Integration of immigrants

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The integration of immigrants or migrant integration is the process of social integration of immigrants and their descendants in a society.

Central aspects of social integration are language, education, the labour market, participation, values and identification within the host country. The topic covers both the affairs of individual immigrants in their everyday lives and socio-cultural phenomena in the host country as a whole. It can also include gradual equality with other residents in terms of rights, duties and opportunities.

For some time now, social discourse has often not only been about the integration of 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 [de]” or “with an immigration history”.^[1] Special cases of group-specific integration include the integration of linguistic, cultural or ethnic minorities who immigrated a long time ago. 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.^[2]

Some countries that traditionally consider themselves as an immigration country [de] have long controlled immigration in a targeted and needs-oriented manner, for example with a points-based immigration system, in order to regulate and promote cultural and economic integration.^[3] The 2015-2016 German refugee crisis [de] presented new challenges regarding the integration of newcomers for German refugee policy.^[4]