Kymlicka (1996) writes, "it has become increasingly clear that minority rights are central to the future of the liberal tradition throughout the world" (p. 194). Nevertheless, Joppke (2004) states that there is at the present time "a narrow margin for asserting national particularisms in the recent turn to civic integration in Europe. More generally, liberal nation-states are marked by a thorough de-ethnicization, in which the various national labels are only different names for the same thing, the liberal creed of liberty and equality." (p. 254)
             What this means is that recent European states such as Britain and the Netherlands have rejected the claims of both Kymlicka (1996) and Kymlicka and Norman (1994) that liberalism must be united with multiculturalism in both theory and public policy in such a way as to exchange the older liberal belief in the necessity of assimilation for immigrant populations with the newer multicultural belief in the necessity of somehow balancing individual rights with group rights in an effort to promote cultural retention in immigrant populations. The recent shift away from multiculturalism that Joppke (2004) notes does not imply a return to the traditional liberal policy of assimilation, but it does recognize the need for newcomers to commit themselves unconditionally to a minimum of liberal democratic principles. Apparently the move away from multiculturalism has been caused most of all by recognition of the primary importance of national unity.
             In the last twenty-five years identity politics has often challenged traditionally liberal democratic policies with their emphasis on the values of individual liberty and equality of all citizens. In Canada, for example, the establishment of the Constitution Act in 1982 has resulted in many people identifying themselves more with others exactly like themselves than with national culture as a whole. In turn, this has led to the demand for special recognition a...