The Second Generation in Europe and the United States: How is the Transatlantic Debate Relevant for Further Research on the European Second Generation?

Abstract

This introductory paper to the special issue of JEMS on the second generation in Europe reviews some of the key themes underpinning the growing interest in the second generation, and asks what ‘integration’ actually means in contemporary debates about immigration and settlement. The authors attempt to place these debates within their specific national contexts, in particular by applying US-developed theories of second-generation integration to Europe. In this way, we build on the embryonic transatlantic dialogue about which factors potentially account for different patterns of second-generation integration in different countries. Integration, in this sense, refers both to structural aspects such as educational and labour-market status as well as to a broader and at times fuzzier concept that includes ideas of culture, ethnic or religious identity and citizenship. The paper also sets the scene for the various articles in this special issue which together illustrate the thematic breadth of European-based research on the children of immigrants. We conclude by offering two theoretical avenues for future research on ethnic minority groups and their settlement patterns.

Keywords:

• Second Generation
• Integration
• Segmented Assimilation
• Ethnic Cohesion
• Europe
• United States

Acknowledgements

This paper, and the special issue of JEMS, arise out of a series of workshops organised under the IMISCOE Network of Excellence (‘International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe’) funded under the EU's Sixth Framework Programme. Specifically the workshops—held at the University of Sussex in April 2005, at the University of Amsterdam in March 2006 and at the University of Osnabrück in September 2006—were part of the activity of the C8 research cluster on ‘Gender, Age and Generations’, and were co-sponsored under the TIES project (‘The Integration of the European Second Generation’), directed by Maurice Crul.

Notes

1. Although this is not to deny that academic and scientific debate about the second generation has taken place within Europe, particularly in the fields of psychology and pedagogy, albeit often not in the English language.

2. We define the second generation as children born in the host country of one or more immigrant parents or those who arrived before primary-school age.

3. One example of an initiative for transatlantic collaboration on this topic is the Children of Immigrants in School (CIS) project: http://mumford.albany.edu/schools/index.htm.

4. When referring to the indigenous population, the term ‘social exclusion’ is often preferred.

5. This pessimistic outlook for people residing in ‘ghettos’ has been the source of some recent criticism. Waldinger and his co-authors (2007) argue that second-generation Mexicans, despite gloomy predictions to the contrary, are now integrating into ‘working-class’ America—another form of second-generation integration.

6. This research idea will be further developed in the TIES project. TIES— ‘The Integration of the European Second Generation’—is an ongoing project (2005–09) which looks at the integration of the Turkish, Moroccan and ex-Yugoslavian second generation in eight European countries. See www.imiscoe.org/ties for more information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Thomson

Mark Thomson is Research Officer in the Sussex Centre for Migration Research at the University of Sussex

Maurice Crul

Maurice Crul is Researcher in the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies at the University of Amsterdam