Eisenberg, Avigail2026-03-052026-03-052025Eisenberg, A. (2025). Integration before multiculturalism. Nations and Nationalism. https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.13129https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.13129https://hdl.handle.net/1828/23419Despite research which shows that, over the last 40 years, most Western states have steadily enhanced their multicultural policies, on the ground, reality tells a different story. Today, Western governments are closing their borders and reversing long-standing programmes that welcomed newcomers, whereas immigrants continue to be targets of hostile majority groups. This paper explores three lessons that can be learned from approaches to social integration defended by mid-century American thinkers during the civil rights era and their relevance for debates about multicultural integration today. The first lesson is that legal rights are not effective at creating an integrated society. Second, integration is a transformative project that depends on empowering minorities through their active participation. Third, one of the chief obstacles to a successful, normatively attractive approach to integration is resistant majorities rather than reluctant minorities. Even though the project of multicultural integration is different from the project of racial integration, mid-century ideas about the social integration of a racist society focused on concerns familiar and helpful within multicultural contexts. The aim here is to strengthen our understanding of integration by exploring features of these mid-century ideas relevant to multicultural debates today.enCC BY-NC 4.0integrationminoritiesmulticulturalismracismArticleDepartment of Political Science