ABSTRACT
The historian John Higham attributed the success of the United States at integrating immigrants in the nineteenth century to the nation’s belief in its innate ability to unify diverse peoples and the desire of immigrants to participate in its life. The foreign-born and their descendants continue to integrate, although with variances based on the different characteristics of immigrants and their receiving communities. Yet the United States trails other developed nations by standard integration metrics, and its nearly 45 million immigrants encounter challenges—such as nativism; outdated immigration policies; administrative strategies that “disintegrate” immigrant families and communities; and a rapidly changing labor market due to automation, robotization, and artificial intelligence. This chapter explores competing versions of integration, including a Christian vision rooted in a commitment to human dignity and the full participation of immigrants in their communities and nations. Integration will always be conditioned by its local and national context, but the issues discussed in this chapter pertain to a wide variety of countries.
