ABSTRACT
How do racial and ethnic minorities become integrated into the mainstream of society? This is the topic we address in the following pages. As should be clear from the discussion in the preceding chapter, there is nothing inevitable about minority incorporation. Exclusion can persist. Moreover, as we shall soon see, incorporation does not necessarily mean that racial and ethnic groups end up on equal terms with members of the dominant society. Nonetheless, when two or more groups interact over time, their social relations tend to have an impact on group members, shaping the way they view the world and act in it. At present, sociologists primarily make use of three concepts in efforts to describe and assess the dynamics of racial and ethnic relations: assimilation, multiculturalism, and—specifically for immigrant groups—transnationalism. This trio of concepts will be the focus of the current chapter.
