EMILY C. BECH
Columbia University
»What Drives Civic Integration? Analyzing Identity and Political Participation among Immigrant-Minority Youth in Denmark and Sweden«
ABSTRACT
Throughout Western Europe, millions of young people of immigrant-minority background are coming of age only to meet sharply divergent sets of rights and opportunities for citizenship and full societal participation. As such, their identities as social and political actors are forming in societies with varying distinction between minority (ethnic and religious) and national-civic group identities.
The dissertation project investigates how national inclusion/exclusion – through citizenship policies, political rhetoric and social inclusion or exclusion – impacts national-civic identification and participation in political life among young adults of immigrant background in Denmark and Sweden. Using a primary large-N survey and a number of follow-up in-depth interviews, the project will produce new comparative data and analysis on the levels and driving factors of young minorities’ identification with the broader civic community in each country and of their participation in political life. The aim is to build more general accounts of civic integration processes and of how multiple dimensions of identity interact in today’s diverse societies.
BIOGRAPHY
Emily Cochran Bech is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Columbia University, and is currently a visiting Ph.D. student at the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University in Denmark. Emily earned a B.A. in Political Science and European Studies (Russian language) from Seattle Pacific University in 2002, and a Master of International Studies from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2004. After interning with the U.S. State Department (2004) and living and studying in France, Sweden and Denmark for several years, she began Ph.D. studies in Political Science at Columbia University, earning her M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in Political Science from Columbia in 2008 and 2010.
PUBLICATIONS
Emily Cochran Bech, Jack Snyder (2011): Conclusion: Religion’s Contribution to International Relations Theory, in: Religion and International Relations Theory, Jack Snyder (ed.), Columbia University Press.