Citizenship and political participation in France and the Netherlands: Reflections on two local cases

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses the collective political participation of Moroccan communities at the local level. It is a comparative study based on empirical material collected in the Dutch and French cities of Utrecht and Lille. These two local case studies serve as a basis for an analysis of the significance of citizenship frameworks in shaping the political opportunities and constraints which these ethnic immigrant communities face. The comparison of French and Dutch citizenship concentrates on the political dimension of citizenship and on three aspects in particular, namely political formal rights, policy options, and ideological discourse. A conceptualisation of the local political integration field provides an additional analytical tool which allows the identification of similarities and differences in processes of political incorporation or exclusion at the local level. The article then moves on to describe, analyse and compare Moroccans’ collective mobilisation and political participation. An attempt is made to uncover the impact of both citizenship frameworks and local integration fields on the collective political participation of Moroccans. The empirical investigation reveals significant differences generated by the effect of citizenship frameworks. It also illuminates marked similarities in terms of outcome. In neither case have Moroccan communities significantly improved either their political representation or their capacity to influence political decisions on issues of collective importance.