Articulating the Problematic of Integration in a Minority Debate

Abstract

This chapter explores hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses on integration and assimilation in Flanders. It includes a detailed analysis of the typically Dutch distinction between allochthon and autochthon citizens—a binary pair unique to minority discourse in Belgium and in the Netherlands. Jan Zienkowski identifies the hegemonic logics structuring statements on guest workers, migrants, allochthons and/or Muslims in Flanders. He then turns to interviews conducted with Flemish Moroccan-Belgian activists and intellectuals who metapragmatically rearticulate and criticise hegemonic integration discourse. He shows how the signifier of integration operates in a politicised and polyphonic public sphere where subjects struggle to construct alternative forms of political awareness in the face of powerful hegemonic forces.