Immigrant Integration Mainstreaming at the City Level

Abstract

The local level has become increasingly central to the development of immigrant integration policies, due to both the increasingly diverse nature of cities and a general move towards polycentric integration governance models. As large cities are often the main recipients of immigrants, an increasing number of European cities can be described in terms of superdiversity, characterised by a proliferation of differences and without straightforward us-them distinctions. This chapter explores how generic policies are adapted to prevalent forms of diversity at the local level, and it analyses the increasing significance of frontline pragmatism in neighbourhood areas where ‘diversity is mainstream’. The question whether mainstreaming is a response to superdiversity becomes complicated by austerity measures at the national level.