Cultural Integration Of Immigrants In Europe

This book seeks to address three issues: How do European countries differ in their cultural integration process and what are the different models of integration at work? How does cultural integration relate to economic integration? What are the implications for civic participation and public policies?

In this rich study, Roxana Barbulescu examines the transformation of state-led immigrant integration in two relatively new immigration countries in Western Europe: Italy and Spain. The book is comparative in approach and seeks to explain states' immigrant integration strategies across national, regional, and city-level decision and policy making. Barbulescu argues that states pursue no one-size-fits-all strategy for the integration of migrants, but rather simultaneously pursue multiple strategies that vary greatly for different groups. Two main integration strategies stand out. The first one targets non-European citizens and is assimilationist in character and based on interventionist principles according to which the government actively pursues the inclusion of migrants. The second strategy targets EU citizens and is a laissez-faire scenario where foreigners enjoy rights and live their entire lives in the host country without the state or the local authorities seeking their integration. The empirical material in the book, dating from 1985 to 2015, includes systematic analyses of immigration laws, integration policies and guidelines, historical documents, original interviews with policy makers, and statistical analysis based on data from the European Labor Force Survey. While the book draws on evidence from Italy and Spain in an effort to bring these case studies to the core of fundamental debates on immigration and citizenship studies, its broader aim is to contribute to a better understanding of state interventionism in immigrant integration in contemporary Europe. The book will be a useful text for students and scholars of global immigration, integration, citizenship, European integration, and European society and culture.

During the 2000s, the European Union has witnessed a significant change in terms of integration policies for immigrants. This book intends to address the relationship between, on the one hand, cultural diversity resulting from migration, and, on the other hand, social cohesion and social justice within Western societies. In order to do this, the authors examine what can be described as two contradictory trends in recent public policies towards foreign people or people with a foreign origin. A book that aims to provide a trans-disciplinary analysis of the construction of “otherness” in North America and Europe. EXTRAIT In October 2010, in a very polemic context on immigration and immigrant integration, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced that Germany was to be considered a multicultural failure, words that were soon echoed by the Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme. A few months later, the British Prime Minister David Cameron and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the failure of multiculturalism in almost identical terms. These sensational statements, which by and large avoid defining the concept of multiculturalism, are based on a reaffirmation of “Western values” and strengthening of national identity. These statements express the need to review the policies on integration of immigrants, in the sense that they should be more active and voluntarist, more organized by the state and more supported by the EU. In the background, one can see fear for Islamic extremism, but also the idea that the nation states can put some obligations on immigrants, and that for a too long time we have been focusing on “those who arrive”, rather than on “the society that welcomes them”. These speeches are situated in a politico-legal context that in recent years was characterized by an ambivalent attitude towards diversity in Europe. On the one hand, we have seen accusations of racial, ethnic and religious discrimination, based on antidiscrimination legislation boosted by a strong European equality legal framework. On the other hand, we have seen denouncements of the perceived risk posed by Islam in Europe. These policy statements are also a result of numerous publications, often widely discussed in the media that outline the dangers of Islam in Europe (especially in the Netherlands). These political positions have also led to political decisions demonstrating the lack of legitimacy of Islam in Europe, such as the ban on building minarets in Switzerland or the Burqa bans adopted in the name of protecting national values and the “living together”, notably in France and Belgium (2011).

This book examines how African, Asian, Middle Eastern and Latin American diasporas use media to communicate among themselves and to integrate into European countries. Whereas migrant communities continue employing print and broadcasting technologies, the rapidly growing applications of Internet platforms like social media have substantially enriched their interactions. These communication practices provide valuable insights into how diasporas define themselves. The anthology investigates varied uses of media by Ecuadorian, Congolese, Moroccan, Nepalese, Portugal, Somali, Syrian and Turkish communities residing in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK. These studies are based on research methodologies including big data analysis, content analysis, focus groups, interviews, surveys and visual framing, and they make a strong contribution to the emerging theory of diasporic media.

As the impetus of globalization continues to gather pace, more and more people leave their homes pursuing dreams of a better life for themselves and their families. Muslim immigrants converging on Europe from widely divergent communities scattered throughout North Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia, represent a great variety of local cultures and traditions. Trans-Mediterranean networks form the basis of migration routes and are key factors in the destinations of these migrants and in the overall process of immigration, be this towards Europe or other Muslim countries. South-North fluxes intertwine with South-South fluxes, among which the Gulf Arab countries stand out as a prime destination, not only for low-skilled labour. Different situations emerge, within a variegated discourse on co-existence, integration, assimilation and the preservation of identity. The adoption of this transnational dimension incorporating both destination, and points of origin, enables the investigation of migration to move beyond a purely Eurocentric approach. Thus, different national patterns are analyzed with a focus on a number of significant case-studies. By debating policies and cultural approaches the aim is to add innovative scholarship to the challenge of integration. Cross-cultural pluralism on the part of the nation states comprising the European Union is one avenue for moving the dialogue between different cultural frameworks towards a more compatible form.

The economic, social and cultural integration of migrants represents both a challenge and an opportunity for all Member States of the European Union. Many of the challenges have to be dealt with at local level. Cities and local authorities have a vital role to play, not only in the implementation of integration policies, but also in the development of innovative policies on housing, education and cultural diversity. This report looks at immigration flows in 12 countries and 14 cities in Europe, documenting the historical and legal framework, assimilation patterns and measures taken to foster integration. It highlights several initiatives of an innovative nature which are aimed at encouraging immigrants to participate in their new community and could help to eliminate social inequalities and discrimination.

An up-to-date and comparative look at immigration in Europe, the United States, and Canada Strangers No More is the first book to compare immigrant integration across key Western countries. Focusing on low-status newcomers and their children, it examines how they are making their way in four critical European countries—France, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands—and, across the Atlantic, in the United States and Canada. This systematic, data-rich comparison reveals their progress and the barriers they face in an array of institutions—from labor markets and neighborhoods to educational and political systems—and considers the controversial questions of religion, race, identity, and intermarriage. Richard Alba and Nancy Foner shed new light on questions at the heart of concerns about immigration. They analyze why immigrant religion is a more significant divide in Western Europe than in the United States, where race is a more severe obstacle. They look at why, despite fears in Europe about the rise of immigrant ghettoes, residential segregation is much less of a problem for immigrant minorities there than in the United States. They explore why everywhere, growing economic inequality and the proliferation of precarious, low-wage jobs pose dilemmas for the second generation. They also evaluate perspectives often proposed to explain the success of immigrant integration in certain countries, including nationally specific models, the political economy, and the histories of Canada and the United States as settler societies. Strangers No More delves into issues of pivotal importance for the present and future of Western societies, where immigrants and their children form ever-larger shares of the population.

Symbolic boundaries, cultural differences and ethnic conflicts have gained significance and new meanings in a global situation characterized by the dissolution of traditional political and societal structures. Communications and political and economic interactions increasingly cross the borders of states, nations and ethnic communities, and yet symbolic borders and separate group identities are nevertheless asserted. The perceived efforts of migrants to maintain their cultural and ethnic identities are often blamed as a cause of conflict within nation states. This intriguing volume recognizes that migrants with an Islamic background are seen as especially problematic cases. Turks are the biggest category among Muslim migrants in Europe and more than one third of all Muslim migrants in Europe are from Turkey. Referring primarily to immigration from Turkey, this book combines both exemplary case studies of Turks within Europe and theoretical papers with innovative perspectives on the relations between integration and identity.