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What is Integration? A Comparative View from Immigrants and Municipal Policy
Author(s) -
Verdía Varela Verónica,
Fernández Suárez Belén,
DePalma Renée
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international migration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-2435
pISSN - 0020-7985
DOI - 10.1111/imig.12694
Subject(s) - immigration , citizenship , immigration policy , perception , government (linguistics) , perspective (graphical) , political science , sociology , local government , public administration , public policy , public relations , law , politics , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science
The ongoing project of citizenship construction in societies receiving international immigration demands a perspective that takes into account the interests, views and needs of all socio‐demographic groups, including those of newcomers as potential new citizens. We interviewed representatives of 16 immigrant associations operating in the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia, reviewed immigration policy in 13 Spanish (Galician) municipalities, and interviewed 20 municipal government staff members who put these into practice. With this research, we aim to explore the perspectives of immigrants with respect to their own integration and to examine how these compare with local policies designed to facilitate these processes. By comparing the immigrant representatives' perceptions with local policy discourses and practice, our study reveals how local integration practice is not only inconsistent with its own policy discourse but also fails to consider and include immigrants' own understandings of what integration means and how it can be achieved.