Openness to Others: Nationalism, Migration and Representation

Abstract

Within migration and ethnicity studies research, scholars analysing a country’s openness towards newcomers often tend to differentiate between liberal versus restrictive policy approaches or investigate how open or closed borders are. But "openness" is not just about governments making decisions to allow newcomers to cross international borders and reside within a territory or to grant noncitizens rights; openness is a constantly evolving process that must be negotiated by many actors at many levels. Society at large must decide whether and how to accommodate outsiders so that they can become insiders; the media adopts certain frames that affect how people understand openness and view the actions of the actors involved; political parties can be open to recruiting newcomers for their organization or decide to cater to more traditional constituents. This panel brings together analyses on different actors and levels to discuss openness to others, meaning anyone outside of a country's mainstream majority groups. We borrow this sociological approach to apply it within the political realm, where we are witnessing more human mobility and more diverse people gaining political voice and representation. The scholars on this panel are ultimately interested in the motives and ways in which various actors embrace or deter the process of newcomers claiming and gaining rights and representation across a multitude of countries and political systems.

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