ABSTRACT
Immigrant integration has come to the forefront as a policy issue in the last few decades, particularly after events like the attacks of 9/11 and the series of terror attacks in Europe. These events have also led to a focus on immigration and religion, particularly the growth of Islam in Europe. As Muslims have become more defined as a group, rather than as part of their respective nationalities and ethnicities, they have become the target of restrictive immigration policies, punitive integration measures and citizenship tests designed to test for “anti-liberal” values. In the U.S., integration policy has focused more on refugees, but there have been measures at the state level that have been designed to limit bilingual language programs and make English the official language, focusing primarily on Spanish-speaking migrants. In this chapter, we examine how researchers have examined and explained immigrant integration and the processes countries have used to deal with the issues surround the settlement of new populations. We then examine how the issues of race and religion have impacted the policy processes related to immigrant integration. We then investigate country cases, including those that have taken an approach referred to as civic integration.
