THIS VOLUME IS rich in its diversity of themes, including museum theatre by refugee artists, museum activism, heritage and multicultural education, musical heritage, and individual cultural identity. In covering such a variety of areas, this book has pushed boundaries and contributed to our understanding of how superdiversity encourages new approaches to cultural heritage and identities in Europe. This afterword cannot cover all the diverse themes in this volume. Instead, I concentrate on a critical discussion of some issues raised here that resonate with my own research on the topic of cultural organizations and (im)migrants and some of my work in the field.

Several chapters in this volume have detailed the need for cultural organizations to reform themselves in order to reflect more comprehensively the concept of superdiversity and its effect on cultural identities and heritage. The chapters by Bounia and Jeffers clearly articulate a way for cultural organizations and museums to engage more effectively with contemporary societal issues. Manchester Museum, as explained in Jeffers's chapter, has successfully embraced a model of active engagement with current affairs through regular work with refugee and migrant artists, including the staging of refugee theatre plays in its galleries. However, the willingness of some museums to engage fully with current affairs does not mean that all institutions have adopted such a stance. In my research, I have documented the reluctance of some cultural organizations to engage with such topics, especially sensitive political issues such as those relating to refugees and (im)migrants. One example is the National Museum on the History of Immigration in Paris (Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration), which considers (im)migration a historical phenomenon rather than a contemporary one. It aims to be “apolitical” and neutral in order to attract as wide a public as possible. These examples reflect differing models, with Manchester Museum being a free and popular museum whilst the Paris museum is a fee-paying institution with reduced public funding and a limited audience. The Paris museum is perhaps careful to curate an apolitical narrative in order not to alienate its already small audience. Current affairs can lead to heated debates, because of their increased temporal proximity and emotional resonance when compared with historical events.