Search Results

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the challenges of immigrant integration in Western Europe and North America. A central question is how to integrate immigrants and their children so that they become full members of the societies where they now live. Full membership means having the same educational and work opportunities as long-term native-born citizens, and the same chances to better their own and their children's lot. It also means having a sense of dignity and belonging that comes with acceptance and inclusion in a broad range of societal institutions. The challenges of integration are complicated by the widespread resistance of natives to immigrants and their children. There are anxieties about whether the newcomers will fit in and fears that they will undermine the basic foundations of established ways of life.

This chapter collates and integrates common recurring themes and issues that emerge from the country studies, specifically (1) changing political boundaries, (2) immigrant integration, (3) immigrant status, and (4) economic implications. Countries in this volume are categorized into three groups: those with large immigrant populations, those with increasing immigrant populations, and those with low or declining populations, in addition to regional movements of people in the African and European Unions. Chapter reviews indicate that countries with high immigrant flows may be suffering from compassion fatigue, making both immigration and immigrant policies more stringent. In countries where immigration is low or declining, policies are pro-immigration, actively seeking both skilled and unskilled labor, services are available, and there is an acceptance of foreigners, even the unauthorized. The chapters present a variety of ways in which countries address questions related to immigration; most that are useful, but few that are entirely so. The question remains, What is a "just" and practical immigration policy?

This introductory chapter explains how the book's analysis of immigrant-serving nonprofits successfully navigated advocacy constraints to influence the local governance of immigrant rights and integration. It draws on case studies in three areas of immigrant rights policies—language access, labor rights, and municipal ID cards—in San Francisco to present a tripartite model of advocacy strategies used by nonprofits to propose, enact, and implement immigrant-friendly policies. The first strategy is one of administrative advocacy; the second deals with cross-sectoral and cross-organizational collaborations; and finally, nonprofits use strategic issue framing. Through use of this tripartite strategy, immigrant-serving nonprofits in San Francisco help create new socioeconomic and political rights for disadvantaged immigrants.

This chapter discusses the theoretical perspectives underlying the analysis of the process of immigrant integration. These perspectives can be classified into two broad categories: those that take social integration as the objective to be achieved, and those that emphasize the pursuit of models for the management of difference, which is seen as a central component of society. The first category is commonly labeled as assimilationism, while the second is associated with the multiculturalist perspective. The debate between assimilationism and multiculturalism in their various stands framed most discussions of the processes of immigrant integration into destination societies until the end of the twentieth century. However, more recently, new approaches have allowed further development of that debate.

This chapter studies nonprofit organizations as contemporary agents of the movement for immigrant rights and immigrant integration. Through cross-historical and cross-organizational comparisons with political parties, labor unions, and churches, the chapter draws on how the activism of immigrant-serving nonprofits can be distinguished from that of other types of civic organizations. Contemporary immigrant-serving nonprofits are set apart by the lack of political and financial resources with which they can influence the political process. These constraints, however, do not necessarily prevent immigrant-serving nonprofits from taking an active role in local political affairs. The chapter shows that these nonprofits' expertise on immigrant communities is their most valuable resource, and that city administrative officials are their most common advocacy targets and collaborators.

This chapter dissects San José/Silicon Valley metropolitan area. It notes that the immigrant population here has grown even more rapidly than in any other case in the book, but the region nonetheless offers a welcoming atmosphere and has taken important public and philanthropic steps to spur immigrant integration. The chapter argues that the diversity in skills and national origins of the immigrant population helps to “deracialize” the issue; moreover, the valley's business elites rely on high-skilled immigrants, yielding positive attitudinal spillovers to less-skilled immigrants. The high degree of regional business collaboration in the Silicon Valley on promoting technology industries reliant on high-skilled immigrants has led business to be a local force for immigrant integration and a national force for comprehensive immigration reform.

