The Others in Europe

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The Others in Europe

In contemporary Europe, the social tensions and political passions produced by immigration are increasingly linked to issues of belonging and identity. The representation of the foreigner is no longer solely defined by his or her place on the labour market or in the social hierarchy. In light of EU-enlargement and due to immigration flows, European societies are increasingly questioning their cultural and « ethnic » identity. As a consequence, boundaries between « insiders » and « outsiders » are being redefined. The « others » in Europe are no longer merely those who do not have state citizenship of one of the member states of the Union. In the new European migration context, « otherness » increasingly refers to ethno-cultural minority groups, regardless of their EU citizenship status.

This edited volume addresses the construction of identity classifications underlying these new forms of inclusion and exclusion that are to be found in contemporary Europe. Its scope covers practices of categorization and of resistance, both by majority and minority groups. A mixed group of internationally established and younger scholars set out to investigate the categorisation of immigrants and their descendants as « Others » in Europe. They do so from their own disciplinary back-grounds ranging from Law, Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science to Social Psychology. This unique volume is hence trans-disciplinary in nature, shedding light from different angles on the issue of social and legal processes of categorization. The contributions analyse the continuities between the legal category of foreigner and the category of member of an « ethnicised » and discriminated minority, as apparent legal and social norms, public policies, institutional practices, social interactions and representations, as well as actors' mobilizations, on the European, national, and local level.