The End(s) of Diversity. the Struggle Between Nationalism and the Hyperdiverse City

In the framework of the FP7-project Divercities, we investigate how urban policymakers deal with the increasing hyperdiversity in European cities (Tasan-Kok, van Kempen, Raco & Bolt, 2013). In reaction to immigration and the intense diversification of the population, nationalist parties have gained electoral success in several Western-European cities. As a political ideology that focuses on constructing and maintaining a homogeneous nation-state, nationalism seems to be at odds with the hyperdiversity in contemporary Western-European cities. Characterized by the coexistence of people with very diverse socio-economic and ethno-cultural backgrounds, the hyperdiverse city is an anomaly to most theories of nationalism. While authors like Anderson (1983), Gellner (1983) and Smith (1986) explained nationalism on a countrywide or regional scale, little has been written about the relationship between nationalism and the city. In this paper, we want to address the question how nationalist policies deal with hyperdiversity in the city.

In order to answer this question, we take the example of Antwerp in Belgium. As the largest city of the Flemish region, Antwerp is an interesting case because of the electoral success of Flemish nationalist parties on the one hand and the diversity of its population on the other hand. While extreme right-wing Flemish nationalism has long been relegated to the opposition, a moderate Flemish nationalist party recently came to power in Antwerp. Based on a critical discourse analysis of policy documents and interviews with policymakers, we compare past and present integration policies regarding immigrants in Antwerp. This comparison illustrates how urban integration policies have shifted away from multicultural to assimilationist policies. Serving nation-building ideals rather than the pragmatic inclusion of immigrants in the city, the nationalist assimilation policies seem to be ill-equipped to deal with the increasing hyperdiversity in the contemporary Western-European city.