Mixed unions reveal progress in integration but also enduring societal social cleavages, which revolve around race in the US and religion in Europe

Recent months have seen debates over immigration and the integration of immigrants into North American and Western European societies come to the fore in public discourse. In new research, Richard Alba and Nancy Foner assess the state of immigrant integration by analysing unions between those with non-Western immigrant origins and those from native majorities in North America and Western Europe. They find that, while the frequency of mixed unions varies among countries, the greater variation occurs among groups, reflecting pronounced social cleavages in different countries: racial divisions, especially between blacks and whites, in the United States and the separation between Muslims and long-established secular/Christian natives in Western Europe. Other factors, including the settler society experience in North America and cultural traditions among Muslim groups, also play a role

Just like the USA? Critical notes on Alba and Foner's cross-atlantic research agenda

A critical review of Alba and Foner's Strangers No More (2015) which focuses on questioning their comparative assimilation of European cases of immigrant integration to the North American, specifically U.S., experience. While this may work in terms of how national immigrant integration has mitigated over time racial discrimination for older, post-colonial migrants, it misrepresents the complex differentiations involved in the super-diversity of recent ‘new’ migrations within and to Europe. In particular, the variety of types and origins of recent migration is lost in their understanding of the U.K. case, with problems linked to their interpretation of data about minorities and foreigners in the country

Multiculturalism and moderate secularism

What is sometimes talked about as the ‘post-secular’ or a ‘crisis of secularism’ is, in Western Europe, quite crucially to do with the reality of multiculturalism. By which I mean not just the fact of new ethno-religious diversity but the presence of a multiculturalist approach to this diversity, namely: the idea that equality must be extended from uniformity of treatment to include respect for difference; recognition of public/private interdependence rather than dichotomized as in classical liberalism; the public recognition and institutional accommodation of minorities; the reversal of marginalisation and a remaking of national citizenship so that all can have a sense of belonging to it. I think that equality requires that this ethno-cultural multiculturalism should be extended to include state-religion connexions in Western Europe, which I characterise as ‘moderate secularism’, based on the idea that political authority should not be subordinated to religious authority yet religion can be a public good which the state should assist in realising or utilising. I discuss here three multiculturalist approaches that contend this multiculturalising of moderate secularism is not the way forward. One excludes religious groups and secularism from the scope of multiculturalism (Kymlicka); another largely limits itself to opposing the ‘othering’ of groups such as Jews and Muslims (Jansen); and the third argues that moderate secularism is the problem not the solution (Bhargava)

Islands in the city: West Indian migration to New York

This collection of original essays draws on a variety of theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and empirical data to explore the effects of West Indian migration and to develop analytic frameworks to examine it

Jamaïcains à New-York : Une ethnicité en devenir

Depuis trente ans, de nombreux Jamaïcains se sont installés aux Etats-Unis et en particulier à New York. Découvrant ce que signifie être noir dans ce pays, n'acceptant pas pour autant d'être assimilés aux Afro-Américains, ils sont amenés à développer une nouvelle perception de leur «jamaïcanité», et à affirmer leurs particularismes ethniques.Foner Nancy, ISM-TI. Jamaïcains à New-York : Une ethnicité en devenir. In: Hommes et Migrations, n°1162-1163, Février-mars 1993. Fragments d'Amérique. Migrants et minorités aux USA. pp. 51-53

Pride Against Prejudice: Haitians in the United States

This book describes the struggle of Haitians in the United States, the strain between pride in their Haitian roots and prejudice against Haitians, and its causes and consequences for approximately 500,000 Haitians in the U.S. The book examines the problems of prejudice, economics and immigration Haitians confront, along with their pride and resources of family, community and culture. Haitians reflect continuing difficulties in America concerning race, ethnicity and nationality. Part of the New Immigrants Series, edited by Nancy Foner. Focusing on the massive wave of immigration currently sweeping across America, this ground breaking series includes coverage of five new immigrant groups for 1998, the Hmong in Wisconsin, Brazilians and Koreans in New York City, Haitians in Miami, and Chinese in San Francisco. This series fills the gap in knowledge relating to today\u27s immigrants, how these groups are attempting to redefine their cultures while here, and their contribution to a new and changing America