Beyond multiculturalism: interculturalism,diversity and urban governance

This review article discusses the volume by Giovanna Marconi and Elena Ostanel, eds. The Intercultural City: Migration, Minorities and the Management of Diversity, I.B. Tauris, 2016, in the larger context of studies on inclusion of migrants in cities. It evaluates the merits of interculturalism argument presented by the editors and contributing authors as it is applied to the migrants’ and refugees’ needs and demands from the city and public at large, and the transformation of identities of public spaces challenging assumptions of cultural uniformity at the national level. The issue of the viability of equitable and normatively justifiable governance of difference above and beyond multiculturalism is a very important one, especially so in an era where Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and expulsions of the Dreamers from the American cities have become part of our daily reality.