The Politics of Multicultural Integration in the United States

ABSTRACT There are lively debates about multiculturalism in Canada and Europe, but the term is used much less frequently in the United States, where instead there are arguments about ‘identity politics’, how history is taught and how the citizenry views their country. I argue for what I call multicultural integration, which accepts the inevitability of group identity and that we live in a world of nation‐states; its aim is for a loosely defined and changeable national identity, one that can incorporate new groups. Although I argue that multicultural integration has been largely successful in the United States, it has little to say about race, which has limited its impact. This is not a theoretical flaw since multicultural integration does not aim to be a comprehensive theory of justice. For members of the progressive left, however, much of multiculturalism does not press for enough change. Conservatives have responded to the social justice arguments with claims that such talk is divisive and even treasonous. I point out some of the flaws in each position and contend that one key advantage of multicultural integration is how it explicitly recognizes groups and boundaries and works to make them porous and relatively tame.