Doctoral Dissertation Research: Institutional Arrangements and the Incorporation of Immigrant Populations

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Ethnic diversity is a common characteristic of urban environments and some European cities have become "super diverse" over the last decade. In response to this superdiversity, nations in Western Europe have created urban reception offices for newly arrived migrants. It is in these reception offices that local understandings of citizenship and incorporation are communicated and translated through citizenship classes. As a social phenomenon, the emergence of reception offices for the sake of incorporating newly arrived immigrants speaks towards a shift in emphasis from the legal to the moral dimensions of citizenship. In other words, in order for migrants to be considered citizens, they not only have to obtain the appropriate legal documents, but they also have to display "good moral character." Studies on these aspects of citizenship are relatively scarce. Nevertheless, they are important in order to get a better understanding of the theoretical categories of citizenship and incorporation. It implies studying who is included in the imagined community of citizens and who is not.This dissertation utilizes ethnographic research to investigate how newcomer migrants are welcomed in practice in the bilingual and multi-institutional city of Brussels, Belgium. Specifically, by comparing the French-speaking and the Flemish-speaking welcoming practices, the study aims to understand how and why new moral citizens are produced in an urban environment were there is no uniform vision on the governance of newcomers. This research will thus shed light on the micro processes whereby new moral citizens are produced as well as provide insight into denationalized forms of moral citizenship. This is then generalizable as information to advance theories of migration and integration and becomes useful as evidence for developing effective strategies for stakeholders involved in this process around the world.