The integration process of immigrants: limits and new contributions for a more comprehensive study

Abstract

The integration process of immigrants is a complex issue of conceptualization and extensive discussion both in the field of public policy and from the academia. The alleged European consensus about integration has only been in the comfortable speech of bidirectionality and the study of the integration process in host societies has been raised ever from quantifier and objectivist parameters that are not able to grasp the diversity of thereof. Furthermore, the study of integration has overlooked the importance of the society of origin and the link that immigrants remain with them, focusing only on the host society as a place of integration. In this paper I propose the extension of the look on the integration by incorporating the perspective of origin and the subjectivity of the immigrants as an actor with the capacity to question, decide and change the patterns and contexts in which integration occurs.