The EU subsidiary principle of devolved power demands a difficult balancing of a multiplicity of identities that challenge the maintenance of national identities. Migration, with women having a special role in it, is regarded as a means to meet major problems of aging Western European societies, yet the various social models fail to integrate, or even exclude, migrants from mainstream society. As such, contemporary European political discourse on integration seems torn between international commitments to accept immigrants and public opinion unwilling to grant welfare benefits or rights to these. Similarly, although the EU endorsed gender equality, the non-binding formulation of European soft-laws creates little incentive for member states to act on these. The simultaneous and interacting effects of different social categories such as ethnicity, race, or gender often result in multiple inequalities. This emphasizes the need to pay particular attention to the intersectionality of gender and ethnicity affecting the self-perception of the national community. Similarly, the link between European identity and gender equality becomes particularly important as it relates on the one hand to the self-perception of Europe and on the other, to the promoted gender equality policies of the European Union. Relying on qualitative data collected within Eurosphere, we investigate the extent to which the issue of immigrant integration (European diversity), and gender equality frame political discourse in 16 European countries – 14 EU-members plus Norway and Turkey as non-members. Based on systematic comparative analysis, we analyze the openness or closure of various kinds of public discourses towards ethnic diversity or gender equality and we assess how of issues of intersectionality are mobilized within political discourse and how political parties respond to EU-level policies and practices that aim to regulate these intersections.
