“A Two-Way Process of Accommodation”: Public Perceptions of Integration along the Migration-Mobility Continuum

Abstract

Despite decades of policy and academic focus, integration remains a contested and opaque concept. Yet in recent years with its promise of social cohesion and shared citizenship, it has obtained a morally privileged status in contrast to the political disenchantment now attached to multiculturalism. This chapter presents a case study on public perceptions of integration among migrants and nonmigrants in two cities within the European Union, Edinburgh and Stockholm. Despite the European Union’s guidance within its Common Basic Principles for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals that “integration is a two-way process of accommodation by all migrants and residents of member states” (Council of the European Union 2004), there remains a stubborn focus on individual migrant competencies such as language attainment, employment, educational attainment, political participation, and citizenship, which is at best a partial reading of the dimensions outlined within the Brussels-led MIPEX initiative (Niessen et al. 2007). As a result, integration debates are now influenced by a proliferation of management information data, often coordinated by the EU. The emphasis on migrant’s individual competencies is coupled with a paucity of evidence on public perceptions of integration and little understanding of how they are influencing policy.