Given that ‘nationalism is a doctrine about the boundaries of the political community’ (Kymlicka 2001,73), the issue of immigration is central for understanding sub-state nationalism. One of the first state reforms on the road of Flemish autonomy in the Belgian federation included the transfer of the competencies in immigrant integration from the federal state to its linguistic communities in 1980. The following question becomes interesting: What is the nature of the relationship between Flemish nationalism and migration policy?
This paper consists of three components: (1) a conceptual clarification of 'ethnic', 'civic' and 'cultural' nationalism; (2) a description of the understanding(s) of integration in the Flemish context in its relation with linguistic competence; and (3) a normative assessment of the relationship between (1) and (2). The underlying argument is that it is in understanding different concepts of integration the nature of the relationship between nationalism and migration policy can be clarified.
