Racism, Migration and the State in Western Europe: A Case for Comparative Analysis

Comparative studies of post-1945 migration into Western Europe, and of the political and ideological responses to migration, have become increasingly common. While these studies demonstrate a number of common processes, their particular mode of expression can differ substantially from one country to another. This requires the development of a theoretical framework which is formulated at a level of generality which can encompass the historical specificity of, and variation between, particular instances, yet which permits a general explanation which is sensitive to that specificity and variation. The framework offered in this paper proposes a comparative analysis of the migration of four analytically distinct categories of person which highlights the role of the state in the reproduction of the imagined community of nation. That role is carried out in the context of a more general process of the regulation of scarcity, in the course of which people are simultaneously included in and excluded from the hierarchy of economic, political and ideological positions in the nation-state. Of special interest is the content of the processes of signification and categorisation that are generated in the inclusionary and exclusionary processes. The countries selected for analysis are France, the Netherlands and Britain.