DEBATING DIVERSITY Analysing the discourse of tolerance Jan Blommaert & Jef Verschueren 1998 London: Routledge The authors gratefully acknowledge the publisher’s permission to make this text available in open access. The print version is still available. DEBATING DIVERSITY I cannot exaggerate the importance of this book. It addresses perhaps the most crucial issue facing the world today—racism, ethnicism, and the politics of difference—with an intelligence and integrity that are all too often missing in discussions… The presentation is clearly, even compellingly written. Edwin Wilmsen, University of Texas, Austin Debating Diversity challenges current attempts to reach understanding among racial and ethnic groups. If the ground of discussion does not itself accept diversity, efforts even by presidents must fail. Those who participate in efforts to reach understanding about diversity, or simply wish such efforts to succeed, should measure what goes on against these findings. Dell Hymes, University of Virginia Immigration, racism and nationalism are major political themes throughout the Western world, vigorously debated by politicians, the media and the public at large. In the process, discourses are created and new ways of speaking about ourselves and others emerge. Debating Diversity is a highly original and controversial work which turns the debate itself into a topic, and suggests that a major ‘problem’ of diversity may be the way in which it is debated. Based on empirical analysis of data taken from the context of ‘migrant policies’ in Belgium, Debating Diversity discusses the way in which ‘moderate’ voices in the debate construct a powerful discourse of tolerance. This ‘tolerant’ discourse is found in news reporting, policy statements, socio-scientific research reports and government-sponsored antiracism campaigns and training programmes. Despite the vast differences between this rhetoric of tolerance and the discourse of radical racist and nationalist groups, a remarkable consistency is revealed. The authors refer to this as ‘homogeneism’, a fundamental non-acceptance of diversity. An intimate connection is shown between the Belgian debate and aspects of wider European nationalist ideologies, and parallels are drawn with conclusions of research on racism and nationalism throughout the world, particularly in France, Germany, The Netherlands, the UK and the US. Jan Blommaert is Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Jef Verschueren founded the IPrA (International Pragmatics Association) in 1986 and currently directs its research centre at the University of Antwerp. Both authors have previously collaborated on The Pragmatics of Intercultural and International Communication (1991). DEBATING DIVERSITY Analysing the discourse of tolerance Jan Blommaert and Jef Verschueren London and New York First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1998 Jan Blommaert and Jef Verschueren All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Blommaert, Jan. Debating diversity: analysing the discourse of tolerance /Jan Blommaert and Jef Verschueren. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Discourse analysis—Social aspects. 2. Language and culture. 3. Racism. 4. Pluralism (Social sciences) 5. Toleration. I.Verschueren, Jef. II. Title. P302.84.B58 1998 401’.41–dc21 98–15143 CIP ISBN 0-415-19137-8 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-19138-6 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-02927-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-20356-9 (Glassbook Format) CONTENTS List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements xi List of abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 PART I Diversity: the issue 9 1 The management of diversity 11 The management paradigm 11 A misguided debate 14 The eternal ‘other’ 15 Abnormalization and the immigrant 20 The limits of awareness 21 2 Group relations, cognition and language 22 Framing group relations 22 Cognition and ideology 24 Ideology and discourse 26 The ethnographic situation of the data 27 The historical situation of the data 28 Further notes on the data base 30 Language and the pragmatics of ideology research 32 Wider perspectives 36 A preview 38 v CONTENTS PART II The ingredients of an ideology 41 3 The ‘migrant problem’ 43 The demographic background 43 Perceptions of the ‘other’ 44 Self-perception 58 A definition of the problem 65 Solutions 82 4 The central concepts 91 Culture 91 Nation and state 102 Democracy and human rights 107 Integration 111 5 Homogeneism 117 Homogeneism in the migrant debate: a