Book Review: Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka (eds) Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies Oxford: Oxford University Press

Until a few years ago, our chosen multicultural approach allowed some cultural and religious groups to pursue an aggressive strategy against our values. The targets of this ill-conceived ‘attack’ were individual rights, equality of gender, respect for women and monogamy. We have to combat this dangerous attitude, which can destroy the fabric of our societies, and we have to work hard to build up and pursue a positive integration approach (Frattini, 2007). While this ill-concealed Muslim-baiting statement could have been issued from within any one of the national political establishments in today’s Europe, the enunciator in the particular case before us is no one less than ‘Europe’ herself; that is, the European Commission as represented by its vice-president and Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, Franco Frattini. But as seen, the statement, which was made at the Lisbon High-level Conference on migration in 2007, does not only depict European culture as verging on the edge of being annihilated by an aggressive Muslim ‘enemy within’. It also identifies the original cause of this emergency: multiculturalism.Original Publication:Peo Hansen, Book Review: Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka (eds) Multiculturalism and the Welfare State: Recognition and Redistribution in Contemporary Democracies Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, Acta Sociologica, (51), 375-377.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00016993080510040603Copyright: SAGE Publications (UK and US)http://www.sagepub.co.uk