The elective affinities between racism and immigrant integration. A dialogue between two research studies carried out in the European Union and Spain

Abstract

In this paper, we problematise the relationship between racism and immigrant integration policies. First, we approach racism from its institutional, governmental and trans-scalar functioning logic. Then, drawing on the fieldwork materials of our respective investigations (carried out at the EU level and in Spain), we argue the existence of an ‘elective affinity’ between racism and integration, despite the apparently inclusive and proactive rethoric entailed by integration policies. With this aim, we focus on three specific issues: (1) the construction of the migrants (and the racialised Others) as an object of intervention/knowledge, (2) the downplaying of racism, reduced to an individual pathology which is considered to be incompatible with Western democracy and free market, (3) the reproduction of epistemic racism through the discourse on European (and national) values. By discussing the power/knowledge relations fostered by the hegemonic problematisation of integration, we propose to approach it as a ‘suspicious category’.