Quantitative Methods in the
Social Sciences 2

IMMIGRATION AND POPULATION DYNAMICS

Measuring Integration and Discrimination
5 - 6 July, 2010, Paris, France

Call for papers

This seminar is organized jointly by Patrick Simon of the French National Institute for Demographic Studies in Paris and Han Entzinger of Erasmus University Rotterdam as part of the European Science Foundation’s programme to support research networks in quantitative social sciences (QMSS2). Like earlier seminars in this series, this seminar is small-scale and attendance is upon invitation only. A maximum of twelve papers will be accepted, preferably written by young scholars.

Seminar theme

Integration is one of the most widely used concepts in the social sciences, but many scholars who use it hardly take the trouble to define it. Integration may be seen as designating the process that occurs in a society after immigrants have settled there, but this is still a vague and many-faceted description. The use of the term integration in the public and political debate is even vaguer than in academic research. Often one cannot help but think that this is deliberately so. It is certainly not the aim of this seminar to find a definition that satisfies many, but rather to start from the empirical end, and see how integration is being operationalised in research. What indicators are used and how are these believed to reflect integration as a process, but also as a state of affairs? Why have these indicators been chosen, and to what extent do differences in theoretical viewpoints play a role in such choices? Furthermore, different traditions prevail in integration research and those traditions are sometimes linked to differential national experiences. So, an obvious question would also be to find out what patterns exist in integration research and in how far these are determined by differences in conceptualising integration.

In many countries of the European continent, for example, integration has been interpreted as the process of increased participation of immigrants and people of immigrant descent in core institutions such as the labour market or education. More recently, we have seen a switch towards a more cultural interpretation of the notion of integration. There has been a growing emphasis on the need to learn the local language, to identify with the country of residence and ‘to become like us’. There appears to be a certain contrast between this approach and the one which puts a stronger emphasis on the development of interrelationships between the established populations and the newly arrived, or between communities in general. In the latter approach notions such as inter-ethnic or race relations and discrimination (at an individual and a group level) play a key role. It has a much stronger tradition in countries such as the United Kingdom and also in classical immigration countries like the United States, than in most of the countries on the European continent.

The two approaches just described each start from different interpretations of social reality and will also use different operationalisations in their research on that reality. Basically, however, they deal with the same phenomenon, which is the incorporation process of newcomers in an established society. One may wonder if, conceptually, they may be considered two sides of the same coin. In other words: are integration and discrimination mutually exclusive? One could also argue that the Europeanisation of research on these issues is forcing the academic world to become more aware of similarities and differences in their approaches.

This brings us to the main theme of this seminar: in how far can we indeed distinguish two basic approaches in researching immigrant incorporation: the integration approach and the (anti-)discrimination approach? What are the main characteristics of each and how do these relate to one another? What are the theoretical bases of each of these, and how wide is the gap between them? Would it be feasible to link the two approaches more narrowly and would that help us in better understanding immigrant incorporation? What are the major indicators of immigrant incorporation and how should these be operationalised in research that may be carried out at the interface of the two approaches?

Schedule of the seminar and logistics

The seminar has four sessions that will all deal with integration and discrimination simultaneously. In the first session the two notions will be conceptualised and further explored. The second session will be dedicated to measuring each of the two. What indicators can be used and how to collect the relevant data? In the third and the fourth sessions the interface of integration and discrimination will be further explored. Session three will focus on the social and economic domain and session for on the cultural and identity domain.
Each of the sessions will be introduced by a senior scholar as an invited key note speaker. Three additional papers in all four sessions will be selected. These papers should preferably be submitted by young scholars. The organizers plan to collect the best papers in a book to be published after the conference.

How to submit a proposal?

All young researchers (PhD students, post-doc and young researchers with a position) in Europe may submit a proposal for this seminar. The proposals should have a title, an abstract not exceeding 500 words and the coordinates of the applicant. It should cover main hypotheses, data, methodology and expected conclusions. The proposals should be sent to the organizers (simon@ined.fr and entzinger@fsw.eur.nl) before 3 May, 2010. Notifications of selection will be sent no later than 12 May, 2010. Travel and accommodation costs will be provided for the selected participants.

Provisional programme