Social integration

Social integration is the process during which newcomers or minorities are incorporated into the social structure of the host society. Social integration is understood as the set of actions that enable marginalized people to participate in the minimum level of social welfare achieved in a given country.

Social integration focuses on the need to move towards a safe, stable and just society by remedying the conditions of social disintegration, social exclusion, social fragmentation, exclusion and polarization, and broadening and strengthening the conditions of social integration towards social relations peaceful coexistence. collaboration and cohesion.

Definition

The term “social integration” was first used in the work of the French sociologist Émile Durkheim. He wanted to understand why suicide rates were higher in some social classes than others. Durkheim believed that society exerted a powerful force on individuals. He concluded that the beliefs, values, and norms of a people constitute a collective conscience, a shared way of understanding each other and the world.

Integration was first studied by Park and Burgess in 1921 through the concept of assimilation. They defined it as "a process of interpenetration and fusion in which individuals and groups acquire the memories, feelings, and attitudes of other individuals and groups and, by sharing their experience and history, join them in a common cultural life."

While some scholars offered a theory of assimilation, arguing that immigrants would be assimilated into the host society economically, socially, and culturally for successive generations, others developed a theory of multiculturalism, anticipating that immigrants would be able to maintain their identities ethnic groups through the integration process to shape the host society with a diversified cultural heritage.

Departing from the theory of assimilation, a third group of scholars proposed a theory of segmented integration, emphasizing that different groups of migrants may follow different trajectories towards upward or downward mobility in different dimensions, depending on their individual factors, contextual and structural.

Measurements

Compared to other dimensions of integration, social integration focuses more on the degree to which immigrants adapt to local customs, social relations, and daily practices. It is usually measured through social media, language, and intermarriage.

In many cases, education is used as a mechanism for social promotion. Neither education nor work can be guaranteed without a form of law. In relation to tolerant and open societies, members of minority groups often use social integration to gain full access to the opportunities, rights, and services available to members of mainstream society with cultural institutions such as churches and civic organizations. Media content also plays a social integration role in mass societies.

Around the world, millions of street children are at risk of exploitation, violence, substance abuse and health problems. The interventions aimed at this group in order to promote their social integration, are intended to provide them with a better life alternative and prevent their marginalization from society. A systematic review of thirteen studies, all conducted in the United States except one in South Korea, found little evidence on interventions to improve the integration of street children and youth into society and provide them with an appropriate education. None of the studies measured literacy, educational participation or employment. Evidence for interventions that target safer sex and improve mental health vary widely and are inconclusive as to their effectiveness. However, some interventions that aim to reduce the risk of substance abuse may be effective.

In different countries

The United Nations has a Social Integration Branch, which is part of the Division for Social Policy and Development, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It also issues a quarterly publication called Social Integration Policy Bulletin. The UN Alliance of Civilizations initiative works on migration and integration as a key to intercultural understanding. An online community on migration and integration showcases good practices from around the world.

In Spain

In Spain there is a training cycle for a Higher Technician degree in social integration, which works and studies this topic through the following teaching modules:

• Social skills
• Socio-labor insertion
• Community mediation
• Context of social intervention
• Methodology of social intervention
• Promotion of personal autonomy
• Alternative and increased communication systems
• Attention to units of coexistence
• Support for educational intervention
• Training and career guidance
• Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship

In Sweden

The 2005 documentary «Gränser Utan - en film om idrott och integration» (Without Borders - A film about sport and Integration) was filmed by journalist Paul Jackson for the IFK Malmö sports club and it was described by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet as "a documentary on how to succeed with the integration" of immigrants into Swedish society. One of the protagonists of the documentary is Osama Krayem, later one of the perpetrators of the 2016 Brussels bombings.