Political Debates on Islamic Headscarves and Civic Integration Abroad in France and the Netherlands: What Can Models Explain?

This article evaluates the explanatory capacity of national models of migrant integration, through a comparative analysis of the regulation of Islamic headscarves on the one hand and civic integration abroad policies on the other hand, in both France and the Netherlands. It argues that national models—defined as historically rooted conceptions of nationhood, polity, and belonging—matter because they enable and constrain the framing of policy problems. However, the impact of national models on the policy outcome is determined by the political and institutional context in which decision-making takes place.