Rethinking the nation in the age of migration: normative and empirical insights

How to reconcile nation and ethno-racial diversity? Some scholars believe that nationalism and racism are structurally linked one to the other and that the nation is irremediably imbricated with race. Although there is historical evidence for this argument, there is also empirical evidence that the nation is equally claimed by ethno-racially diverse people. The present contribution attends to the voices of this people as a way of showing that nations are continuously formed and transformed across and through difference. This argument is first discussed in normative terms, through a review of the theories which political scientists and philosophers have advanced in order to deal with the problem of living together in diversity. Then, it moves to an empirical case study, Italy, to map the multifarious ways in which children of migrants make the nation present in their everyday life. The conclusion reflects on the persistence of race in narratives of nation against a contest of demographic change.