Integration in Flanders (Belgium) – Citizenship as achievement

How intertwined are ‘citizenship’ and ‘integration’ in Flemish language policies?

Reinhilde Pulinx | | Ghent University

Piet Van Avermaet | | Ghent University

In this article we will show, with Flanders (Belgium) as a concrete case, how intertwined integration and citizenship discourses and policies have become in contemporary super-diverse societies. Flanders is a clear example of how integration is gradually being replaced by virtual or moral citizenship. The fact that (moral) citizenship has replaced integration, has as a consequence that the concept of citizenship has shifted, in a subtle way, from a dynamic and contextualized process, which shapes itself in daily practice through social networks, into ‘citizenship as achievement’. This is an achievement that is the sole responsibility of certain groups in society. It is also an impossible achievement, because some are exempt from it and others will always be perceived as not yet belonging to the category of ‘true citizens’.

Keywords: moral citizenship, language ideologies, language and integration policies, super diversity, social networks

Published online: 21 August 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.3.02pul

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