Samenvatting

Many big cities in Europe have adopted the contours of superdiversity: in many districts, the original population has become just one of the many minorities. This new urban reality is often perceived as threatening. Immigration has become symbolic for the disturbance of community, the undermining of the national identity and a lost sense of feeling at home. Although the concept of superdiversity has controversial meanings, it also functions as an inspiring analytical concept that encourages further reflections on the value and potential implications of living together in cities of arrival. The concept also creates space for multifocal perspectives on socioeconomic, religious, transnational and political differences instead of reducing the urban reality to mere ethnic or cultural differences.