularism, assimilation and integration, while also trying to get beyond these complex and chameleonic concepts.

To explain the problems of the new assimilationism and its intersections with secularism, I scrutinise contemporary discourses on these concepts; but I also draw on a rereading of Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu), written between 1909 and 1922. Set in late 19th-century France, this novel narrates and criticises the ways in which schemes, ideas and practices concerning assimilation and secularisation became manifest in everyday relations between citizens of diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds. Proust's novel provides a unique perspective on the way that assimilation worked in practice over a long term, for Jewish citizens in particular. For political thinker Hannah Arendt, the novel also acts as a primary witness of the emergence of a specifically modern type of racism in the dynamics of assimilation. My reading of the novel explores this dynamic. The novel is relevant to today's questions about multiculturalism, secularism and assimilation, and it provides hints of ways to perhaps address the dynamics of assimilationism as well.

Assimilation and secularism are related concepts that play a central role in the debates about minorities, migration and religion being held across Europe today. The frequent appeals to these two historically layered and interconnected concepts have marked a transformation in social, political and cultural scholarship, in public debates and in governmental policies.