Panel II investigates the effect of national institutions on immigrant integration through cross-national comparison.

While national institutions affect the experiences of people in any country, for immigrants they provide the interface for navigating life in a new setting.  Learning and adapting to new laws, policies, norms, and bureaucracies are important for daily life because these factors ultimately structure possibilities for immigrants in their new country.  It is likely, however, that the relationship between institutions and migration is a dynamic process.  Depending on the characteristics of the foreign-born population, institutions may evolve to meet the challenges of demographic change.  Indeed, those who oppose immigration often argue that immigrants threaten a traditional way of life that is reified in national institutions. This symposium will therefore attempt to answer three related questions: 1) How do institutions (religious, political, economic, and/or social) affect the experiences of immigrants in European countries?  2) How do immigrants impact the institutions of host countries?  3) How does research of this type help us better understand social order and endogenous social change?  Analyses may be comparative or focus on a single case study.  Institutions and immigrant experiences may be economic, political, religious, or social.