This chapter examines the link between immigrant religion and immigrant integration into society. More specifically, it considers whether religion is a help or hindrance in the way immigrants adjust to their new environment. It considers whether religious immigrants are doing better psychologically (in terms of mental health) and economically (in terms of employment and occupation) than nonreligious immigrants and how religion prepares immigrants to become full citizens of the destination society. It shows that immigrant faith is intricately connected to the way immigrants adjust or integrate into their new countries, but the role of religion in immigrant adjustment is dependent on many things, including the type of adjustment and whether immigrants belong to the Christian majority or a religious minority.

This chapter briefly explores the geographic (and temporal) diversity in attitudes toward immigrants within American states and localities. While the federal government has the formal responsibility for determining how many immigrants come into the country and for preventing those who lack permission from entering, it falls to local and regional jurisdictions to frame the living experience of immigrants. In this context, local and regional coalitions of civil leaders set the political tone for whether localities welcome new immigrant populations or resist their presence. Thus the chapter presents the scope, methodology, and thematic elements underlying the different studies undertaken in this volume.

This chapter also takes up immigrant integration in the context of a strong political machine, persistent black-white cleavages, and intense neighborhood identification and competition in Chicago. These factors created an opening for white Democratic mayors to include Latino immigrants in their voting base as white ethnic voting declined—a strategy that did not prevent an insurgent Latino candidate from challenging the mayor in 2015. More broadly, the chapter suggests that the presence of Eastern European immigrants has diminished the appetite of greater Chicago's native-born white population to “racialize” the immigrant integration debate. It points to variation between different suburbs and also underscores the importance of immigrant-oriented social services at the county and state level won by immigrant social justice organizations. Finally, the chapter considers whether the presence of regionalist efforts “spill over” to a more positive frame around immigrant integration.

This concluding chapter discusses the main contemporary characteristics of the process of integration of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles, which must be understood both in relation to the contexts of the immigrants' arrival and in relation to the nature and density of their ties with Mexico. The first finding of this study confirms what has been documented by other authors: since the 1990s, Mexican immigrants have shifted from the circular migration pattern dominant in earlier periods to a process of settlement in the United States. However, the fundamental finding of this research is that there is no single path toward immigrant integration, but rather a multiplicity of strategies that lead to distinct results. Another important finding has been to identify noteworthy differences in the objectives and in the obstacles encountered in the distinct realms of economic, social, cultural, and political integration.

This chapter presents the results of the descriptive statistical analysis of integration based on the American Community Survey of 2007, making use of the following indicators: level of educational attainment, English proficiency, naturalization, occupation, and home ownership. Only 39.4 percent of Mexican immigrants, 25 or older, have completed high school, and only 4.7 percent have finished college or undertaken any graduate study—very low percentages in comparison to those of other immigrant groups or the native-born. In relation to English proficiency, Mexican immigrants show comparatively less ability to communicate in that language. Meanwhile, in spite of being the largest immigrant group in the Los Angeles region, only one out of every four Mexicans has acquired U.S. citizenship. In the labor market, Mexican immigrants are concentrated in occupations with low skill levels. Finally, in terms of home ownership, slightly more than 45 percent of Mexican immigrants live in a household that includes the owners of the home.

This chapter discusses the public discourse around the integration process of immigrant Latino workers in Emporia, Kansas. It employs aggregate statistical analysis, media-content analysis, and key-informant interviews to examine how the public discourse has changed over time. Particular attention is given to the arrival of the Somali refugee workers that subsequently altered the discourse on immigrant-worker integration. Findings show that the community perception of Latin Americans shifted significantly once a culturally and ethnically less similar group arrived in town. The discussion includes the role of local actors in immigrant integration with an emphasis on their main employer, Tyson Foods. Contrary to the general challenges of immigrant integration, revolving largely around unauthorized migrants, in this case the difficulty had to do with integrating legal immigrants who had racial and religious differences from not only the mainstream community but from the dominant minority as well.