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States, Nationalism, and the Relationship between Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision

Project description

A closer look at diversity and public services

International migration has impacted every aspect of European society. A central claim of nationalist politicians is that immigrants, as undeserved recipients of public schooling and other social services, undermine economic progress and social welfare. The EU-funded ETHNICGOODS project will revisit and challenge this claim by exploring the role of historical patterns of nation-building and state institutional development in shaping how countries deal with ethnic differences and provide public services. The project will create two new publicly available datasets and combine comparative–historical case studies and statistical analyses. The findings will insert a historical perspective into the current debate by emphasising the long-run effects of state policies to either assimilate, accommodate or exclude minorities.

Objective

Around the world, nationalist politicians see migrants and ethnic minorities as undeserved receivers of public goods. What underpins these exclusionary claims is the thesis that ethnic diversity impedes the prospects of economic progress and social welfare.

Does this thesis withstand systematic inquiry? At a first glance, there are plenty of studies that link ethnic heterogeneity to the underprovision of public goods. An influential literature in political economy asserts a strong association between high levels of diversity and low levels of public service provision such as schooling or health care.

States, Nationalism, and the Relationship between Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision [ETHNICGOODS] aims to revisit and challenge this conventional wisdom, and the doggedly ahistorical perspective it implies. Instead of treating ethnic diversity as exogenous, the project explores the role of historical patterns of nation-building and state institutional development. I expect different nation-building modes—that is, whether states seek to assimilate, accommodate, or exclude minorities—to have distinct consequences for contemporary levels of diversity and collective goods provision. I further expect historical variations in the capacity of states to provide public goods to affect contemporary levels of heterogeneity and public goods provision.

To develop and test this theoretical argument on a global scale, ETHNICGOODS will create two new, publicly available datasets and combine comparative-historical case studies and statistical analysis. With this ambitious focus the project aims to make a major contribution to our understanding of ethnic diversity, injecting a historical perspective into debates around the political and developmental consequences of heterogeneity. Finally, by connecting with a range of academic and non-academic audiences, ETHNICGOODS will influence public debates about ethnic diversity and its effects.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2019-COG

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Host institution

INSTITUT BARCELONA D ESTUDIS INTERNACIONALS, FUNDACIO PRIVADA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 985 088,00
Address
CALLE RAMON TRIAS FARGAS 25 CAMPUS DE LA CIUTADELLA
08005 Barcelona
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 985 088,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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