This book investigates both the causes and effects of transnational activities among immigrants in relation to their integration into the receiving society. It uses large scale, representative data about first and second generation immigrants in Germany. It develops a formal theoretical model, which explains both transnational involvement and paths of immigrant integration. Important questions are answered: What consequences does transnational involvement have on integration? Is transnational involvement a distinct form of integration? Is it an alternative to assimilation? Does it hinder or facilitate assimilation? Longitudinal analyses are presented which show that immigrant integration and transnational involvement do not necessarily oppose each other. The book shows that although low levels of integration may coincide with strong transnational ties, the relationship is not causal. This book shows how immigrant integration and transnational involvement are related to each other and how a joint examination of both processes may advance our understanding of the general dynamics of migration and integration.

Increasing interconnections between nation-states across borders have rendered the transnational a key tool for understanding our world. It has made particularly strong contributions to immigration studies and holds great promise for deepening insights into international migration. This is the first book to provide an accessible yet rigorous overview of transnational migration, as experienced by family and kinship groups, networks of entrepreneurs, diasporas and immigrant associations. As well as defining the core concept, it explores the implications of transnational migration for immigrant integration and its relationship to assimilation. By examining its political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions, the authors capture the distinctive features of the new immigrant communities that have reshaped the ethno-cultural mix of receiving nations, including the US and Western Europe. Importantly, the book also examines the effects of transnationality on sending communities, viewing migrants as agents of political and economic development. This systematic and critical overview of transnational migration perfectly balances theoretical discussion with relevant examples and cases, making it an ideal book for upper-level students covering immigration and transnational relations on sociology, political science, and globalization courses.

This book gathers researchers from across the globe to examine paradigms, policies, and practices for developing an inclusive intercultural and transnational framework to reduce societal inequities brought about by transnational migration. This is necessary to positively integrate culturally-diverse families into schools and societies.

Over the last four decades the sociological life course approach with its focus on the interplay of structure and agency over time life course perspective has become an important research perspective in the social sciences. Yet, while it has successfully been applied to almost all fields of social inquiry it is much less used in research studying migrant populations and their integration patterns. This is puzzling since understanding immigrants’ integration requires just the kind of dynamic research approach this approach puts forward: any integration theory actually refers to life course processes. This volume shows fruitful cross-linkages between the two research traditions. A range of studies are presented that all apply sociological life course concepts to research on migrants and migrant groups in Europe. The book is organized thematically, indicating different important domains in the life course. Using a wide variety of methodological approaches, it covers both quantitative studies based on population census data and survey material as well as qualitative studies based on interviews. Attention is paid to the life courses of those who migrated themselves as well as their offspring. The studies cover different European countries, relating to one national context or a particular local setting in a city as well as cross-country comparisons. Overall the book shows that applying the sociological life course approach to migration and integration research may advance our understanding of immigrant settlement patterns as well as further develop the life course perspective

Polish Immigrant Organizations in Germany examines the situation of Polish immigrant organizations in Germany. Based on in-depth, mixed-method research consisting of surveys, case studies, and interviews with immigrants, representatives of institutions involved in the implementation of integration strategy and those responsible for Polish diaspora policy, it develops the notion of the transnational opportunity structure, which analyses the major factors shaping the situation of immigrant organizations. With attention to the characteristics of the migration process and the immigrant community, the country of residence, the country of origin, and bilateral relations between the two countries—which are in turn moderated by both global factors and micro factors—this book offers a multi-faceted analysis of diverse processes of developing diaspora groups and their organizations. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology, political science, security studies, and public policy with interests in migration and Diaspora studies, as well as intra-European mobility.

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 paper investigates whether and to what extent immigrants in Germany are integrated into German society by utilizing a variety of qualitative information and subjective data collected in the 1999 wave of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). To this end, leisure-time activities and attitudes of native Germans, ethnic Germans and foreign immigrants of different generations are compared. The empirical results suggest that conditional on observable characteristics the activities and attitudes of foreign immigrants from both generations differ much more from those of native Germans than the activities/attitudes of ethnic Germans. Furthermore, the attitudes of second-generation immigrants tend to be characterized by a larger degree of fatalism, pessimism and self-doubt than those of all other groups, although their activities and participation in societal life resemble more those of native Germans than those of their parents' generation"--Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit web site.

People’s transnational ties and activities are acquiring ever greater importance and topicality in today’s world. The focus of this book lies in the complex and multi-level processes of migrant transnationalism in four transnational spaces: India-UK, Morocco-France and Turkey-Germany and Estonia-Finland. The main question is, how people’s activities across national borders emerge, function, and change, and how are they related to the processes of governance in increasingly complex and interconnected world? The book is based on the findings of a three-year research project TRANS-NET which brough together internationally acknowledged experts from Europe, Asia and Africa. As no single discipline could investigate all the components of the topic in question, the project adopted a multi-disciplinary approach: among the contributors, there are sociologists, policy analysts, political scientists, social and cultural anthropologists, educational scientists, and economists. The chapters show that people’s transnational linkages and migration across national boundaries entail manifold political, economic, social, cultural and educational implications. Although political-social-economic-educational transformations fostered by migrant transnationalism constitute the main topic of the book, the starting assumption is that the large-scale institutional and actor-centred patterns of transformation come about through a constellation of parallel processes.

In her endeavour to overcome the established methodological, conceptual, and empirical dualism of mobility and migration, Anna Xymena Wieczorek develops a "mobilities perspective" by combining migration studies theories with approaches of the mobility studies. With the help of rich empirical data gathered among young adults of Polish heritage in Germany and Canada, Wieczorek conceptualizes three patterns of (im)mobility which illustrate the diversity of immigrants' geographical movements after their initial migration. She thus reveals the different social configurations promoting or hindering the development, maintenance or shifting of each pattern in migrants' biographical trajectories.

The story of West Indian immigrants to the United States is generally considered to be a great success. Mary Waters, however, tells a very different story. She finds that the values that gain first-generation immigrants initial success--a willingness to work hard, a lack of attention to racism, a desire for education, an incentive to save--are undermined by the realities of life and race relations in the United States. Contrary to long-held beliefs, Waters finds, those who resist Americanization are most likely to succeed economically, especially in the second generation.