Debating Diversity: Analysing the Rhetoric of Tolerance

Immigration, racism and nationalism are major political themes throughout the Western world, vigorously debated by politicians, the media, and the public at large. Debating Diversity turns these discourses themselves into a topic, and suggests that a major "problem" of diversity may be the way in which it is debated. The authors discuss the "tolerant" rhetoric now finding its way into news reporting, policy statements, social-scientific research reports, government- sponsored antiracism campaigns and training programs. An unlikely and disturbing consistency is revealed between this rhetoric of tolerance and the discourse of radical racist and nationalist groups, in that their discourses share a fundamental non-acceptance of diversity. Based on empirical analysis of data taken from the texts of "migrant policies" in Belgium, this study also situates Belgian policy within the wider context of racism and nationalism throughout Europe and the United States.