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In line with the main idea of the book, this chapter deals mostly with the structural or socio-economic dimension of integration, with a special focus on labour market inclusion. The integration of immigrants in the Czech labour market is viewed from an institutional and organizational perspective. The main emphasis of the chapter is on immigration from outside the EU. The author first provides an outline of the general trends in labour migration since the beginning of the century and analyzes the impact of selected labour market–related migration and integration policies and practices. Based on an analysis of policy documents, official statistics and available sociological research, the text discusses some major challenges to the successful integration of immigrants in the Czech labour market, with a special focus on the main actors and institutions involved in the process. In her analysis of the integration process, the author discusses the regulatory (or rather restrictive) role of Czech employment offices, the symbolic (or rather ineffective) role of trade unions and, last but not least, the crucial role of Czech NGOs working with non-EU immigrants. The latter are seen as key facilitators of migrant integration and not only in terms of their operative function (e.g. working in the field and assisting immigrants) but also in advocating for immigrants' rights.

Because of the recent interest on the globalization process generated by global restructuring, the local as the site where this change occurs has emerged as a principal entity for study. Divergent opinions have developed that either downgrade the importance of the local and focus instead on flows, transnational social structures, and translocal spaces or that highlight the centrality of the local as a cause or as a result of globalization, thereby maintaining the traditional focus and emphasis on place as either container, process, or setting.⁴

This paper explores integration experiences of immigrants in the Canadian workplace from the perspective of immigrants themselves, focusing on cultural capital and cultural judgments as factors influencing workplace entry, advancement and social integration in an increasingly diverse work environment.

An interpretive approach that involved thematic analysis of in-depth interview data was employed.

The findings reveal that the official two-way multiculturalism policy of Canada is not reflected in the Canadian workplace and that structural forces of assimilation are evident. Cultural judgments and immigrants' cultural capital create barriers for integration.

While highlighting important aspects of immigrant experiences within the Canadian workplace, the study findings cannot generate a fully representative theorization of immigrant employment experiences in Canada. Further studies with diverse migrant groups in different parts of the country would shed more light on the issues faced by immigrants.

The barriers to social integration identified by this study can be largely overcome by improving intercultural skills and cultural intelligence of employers and employees through training and incorporating values of diversity and inclusion into the corporate culture.

The factors that foster and hinder workplace integration identified by this study can inform workplace integration strategies and related policies.

Much of the literature concerning immigrants' position in Canada address the economic integration and economic well-being of immigrants, focusing on quantitative, macro level analyses of earnings disparity and labor market segmentation. There is a lack of qualitative research that explores the integration process through the lens of immigrants. Informed by the theories of cultural capital, cultural judgment and integration, the study sheds light on the everyday workplace experiences of skilled migrants and perceived barriers to workplace entry, advancement and social integration.

Empirical studies show substantial variation across immigrants in the rate and direction of assimilation along various dimensions (e.g., cross-ethnic contact, language, identity). To explain this variation, past research has focused on identifying exogenous factors, such as discrimination, human capital, and settlement intention. In this chapter we argue that variation in immigrant outcomes emerges endogenously through positive interaction effects between dimensions of assimilation. We propose a new assimilation model in which processes of social influence and selection into congruent social environments give rise to multiple long-term equilibria. In this model, migrants who are already assimilated along many dimensions tend to also adapt along other dimensions, while less assimilated migrants become more strongly embedded in their ethnic group.

To test the assimilation model, we derive a number of hypotheses, which we evaluate using trend analysis and dynamic panel regression on data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada.

The data mostly confirm the hypotheses, providing overall support for the assimilation model.

Our theory and findings suggest that immigrants would follow divergent assimilation trajectories even in the absence of a priori population heterogeneity in external factors.

The positive interaction effects between cultural and structural dimensions of assimilation suggest that mixed policies that promote integration while seeking to prevent loss of identity go against the natural tendency for cultural and structural assimilation to go hand in hand.

