“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

About Ger Mennens

Ger Mennens LLM MA is a lawyer and social scientist, who has worked at Maastricht University and is interested in minority rights, issues of democracy and political culture.

Articles by Ger Mennens

This week’s front page editor

Francesc Badia i Dalmases is Editor and Director of democraciaAbierta.

European integration

Six countries. Six different paths to EU integration.

No to TTIP

The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

Multiculturalism and its critics

Ger Mennens 17 November 2011

Multiculturalism is an inclusive philosophy. Its potential for integrating newcomers and minorities into society is undermined by false notions of its tendency to produce separatism and poverty.

Multiculturalism and social cohesion

Ger Mennens 10 November 2011

The nuts and bolts of a Big Society require a conspiracy of effects at every level, local, national and international. It also requires multiculturalism.

Unmasking the myths of anti-multiculturalism

Ger Mennens 30 October 2011

If society depicts immigration and immigrants as worthless and useless for the economy, these enemy images will lead to a hostile attitude towards all newcomers. The breach between locals and immigrants will become deeper and this soon undermines the social cohesion of any society.

Multiculturalism and Dutch political culture

Ger Mennens 22 August 2011

In the case of the seventeenth century Dutch Republic, there was no single, dominant religion. There was also no absolute majority religion. Instead, each province and each town had its own religious cultural groups.

Multiculturalism and postmodernity: a challenge to our political structures

Ger Mennens 5 August 2011

Mono-cultural nationalism can no longer provide us with the national identities we need. The formation of multi-cultural civic identities requires a new way of drawing our political maps.