ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of civic integration programmes adopted by European countries over time, in order to shed light on their main features and on the rationale that is behind the European convergence towards civic integration. It presents an analysis of the European Union (EU) framework on migrants' integration. The chapter discusses the traditional national models of migrant integration. It presents explanation of the data and method used and provides a description of various civic integration programmes. The chapter focuses on the civic integration programmes in Italy. Integration became a topic for the EU institutions in the 1990s, as a result of the increasing immigrant population residing in European countries. The academic literature generally distinguishes between three traditional national models of migrant integration: the exclusionist model, the assimilationist model and the multiculturalist or pluralist model. The chapter suggests that the Southern European model, when referring to traditional national models of migrant integration.
