Integration of immigrants

The integration of immigrants, or migrant integration, is primarily the process of socioeconomic integration of immigrants and their descendants into a society through emancipatory and collective care values of the host country. Secondarily, it involves the gradual access to equal opportunities with other residents in terms of community duties and political participation. Central aspects of socioeconomic integration include overcoming barriers related to language, education, labour market participation, and identification with social values and the host country. The topic covers both the individual affairs of immigrants in their everyday lives and the socio-cultural phenomena of the host society.

Social discourse about the integration of immigrants has often not only been about immigrants themselves (first-generation migrants, "foreigner integration" in the narrower sense), but also about the integration of the future generation(s), who are usually already naturalized or born as citizens, the "integration of people with a migration background" or "with an immigration history". Special cases of group-specific integration include the integration of linguistic, cultural or ethnic minorities who immigrated a long time ago. In Countries with official multiculturalism policies like Canada, integration may also involve navigating through racialized and gendered expectations which shape the experiences of first generation immigrants and their children. Here, one speaks of the integration of minorities, which overlaps with the integration of autochthonous (native) minorities. When it comes to labour migration, one also speaks of the integration of foreign workers, particularly those who decide to stay in the country of employment, as occurred in Europe, for example, in the guest workers in Germany issue of the mid-20th century.

A special case is the "integration of refugees", particularly in the case of a large refugee crisis. For refugees who are classified as refugees under the Geneva Refugee Convention, the situation in the respective host country is different in that migrants in general have certain obligations under international law which the host country must comply with, with regard to the integration of refugees. In the course of the 2015 European migrant crisis, the debate about immigration, refugee and asylum policy, the integration of refugees and migrants in general and the prospect of staying [de] for people with unclear or temporary residency rights have become more of a focus of public attention.

Some countries that traditionally consider themselves as an immigration country have long controlled immigration in a targeted and needs-oriented manner, for example with a points-based immigration system, to regulate and promote cultural and economic integration.

Historically, migrations affecting larger groups have either led to the development of ethnic minorities in the host countries (segregation, ghettoisation) if certain basic socio-cultural factors such as mother tongue, religious affiliation or customs and traditions have been retained; in this case, ethnographic and demographic differences can persist for many generations, sometimes with permanent or at least temporarily inadequate integration into the overall social structure, even leading to problems of oppression and persecution even after centuries of residence. In other cases, the descendants of migrants assimilate into the cultural makeup of a society by giving up their peculiarities until the only traces of their origins are highly stable identity features such as a "foreign" surname. In the case of complete assimilation, the name of origin is often changed as well. This can take the form of adopting a new name [de] typical of the country or a less "foreign" seeming variant of the original name. Furthermore, it is also possible that migrants and members of (originally) established minorities partially retain characteristics of their culture of origin, but also adopt elements of the culture of the host country.

John W. Berry uses the term integration as a contrast to the terms assimilation, segregation and marginalization.

There is no clear definition of the term integration in science. In the context of migration, "integration" is usually understood to mean social integration, which is usually considered in several dimensions.

The integration of individuals (both the integration of immigrants and of linguistic-cultural or ethnic minorities as well as the integration of other population groups, such as people with disabilities or people with a particular sexual orientation) is expressed in forms of social integration, i.e. the integration of individual actors into an existing system. The opposite of integration is social exclusion, also known as segregation [de] in a group context. This is also called social integration (integration into society).