Conceptualizing and Measuring Migrants’ Political Inclusion

Abstract

Traditionally, the study of the processes and issues involved in the absorption of large immigration inflows has sidelined somewhat the political dimension of these processes. Short of neglecting this aspect, the truth is that — even in recent times — there is much less theoretical elaboration on the political component of immigrants’ integration or incorporation, and especially around the concepts that we use when studying political integration or incorporation. Many general recent overviews on the subject of immigrant integration fail to address the political dimension at all (Alba and Nee, 2003, Bean and Stevens, 2003) or do not address the important conceptual issues involved (Messina and Lahav, 2006). This is not to say that political scientists and sociologists have ignored the politics of immigration — far from it, there is a booming academic industry on the topic — but conceptual development has not been at centre stage.