The coloniality of integration: Rethinking the science-policy nexus

Across academic and public discourse, migrant integration is normalised as a desirable outcome. This normalisation has been challenged, centring critiques on the continued coloniality of migration and integration governance. Drawing on empirical case studies, this article contributes to this research on the coloniality of integration by presenting a multi-sited analysis of the science-policy nexus of integration governance. Using text analysis, we examine three empirical case studies in which social scientists seek to impact the governance of migrant integration: (1) the overhaul of Dutch integration policy, (2) the early roots of Swiss integration policy, and (3) internationally published integration research. The paper theorises the ‘scientism of integration’ as the shared rationale according to which integration can be objectively known, measured, and managed through scientific research, while focusing specifically on how colonial modernity logics are reproduced as a result of this rationale. Firstly, we argue that the involvement of research in integration governance presents science as a solution to social disorder, positioning researchers as mitigators of this risk. Secondly, we show how the scientism of integration makes a ‘normal science’ out of a highly contested and political agenda. Thirdly, we demonstrate how these processes and positionings contribute to the (re)production of the modern/colonial social order. Science positions itself in integration governance as an objective authority, contributing to the creation and solution of the ‘integration problem’, silencing a deeply moral project.