Do migrant integration policies support nationalist aspirations?

This comparative research will focus on how nationalism affects - directly or indirectly - the design and implementation of migrant integration policies in multinational democracies. It aims at understanding how political elites, involved in a process of building (sub) national consciousness, consider integration. Indeed, they face a dilemma and have to make difficult political choices about the treatment of newcomers and their descendants. On the one hand, their inclusion could weaken the homogenisation of culture and identity that are at work in the process of nation formation. On the other hand, a contrario, their inclusion (with specific conditions to be fulfilled) could possibly enhance the group’s demographic and political strength. My research question is: What are the tensions between the process of building (sub) national consciousness and migrant integration policies