Abstract
Since the 1990s, the immigrant integration policies in Western developed countries have undergone significant changes. At first glance, this change seems to have taken place in contradiction to the general trend of "globalization" witnessed during this age, since most Western countries retreated from "denizenship" and "multiculturalism," which were salient features of their immigration policies in the 1970s and 80s, and came to place greater emphasis on the notion of "integration". This article discusses this change, locating it in the broader historical interrelationship between the rise of nation-states and the expansion of global migration since the 19th century and showing that nation-states have been formed, reformed, and globally disseminated in tandem with the global transformation of the last two centuries. By including and excluding immigrants, nation-states have constituted their own "national" institutions and self-understandings. The on-going policy shift toward "civic integration" in Western developed countries, this article argues, is an uncertain move toward a new phase in nation-state reconfiguration: by redefining the existing concepts of their "nations," most Western nation-states are now seeking to incorporate and integrate postwar immigrants and their descendents with "different" ethno-cultural backgrounds under the rubric of "civic" values. Finally, the article briefly examines the implications for the Japanese immigrant policy.
