ABSTRACT
Social integration is a long-lasting and very differentiated process of joining together and growing together. It needs convergence, argumentation, communication, finding agreements, identification of differences, and assumption of common responsibilities. This chapter considers the wide-ranging academic literature which looks at the ability of social policies to contrast the causes of social exclusion, and in them the movement practices as resources to migrants’ and refugees’ inclusion. It shows that while poverty is at the core of social exclusion, it is often exacerbated by prejudices and discriminations, which follow on from differences of class, gender, age, ethnicity, disability, and social location—for instance: natives versus outsiders. The chapter also shows that social integration has a close connection with anti-discrimination efforts, as both aim to create a more inclusive society and to ensure equal participation for everybody in a European receiving country.
