Is There a Trade-off between Multiculturalism and Socio-Political Integration? Policy Regimes and Immigrant Incorporation in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Across immigrant-receiving democracies on both sides of the Atlantic, policies of "cultural recognition" (e.g., "multiculturalism") have become a convenient punching-bag for political elites. Among academics, heated theoretical debates exist over whether such policies foster or hinder immigrants' engagement with their adoptive nation. We provide a novel empirical assessment of this debate from the immigrant perspective. We ask how multicultural and citizenship policies influence immigrants' socio-political engagement with their adoptive nation in three realms: social inclusion, political inclusion, and political engagement. Using a variety of cross-national and single-country surveys, we show that multiculturalism in no case hinders engagement with society and government, and in many cases seems to foster it. Thus, the claim that multiculturalism undermines immigrants' socio-political integration appears largely without foundation.

And Labor Came to Us: Making Use of an Opportune Workforce—Enhancing Migrant Integration into British Economy

“…The Basedow and Doyle (2016) reported similar findings thereby highlighting the unemployment and underemployment of migrants, key elements of impediments to labor mobility. A lack of a joined-up and supportive training infrastructure added to the difficulties migrants faced in accessing and staying in work different from integration strategies advocated by Lyamouri-Bajja (2008) and Wright and Irene (2012) The situation was aggravated by the difficulties migrants faced in having their educational and professional credentials recognized (Qualifications and Credit Framework, …”

The democratic engagement of Britain's ethnic minorities

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How State Support of Religion Shapes Attitudes Toward Muslim Immigrants

“…With regard to genuinely political factors, some studies have looked at the effects of welfare state regimes on attitudes toward immigrants (Facchini & Mayda, 2009;Hanson, Scheve, & Slaughter, 2007;van Oorschot & Uunk, 2007), and more recently, researchers have started to explain attitudes toward immigrants by investigating the effects of citizenship and integration policies (Ceobanu & Escandell, 2011;Kesler & Bloemraad, 2010;Pehrson, Vignoles, & Brown, 2009;Schlueter, Meuleman, & Davidov, 2013;Weldon, 2006;Wright, 2011;Wright & Bloemraad, 2012). Our study will also consider these alternative explanations by incorporating indicators of religious demography and general immigrant integration policies in our statistical models below.…”