Blog post by Övgü Ülgen, University of Montreal, Canada
 
Identities are multiple, fragmented, fluid, and – generationally speaking – often quite complex. My Identities article, ‘Generations and difference: language, religion, and North African Jewish identification in Québec’, examines the generational dynamics of North African Jewish belonging in this francophone province through the interplay of language and religion.
 
Drawing on 18 life-story interviews with North African Jewish immigrants in Québec, my article examines the coexistence of non-convergent identities across generations. Participants included first-generation immigrants, primarily baby boomers (born 1946–1964) with a few from the silent generation (born 1937–1945); 1.5-generation individuals from Generation X (born 1965–1979) who immigrated before the age of 18; and second-generation participants born and raised in Québec, including both Generation Xers and millennials (born 1980–mid-1990s). The first wave of North African Jewish immigrants to Québec – mostly francophone – settled in the 1950s, though emigration, particularly from Morocco, continued over the following decades. 

Blog post by Dounia Largo, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Introduction
Since October 2023, Brussels has become one of the main centres of pro-Palestinian mobilisation in Europe. On a daily basis, people have gathered in public spaces to express solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide, occupation, apartheid, and forced displacement imposed by the Israeli state. These mobilisations have taken many forms, including static gatherings, mass demonstrations, direct actions, boycotts, and protests organised without official authorisation.

At first glance, Brussels presents itself as a city that welcomes protest. Its political leaders regularly portray it as a space of democratic openness, freedom of expression, and tolerance. Yet the treatment of pro-Palestinian mobilisation reveals a different reality: when political demands challenge dominant geopolitical interests and racialised ideas of belonging, tolerance quickly becomes conditional.

Blog post by Anna Tuckett, Brunel University of London, UK
 
The Life in the UK test is well known for the triviality of its questions. Less discussed, however, is the racist and exclusionary message that the citizenship test communicates about ‘authentic Britishness’.
 
The current Labour government has recently announced plans to ‘refresh’ the citizenship test. This must include the reversal of changes implemented by the Coalition government in 2013, which replaced practical information with selective history and general knowledge. Based on 24 questions, topics now include the Bronze Age, cricket, the Tudors and Stuarts, the Bayeux Tapestry, pantomimes and the Scottish judicial system (among others).
 
Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in private training centres that help applicants prepare for the test, my Identities article, ‘Still whitewashing Britain: race, class and the UK citizenship test’, argues that the UK citizenship test equates Britishness with a White, middle-class identity that ignores migrants’ existing participation in British society and excludes much of the British citizenry.