Bridging empirical social science and political theory, this book powerfully shows that value-based “integration” is incompatible with liberal democracy, not only because it excludes migrants as Other, but because democracy is-and should be-about contestation rather than shared values.

Saskia Bonjour, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

In this necessary interdisciplinary work, Stefan Manser-Egli deconstructs the “shared values” requirement increasingly used to police citizenship. Drawing deftly on political theory and critical sociology, Illiberal Integrationism demonstrates that granting street-level bureaucrats the power to judge inner convictions creates a problematic double standard between citizens and migrants, ultimately undermining many of the values of liberal democracy-freedom of conscience and expression-that it claims to uphold.

Alexander Sager, Portland State University, USA