Introduction: How relations to institutions shape youth integration—ethno-religious minorities, national contexts and social cohesion

Abstract

Social cohesion depends on a variety of societal mechanisms, whether material orsymbolic, that make individuals feel attached to one another. Ultimately, cohesion can only occur if inhabitants of any geographical space believe that they are bound together or, at least, can coexist peacefully despite their differences. The socialization of children certainly plays a role in shaping their views of society, their norms and value and their social identity (as part of an ethnic-religious group). Given the importance of institutions in modern and complex societies, cohesion also requires a shared sense that overarching norms, the political authorities that hold power and related street-level bureaucrats are supported, trusted and legitimate, or, at least, not rejected. Migration as a demographic factor and as a political reality, with the ethnic cleavages that in general can be consequent on migration, has a great importance, and more information is needed about how European and US societies actually face and suffer or benefit from these realities. The discussion about the place of Muslims, more intense in Europe than in the USA, has fuelled this debate even more after the terrorist attacks that have struck many European countries. Even before this, however, international organisations such as UNESCO and the OECD had expressedtheir concerns back in the& mid-1990s about the effects of globalisation upon social cohesion (Green, Preston, & Janmaat, 2006).