summary 117 Diversity as pollution 122 Language and other distinctive features 127 Europe and the Belgian model 135 A note on hegemony 139 The defensive reflex 141 Conclusion 146 PART III Homogeneism at work 149 6 Training for tolerance 151 The aberrance of diversity 152 Unmapped concepts 155 Aspects of legitimization 158 A theory of communication 159 7 Educating the public 162 vi CONTENTS 8 Anti-racism 173 Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight Against Racism (CGKR) 175 The non-discrimination declaration 180 Asylum policies 185 Briefly… 188 Epilogue 190 Notes 195 Bibliography 219 Index 227 vii ILLUSTRATIONS 3.1 Basic dichotomies 46 3.2 Modifications to the integration concept 88 4.1 Cultural asymmetry 93 6.1 Types of communication 161 7.1 ‘Knowledge of the local language leads to mutual respect’; version 1 172 7.2 ‘Knowledge of the local language leads to mutual respect’; version 2 172 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book represents collaborative research carried out over the past eight years. It would be a hopeless task to try to thank everyone who has contributed either to the approach or to the substance, directly or indirectly. It would be unforgiveable, however, not to mention Chris Bulcaen, who did much of the research that led to the content of Chapter 6, Gino Eelen, who did preparatory work for a section of Chapter 5, and Stef Slembrouck, who translated significant portions of Het Belgische Migrantendebat (Blommaert and Verschueren 1992a) for incorporation into this English text. Further, we are grateful to the editors and publishers of the journals Language in Society, Journal of Intercultural Studies and New Community for their permission to reproduce major portions of earlier articles (Blommaert and Verschueren 1991, 1993 and 1994b, respectively). All the research was carried out in the framework of a programme financially supported by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (NFWO/FKFO) and a Belgian government grant (Federale Diensten voor Wetenschappelijke, Technische en Culturele Aangelegenheden, IUAP-II, contract number 27). Last, but not least, the manuscript might still be waiting for completion if one of the authors, J. Verschueren, could not have spent the first few days of his stay at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center (8 February to 8 March 1997), granted by the Rockefeller Foundation, working on revisions. xi ABBREVIATIONS Sources of materials discussed are abbreviated as follows: AGALEV Anders Gaan Leven (green party) BRTN Belgische Radio en Televisie, Nederlands (Dutch broadcasts of the public Belgian Radio and Television), recently relabeled VRT (for Vlaamse Radio en Televisie, ‘Flemish radio and television’) CGKR Centrum voor Gelijkheid van Kansen en Racismebestrijding (‘Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism’; successor of the Koninklijk Commissariaat voor het Migrantenbeleid) CVP Christelijke Volkspartij (Christian Democratic party) DM De Morgen (daily newspaper, socialist) DNG De Nieuwe Gazet (daily newspaper, liberal, sister to Het Laatste Nieuws) DS De Standaard (daily newspaper, Christian Democratic) EU European Union GvA Gazet van Antwerpen (daily newspaper, Christian Democratic) HLN Het Laatste Nieuws (daily newspaper, liberal, sister to De Nieuwe Gazet) HN Het Nieuwsblad (daily newspaper, Christian Democratic, popularized version of De Standaard) HV Het Volk (daily newspaper, Christian Democratic) KBS Koning Boudewijnstichting (‘King Baudouin Foundation’) KCM Koninklijk Commissariaat voor het Migrantenbeleid (‘Royal Commissariat for Migrant Policies’; precursor to the Centrum voor Gelijkheid van Kansen en Racismebestrijding) PVV Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang (liberal party, later renamed VLD) SP Socialistische Partij (socialist party) VB Vlaams Blok (extreme-right Flemish nationalist party) VCIM Vlaams Centrum voor de Integratie van Migranten (‘Flemish Centre for the Integration of Migrants’) xiii ABBREVIATIONS VLD Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (liberal party; earlier PVV) VU Volksunie (moderate Flemish nationalist party) VVB Vlaamse Volksbeweging (‘Flemish People’s Movement’, a nationalistic pressure group) xiv INTRODUCTION Culture, ethnicity, race. Cultural pluralism, multiculturalism. Tolerance, integration, assimilation. Racism, xenophobia, Neo-Nazism. Discrimination, exclusion, repression. Equal opportunities, affirmative action, preferential treatment, reverse discrimination. Disadvantage, minorization. Political correctness. Migration, migrants,