New and Old Identities: Construction, Implications, Reactions

Abstract

This panel is focused on the political and psychological dimensions of diversity in Europe. The past three decades’ migration flows have brought unprecedented ethnic, cultural and religious diversity to Europe. This emerging heterogeneity has created increasing tension in recipient societies, reinforced in the context of the financial crisis. Minority groups are increasingly being viewed as competitors for limited resources, leading to perceptions of differential treatment among communities and incremented animosities between them. At the same time, institutional strategies and policies, together with the sheer every-day reality of many communities have contributed to the development of new senses of identification among citizens – regardless of their ethnic, religious or other background. Many live a reality of multiculturalism that has contributed to the development among some of a sense of shared identification with the locality in which they live. Such identification may differ from previous theoretical distinctions of communitarian or cosmopolitan affiliations. This panel welcomes papers that address and problematise the lived experiences and strategies to deal with diversity in highly multicultural societies. Of particular interest are papers that analyse how the political environment may shape these individual experiences of multiculturalism and how they define these intergroup relations and conflicts.

Title	Details
Being a Migrant. Narratives and Social Identity Formation Among Somalis and Post Enlargement Poles	View Paper Details
The Boundaries of Solidarity. Redistrubtion in a Globalised Society	View Paper Details
The Effect of Parental Intergroup Contact on the Intergenerational Transmission of Ethnic Prejudice among Adolescents	View Paper Details
Multi-Culturalism, Citizenship and the Politics of Engagement Among Post-Diasporic Europeans	View Paper Details