Problems of and solutions for the study of immigrant integration

Abstract

In his contribution, Willem Schinkel makes critical observations on the concept of immigrant integration and its use in Europe, specifically in the Netherlands. Three of these are agreeable: there is a lot of fuzziness around the concept; there is clearly selectivity and normativity in its use in political rhetoric and in research; there is also a strong influence of politics and policy on what is researched and how. However, Schinkel’s diagnosis of why these shortcomings exist and whose shortcomings these are, is erratic. Firstly, he does not recognize that the concept of integration has fundamental different functions in research and in policy. That makes his diagnosis of why the integration concept in research is problematic misleading. Secondly, Schinkel’s analysis focuses on the assumed function of research: “..it plays a crucial role in the problematization of migrant others” and “it is part of the contingent way in which ‘immigrant integration’ sustains a classed and raced form of dominance that is less precisely called ‘native’ or even ‘nativist’ than ‘white’.” Such sweeping interpretations lead Schinkel to plea “for a social science against immigrant integration policy”, whatever that would mean. The author of this article offers an alternative solution to problems of research that Schinkel signalizes. It includes three main elements: a) a broad, heuristic, scientific definition of the process of integration that studies the (outcomes of) interaction between newcomers and the receiving society at three levels (individual, collective and institutional), taking into account three dimensions of that process: the juridical/legal, the socioeconomic and the cultural/religious dimension. Such a definition is (and should be) independent of any policy concept of integration. b) studying integration policies as fundamentally different from the analysis of the process of integration; the former should be studied as – by definition normative, politics driven - efforts to steer integration processes. c) researchers should be aware of the consequences of policy-research-relations (particularly funding) and assure their scientific independence.