The Link Between the Transnational Behaviour and Integration of the Second Generation in European and American Cities: Does the context of reception matter?

Abstract

This article investigates the transnational behaviour of the children of immigrants – the second generation – in 11 European and two U.S. cities. We find evidence that transnational practices such as visits to the home country, remittances and use of ethnic media persist only among a minority of the second generation. At a personal level, these second-generation transmigrants are less socio-culturally integrated but more economically integrated in the host country. They also tend to live in those cities and countries with policies that are more assimilationist or exclusionary than multicultural.