This book challengesthe prevailing view that local authorities are irrelevant in immigrationpolicy-making. Presenting an in-depth ethnographic study of the recentimplementation of local diversity policies in the Netherlands, Belgium andUnited Kingdom, it identifies a new politics of difference, characterized by aparadigmatic pragmatism. Building on extensive fieldwork in Amsterdam,Antwerp and Leeds, the author shows that, rather than simply replacing anearlier politics of difference, local diversity policies combine ideals ofmulticulturalism, assimilation and diversity. She links these findings to theongoing modernization and diversification of municipal authorities, and theimpact of this transformation on the profile of the bureaucrats and theirimplementation of diversity policies. This thought-provoking work will appealto students, researchers and practitioners engaged in the fields ofimmigration, diversity and multiculturalism. 

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Maria Schiller is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Diversity a new approach to difference.- Chapter 3. The changing nature of public authorities and bureaucrats.- Chapter 4. What shapes local level policies?.- Chapter 5. Diversity policy in practice.- Chapter 6. Responses to diversification: the character of local policies.- Chapter 7. Conclusion.