Immigrant Associations in Europe.

Abstract

This book is the 1st of a 3-part series which addresses aspects of the future of the new ethnic minorities in a changing European context. These studies were launched by the European Science Founation 1980. The other books in the series are entitled ENTERING THE WORKING WORLD: FOLLOWING THE DESCENDANTS OF EUROPES IMMIGRANT LABOUR FORCE and NEW IDENTITIES IN EUROPE: IMMIGRANT ANCESTRY AND THE ETHNIC IDENTITY OF YOUTH. This volume is the 1st publication on a European level to analyze the internal organization of the immigrant communities and to discuss the ideological alternatives they offer to the future generations. The studies show that immigrant associations are not transitional but gain renewed strength as they fulfill changing functions as communities become more established and settled. Specifically this book examines 1) Pakistani and Greek Cypriot migration to Britain 2) Turkish migration to West Germany 3) Italian and Portuguese immigration to France 4) Finnish migration to Sweden and 5) Spanish migration to Switzerland and the Netherlands. Common themes in the study of associations include 1) associational life exists within kinship structure 2) some have political or religious sources 3) some provide a link above the kinship level between migrant communities and their home villages or regions and 4) those associations with educational facilities are the most powerful. The governments of the countries of settlement seek to provide for the needs which immigrant associations exist to satisfy and they may well supervise and police the associations activities. The existence of migrant-oriented business may give rise to class differentiation within the migrant community and to the possibility of businessmen and workers forming alliances with their equivalents in the country of settlement. The process of incorporating the immigrant minority community into the state the transcendence of ethnic bonds by those of class has hardly begun and it is not certain that either process will be strong enough to destroy the resilient forms of ethnic community and association.