New Methods And Theory On Immigrant Integration

Looking beyond urban immigration, this ground-breaking book explores how immigrants can become a part of local communities in remote regions. Contributors argue that immigrant integration is place-dependent, and develop new theories, methodologies, and policies that address the specific dynamics of immigration to peripheral areas.

Looking beyond urban immigration, this ground-breaking book explores how immigrants can become a part of local communities in remote regions. Contributors argue that immigrant integration is place-dependent, and develop new theories, methodologies, and policies that address the specific dynamics of immigration to peripheral areas. Emphasising migrants' attachments to the places they reside in, this book adopts a bottom-up approach to immigrant integration, prioritising the needs of individual agents. It highlights the various methodological flaws and ideological biases of existing theories of integration and provides novel solutions to integration problems. Chapters examine key features of immigration to remote places, including transnational social networks developed by migrants, and translocal and global understandings of place. Ultimately, the book reveals the multi-faceted, multi-layered and socially-constructed nature of immigrant integration. New Methods and Theory on Immigrant Integration will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars in international migration, human geography, ethnic relations, European studies, and sociology. It will also be essential reading for professionals in NGOs and political institutions seeking to develop effective immigration integration policies.

This book approaches the issue of immigrant integration as a democratic justice problem. Based on Honneth’s recognition theory, it introduces the concept of ‘Just Integration’, which challenges the capacity of the actual recognition order of the host society to include its immigrants as full members. The study criticizes the current political obsession to restore the social cohesion of the host society in the face of immigration. It argues that this perception inhibits host societies from recognizing their immigrants as individuals who have authentic skills, qualifications and identities in addition to their ethnic, cultural and religious attachments. The author applies the concept of ‘Just Integration’ to the real pathologies that immigrants/refugees suffer in Canada and Turkey, providing guidelines for progress towards better integration of immigrants within host societies and institutions.

In this open access book, experts on integration processes, integration policies, transnationalism, and the migration and development framework provide an academic assessment of the 2011 European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals, which calls for integration policies in the EU to involve not only immigrants and their society of settlement, but also actors in their country of origin. Moreover, a heuristic model is developed for the non-normative, analytical study of integration processes and policies based on conceptual, demographic, and historical accounts. The volume addresses three interconnected issues: What does research have to say on (the study of) integration processes in general and on the relevance of actors in origin countries in particular? What is the state of the art of the study of integration policies in Europe and the use of the concept of integration in policy formulation and practice? Does the proposal to include actors in origin countries as important players in integration policies find legitimation in empirical research? A few general conclusions are drawn. First, integration policies have developed at many levels of government: nationally, locally, regionally, and at the supra-national level of the EU. Second, a multitude of stakeholders has become involved in integration as policy designers and implementers. Finally, a logic of policymaking—and not an evidence-based scientific argument—can be said to underlie the European Commission’s redefinition of integration as a three-way process. This book will appeal to academics and policymakers at international, European, national, regional, and local levels. It will also be of interest to graduate and master-level students of political science, sociology, social anthropology, international relations, criminology, geography, and history.

This handbook provides a review of promising practices and strategies facilitating immigrant integration, especially in new settlement areas. The purpose of this handbook is to foster a constructive approach to newcomers and community change.

In old and new immigration countries, there is about the integration of the foreign-born population. Van Tubergen argues that comparing immigrant groups within and across countries provides keen insights into immigrant incorporation. He analyzes immigrants employment status, occupational status, self-employment, language proficiency and religion in 19 Western countries. Findings show that immigrant integration differs across receiving nations and across sending nations. Results also suggest that the ethnic community is important: some groups are particularly well incorporated in one country, but not in others. He shows how the role of immigrants country of origin, the receiving nation, and the immigrant community can be understood with theories from sociology, economics, and demography.

This book explores how governments in multi-level states coordinate immigrant integration policies. It sheds light on how the decentralization of immigrant integration to substate regions can lead to conflict or cooperation, and how a variety of factors may shape different approaches to migrants. Immigrant integration is an increasingly important policy area for governments. However, in multi-level states, immigrant integration is rarely the responsibility of the ‘central’ government. Instead, it is often decentralized to substate regions, which may have formulated their own, unique approaches. The way in which migrants are included into one part of a state may therefore be radically different from the experiences of migrants in another. How do multi-level states deal with potentially diverging approaches? This book examines how governments coordinate on immigrant integration in multi-level states. Four multi-level states form the backbone of the analysis: two of which are federal (Canada and Belgium) and two that are decentralized (Italy and Spain). We find that intergovernmental dynamics on immigrant integration are shaped by a variety of factors ranging from party politics to constitutional power struggles. This analysis contributes not only to our understanding of intergovernmental relations in multi-level systems; it also enhances our knowledge of the myriad ways in which different regions seek to include migrants into their societies, economies and political systems. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.

This book provides solid empirical evidence into the role that countries and communities of origin play in the migrant integration processes at destination. Coverage explores several important questions, including: To what extent do policies pursued by receiving countries in Europe and the US complement or contradict each other? What effective contribution do they make to the successful integration of migrants? What obstacles do they put in their way? This title is the second of two complementary volumes, each of which is designed to stand alone and provide a different approach to the topic. Here, renowned contributors present evidence from the studies of 55 origin countries on five continents and 28 countries of destination in Europe where both quantitative and qualitative research was conducted. In addition, the chapters detail results of a unique worldwide survey of 900 organisations working on migrant integration and diaspora engagement. The results draw on an innovative methodology and new approaches to the analysis of large-scale survey data. This examination into the tensions between integration policies and diaspora engagement policies will appeal to academics, policymakers, integration practitioners, civil society organisations, as well as students. Overall, the chapters provide empirical evidence that builds upon a theoretical framework developed in a complementary volume: Migrant integration between Homeland and Host society. Vol. 1. Where does the country of origin fit? by A. Unterreiner, A. Weinar. and P. Fargues.