Immigration and Society since 1945

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Professor David Feldman
• Assessment: one essay of 5000-5500 words (100%)

Since 1945 the immigration, integration and ‘race’ have been recurrent features of social change and political debate in France, Germany and Britain. We will begin by asking to what extent and in what ways these are novel developments. The post-war experiences of the three countries will be compared to histories of immigration in each case in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will then go on to examine the different ways in which the politics of multiculturalism and diversity have taken shape in the three national contexts. This will also involve examining the ways in which the reception of immigrants has been shaped by legacies of empire, religious conflict and ideas of citizenship and race in the three national contexts. Finally, we will ask whether the collapse of Communism, the expansion of the European Union and the emergence of Islam as a point of conflict in European politics have inaugurated a new era of immigration, policy and debate.