The present chapter proposes a novel model of immigrant assimilation and an empirical test.

This paper aims to report on a preliminary study of how professionally qualified immigrants from Hong Kong to Canada make sense of their experiences, particularly workplace opportunities.

The study is framed by a Critical Sensemaking approach, involving in-depth interviews with 12 informants from the Hong Kong Chinese community and discursive analysis (Foucault, 1979) of the local and formative contexts in which they are making sense of workplace opportunities.

The findings suggest that a dominant discourse of “integration” strongly influences the way that professionally qualified immigrants come to accept the unchallenged assumptions that the government is providing help for them to “get in”; and that ethnic service organizations are offering positive guidance to the immigrants’ workplace goals and opportunities. Immigrants’ identity and self-worth are measured by whether they “get in” – integrate – into so-called mainstream society. The effect of this hidden discourse has been to marginalize some immigrants in relation to workplace opportunities.

The interplay of structural (i.e. formative contexts and organizational rules), socio-psychological (i.e. sensemaking properties) and discursive contexts (e.g. discourses of immigration) are difficult to detail over time. The interplay – although important – is difficult to document and trace over a relatively short period of time and may, more appropriately lend itself to more longitudinal research.

This paper strongly suggests that we need to move beyond structural accounts to capture the voice and agency of immigrants. In particular, as we have tried to show, the sensemaking and sensemaking contexts in which immigrants find themselves provide important insights to the immigrant experience.

This paper suggests widespread policy implications, with a call for greater use of qualitative methods in the study of immigrant experience. It is suggested that policymakers need to move beyond uniform and structural approaches to immigration. How selected immigrants in context make sense of their experiences and how this can help to identify improved policies need to be understood.

This paper is original in going beyond both structural and psychological accounts of immigration. Through the developing method of Critical Sensemaking, the study combines a focus on structure and social psychology and their interplay. Thus, providing insights not only to the broad discriminatory practices that so-called non-White immigrants face in Canada (and likely other industrial societies) but how these are made sense of. The study is also unique in attempting to fuse sensemaking and discourse analysis to show the interaction between individual sensemaking in the context of dominant discourses.

The study aims to examine the causes of the divergent patterns of contemporary transnational engagement with China among new Chinese immigrants and the effect of transnational entrepreneurship on migrants’ integration into their host societies.

It is based on a multi-sited ethnographic study that contains interviews, participant observations, and analysis of relevant event coverage and commentaries by the media, which were conducted between 2008 and 2013 in Singapore, the United States, and China.

The study finds that different migration histories, structural circumstances in both sending and receiving societies, and locations in the transnational social field give rise to divergent patterns of economic transnationalism, and that the rise of China has opened up new avenues for transnational entrepreneurship, which has not only benefited hometown development in China but also created economic opportunities for Chinese immigrants, leading to desirable mobility outcomes. In particular, transnational entrepreneurship has promoted deeper localization rather than deterritorialization and contributed to strengthening the economic base of the existing ethnic enclave, which in turn offers an effective alternative path for migrants’ integration in their host societies.

The study is exploratory in nature. As with all ethnographic studies, its generalizability is limited.

The study suggests that, when transnational entrepreneurship is linked to the existing ethnic social structure in which a particular identity is formed, the effect on the group becomes highly significant. The comparative approach of the study can help unveil different dynamics, processes, and consequences of transnationalism and complex factors behind variations on diasporic development and immigrant integration.

Looking at entrepreneurship beyond nation-state boundaries and beyond the economic gains of individual migrants.

This paper contributes to the analysis of the relationship between sociological discourse on ethnic relations and social changes produced by immigration in Italy. It is organized in three parts. The first part investigates the reasons that until recently prevented European and Italian academic debate from using the concept of ethnic minority to analyze international migration.

