Linking Discrimination and Integration: Findings and Challenges

To explain differences in integration processes and -outcomes between and within different minority groups is one of the most challenging issues in migration research. There is a heated debate about which factors account for these differences. In the focus of the debate is the question about the role of the receiving context, most importantly salient ethnic boundaries, as compared to migrants’ individual characteristics. On the one hand, there is ample empirical evidence from survey data that ethnic prejudice and social distances are still widespread, especially against those groups that are in the focus of research on ethnic and racial inequalities such as blacks in the US or Muslims in Europe. Evidence of discriminatory behavior has also been provided with the help of audit studies. On the other hand, findings are much less conclusive in studies that focus on “ethnic residuals” or “ethnic penalties” on the basis of survey or other microdata. In sum, the conclusions that can be drawn from these studies about the impact of discrimination on integration depend heavily on the methods used, the outcome variables under study and the group and country context.