ABSTRACT
The chapter begins by differentiating between structural assimilation and cultural integration. It suggests that national models of integration are now converging on what could be called civic republicanism which loosens the connection between ethnicity and national identity. Integration in Europe is in fact integration not into Europe but into specific national states. These European national states are also national welfare states and this may make integration more difficult than in the more individualistic USA. Structural assimilation involves positions in the social structure occupied by individuals: positions in the education system, the occupational structure, the housing market. One reason for the creation of mass education at the end of the nineteenth century was the creation of the next generation of national citizens. Contemporary understandings of education are more narrowly utilitarian: education is seen as valuable for its assumed linkage to employment.
