In the winter of 2007, Demos and the Embassy of the Netherlands in London came together to hold a series of landmark debates about integration and to share Dutch and British experiences of multiculturalism. Both countries are known for their tolerance and their economic and social liberalism. But in both countries questions are being raised about the limits of tolerance in liberal and largely secular societies.

The seminars considered integration through its link to different forms of participation; political, economic and cultural; bringing together leading thinkers and politicians in these fields from both countries. They tackled deep and challenging questions about the role of the individual, of the state, and of communities in fostering participation, and interrogated the meaning of integration itself.

This is a collection of short essays by contributors to those seminars, a mixture of writers, academics and politicians from Britain and the Netherlands, which open a window onto the current debate in the two countries and seek to set out where next in the multicultural drama.

Contributors:

Ahmed Aboutaleb
Liam Byrne
Gus Casely-Hayford
Catherine Fieschi
Sunny Hundal
Paul Scheffer
Paul Schnabel
Naema Tahir