From incorporation to emplacement in the cultural sociology of immigration

Abstract

Cultural sociology can be useful for uncovering factors facilitating and hindering immigrant incorporation. The process of incorporation blends different logics and pressures, where the work of incorporation is divided between immigrants who pursue incorporation, and social groups (from nations, to communities, and from classrooms to corporations) that facilitate, hinder, and shape trajectories of inclusion. Cultural sociology has much to contribute to our understanding of the relation between immigrants and the role of others in the process of incorporation. In this essay, I first summarize underlying ideas in the cultural sociology of immigration and immigrant incorporation. I argue that incorporation entails two types of agency on the part of immigrants: mastery and change-making. I then bring three books, Elizabeth Becker’s (Mosques in the metropolis: incivility, caste, and contention in Europe. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2021), Nancy Foner’s (One quarter of the nation: immigration and the transformation of America. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2022), and Heba Gowayed’s (Refuge: how the state shapes human potential. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2022), into conversation with cultural theory, reflecting on how the theory challenges the books, and also how the books challenge the theory. I conclude with a proposal for a new approach to thinking about processes of incorporation as consisting of emplacement and acceptance. Adopting this approach contributes to cultural theory by eliminating the need for an outgroup in the construction of the social solidarity.