Nation State and Immigration: The Age of Population Movements (Contemporary Challenges to the Nation St)

For the last two centuries, the nation state has posed a formidable challenge to multinational empires. It has served as a base for modernisation, secularisation and democratisation -- and also for the formation of totalitarian regimes. Today, the nation state faces challenges from multiple directions. National minorities demand self-determination while religious forces challenge secular governments, and global migration movements undermine the cultural uniformity once considered essential for the formation and preservation of nation states. This is the third of a three-volume set (detailed below) which addresses key challenges facing the contemporary nation state from a global perspective but with special emphasis on the Middle East and Israel. Publication reflects research conducted under the auspices of The Israel Democracy Institute's "Nation State Project", which analyses Israel's complex reality in which a Jewish majority contends with an Arab minority, ultra-Orthodox religious forces reject the authority of the nation state, and an immigrant society exhibits substantial cultural and ethnic variance. Volume III explores the cultural, social and political effects of immigration on the contemporary nation state -- its character, cohesion, and possible future, as well as on contemporary liberal democracy. Contributions deal with such issues as different liberal approaches to the issue of immigration and immigrant integration, nation-building narratives and their implications for immigrants and minorities, citizenship tests and integration policy in the United States and in Europe, as well as Israel's Law of Return and the debate about it and other aspects of immigration policy.

Anita Shapira is professor emerita of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University and specializes in the history of Zionism, the Jewish community in Palestine, and the State of Israel. She is currently an editor of the biographical series Jewish Lives at Yale University Press and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Yedidia Z. Stern is the vice president of research at the Israel Democracy Institute and a professor of law at Bar-Ilan University. Alexander Yakobson is an Israeli historian and political activist and the author of Israel and the Family of Nations. Liav Orgad is an assistant professor at the IDC Radzyner School of Law.