The purpose of this paper is to test a hypothesized structure of interrelations between pre-migration dispositional factors (cultural identity and optimism/pessimism) and immigration-related experiences (level of integration and perceived discrimination) in association with mental and physical components of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of Jewish people from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who immigrated to Germany.

A questionnaire in Russian, including items about the immigration background, level of integration, perceived discrimination as well as cultural identity, dispositional optimism/pessimism (Life Orientation Test-R) and HRQoL (SF-12) was handed out to Jewish immigrants from the FSU living in Germany. The data of 153 participants were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Whereas no significant associations between Jewish identity and HRQoL could be found, both a positive association between optimism and level of integration with a link to physical and mental health, and an inverse relation between optimism and perceived discrimination with a link to mental health, were observed. Opposite associations were found for pessimism.

The results replicate prior research findings on Jews from the FSU living in Israel and the USA and suggest more detailed assessment methods for further investigations on integration processes and cultural identity in the selected group of immigrants. Additionally, HRQoL is significantly lower in the Jewish sample than in the general population. These findings underline the need for a better integration policy, especially for Jewish people from the FSU.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how ethnic niches of immigrants affected their integration. Immigrants' integration in the host society is described by the integration of immigrants in their private life and integration in the labor market.

Data were collected in 2006‐2007 in Israel. Combining convenient and snowball samples, 321 immigrants from the Former Soviet Union were surveyed via a questionnaire. The questionnaire was presented in the immigrants' native language or in Hebrew, according to the respondent's choice.

The study revealed that the salient factors that influence the immigrants' integration in the host society relate to their incorporation in the labor market. Being in an ethnic niche in private life does not influence the immigrants' integration in the host society. But being in an ethnic niche in the labor market does influence immigrants' integration. In summary, the study revealed that immigrants who are in ethnic niches in private life perceive themselves as integrated into the host society. Immigrants who are in ethnic niches in the labor market perceive themselves as less integrated.

The paper contributes to understanding the role of ethnic niches in immigrants' integration in the host society and provides valuable insight for academics and practitioners who are interested to appreciate immigrants' integration.

Introduction: Despite its significance, the research on international migration with a specific focus on the European Union (EU) needs to be strengthened with comprehensive studies, for developing better immigration and integration policies. Considering the amplitude of migration flows in Europe and recent challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, the Brexit decision and humanitarian dimension of the migration phenomena (asylum seekers and refugees), the need for better immigration and integration policies within the host countries’ labor markets stands out as a major research direction, especially in case of immigrants looking for better working and living conditions. Aim: This chapter aims to design specific immigration clusters within the main EU-10 destination countries (including Spain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, UK, Germany, Austria, and Sweden) (cluster analysis procedure); and to identify feasible ways and specific policies for immigrants’ labor market success (spatial analysis and macroeconometric models). Method: The methodological framework consists of two parts: (i) immigration clusters analysis, based on the interlinkages between several fundamental migration coordinates, namely, economic welfare at destination, employment opportunities for the foreign population, migrant integration policies and associated governmental efforts, educational background; and (ii) spatial analysis models, namely spatial lag–autoregressive and spatial error, and other three econometric procedures, respectively, the robust regression, Panel Corrected Standard Errors, and Arellano-Bond Dynamic Generalized Method of Moments. National data compiled for the 10 main EU receiving economies during 2000–2015, with a particular focus on Spain were used. Findings: The impact of the proposed research is reflected through a set of new specific tailored ways, policies and strategies that can be adopted and implemented by the policy-makers across Europe. Our empirical results show that, overall, EU-10 countries still fail to identify immigrants with high levels of education and skills acquired to enhance their potential for labor market integration. Policy-makers should always monitor the specific ways in which migration policies lead to concrete positive labor market outcomes for immigrants and that the tools used for implementing these policies are suitable in achieving predefined migration goals. Therefore, a particular focus should be on developing a new immigration system to select migrants for their skills and high level of human capital, by following the best practices examples of other receiving countries.