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Migrants, Cohesion and the Cultural Politics of the State: Critical Perspectives on the Management of Diversity

A recent authoritative review of migration and settlement research in Europe identified a critical area for further research in the receiving society's treatment of migrants. This article sets out to respond to this call and, rather than examining specific immigration and integration policies, looks at the wider cultural politics of identity and difference that seems to underpin them. In particular, it focuses on the recent public debate on diversity and social cohesion that has taken place in Britain, paying special attention to the discursive practices of the state and its satellite organisations. Building on the assumption that the state is an embodied and performative entity involving a broad range of actors who operate within its frame of reference, the article examines the cultural politics of ministers, public service broadcasters and quangos’ representatives as an illustration of how discursive dominance comes into being. This examination is carried out through an intersectional approach which discusses representations of migrants and ethnicity not in isolation but in relation to those of non-migrants, class and national identity.