I. Introduction: The Concept of Immigrant Integration

One theme which emerges from the reviews is that the concept of immigrant integration is best understood as operating on several levels: that of the individual immigrant and his/her family; that of immigrant/ethnic communities and sub-communities; that of the non-immigrant individuals in the society; and that of the host society as a whole, represented by collective entities such as the culture or the economy.

In addition, and this is something only tangentially recognized in the reviews, immigrant integration is a nested process. Immigrants may integrate first into a family or extended family, into a sub-group of their ethnic group, into a broader communal group, and finally into Canadian society.

Immigrant integration, or non-integration, is a process which occurs regardless of the policy initiatives in the six policy domains identified by the Metropolis Project. The consequences of immigration do not all necessarily require policy responses. Some of these consequences are less social "problems" than facts of the human condition.

For example, a pattern of housing market discrimination requires a major policy response. A finding that some immigrants are nostalgic for the old country requires none. A finding that immigrant families are often beset by inter-generational tensions might require some moderate response in the social service domain, though in the past immigrant families sorted through these things -- often painfully -- by themselves.

It is also the case that integration involves to a certain extent a mutual accommodation between host society and newcomers, though of course the power relations of this initial encounter are unequal. As was noted in the sociological review, there is a somewhat arbitrary expectation that the Canadian born should serve as the benchmarks to assess immigrants. Thus integration occurs when immigrants' behaviour begins to conform to that of the Canadian born. For some measures, like the higher divorce rates or crime rates for the Canadian born, this makes little sense.

The historical record in Canada suggests that even in a hostile or insensitive environment, immigrant integration has taken place. But usually the process of immigrant integration, especially if the immigrants have been adults, has been truly completed only in the second or third generation -- the children or grandchildren of immigrants. As several of the reviews indicated, studies of children of immigrants -- the second generation -- are needed to understand fully the processes of immigrant integration, and indeed to evaluate a pattern of immigration. An assessment of immigrant integration depends on the expectations regarding what is feasible and desirable. In a real sense most adult immigrants to a new society do not integrate fully. They cannot, as they have one foot still planted in the old country.

It should also be noted that the six disciplines reviewed here do NOT exhaust the range of disciplines which could shed valuable light on the issues at hand. Specifically, the history of immigration and ethnic communities would provide a useful perspective. The disciplines of political science, anthropology, education, social work, health and law also have valuable perspectives and a major research tradition in Canada relating to immigrants and minorities. Their omission from the list of disciplines leaves some gaps in this overview.

It is also clear that the process of immigrant integration, and indeed the consequences of immigration, may depend on the categories of immigrants (independent, family class, refugee) who arrive in Canada, and their very initial pattern of settlement. This has been under-researched. Whether these issues of admissions policy should be considered part of immigrant integration is a good question. But most of the research has not emphasized the differential impacts of immigration policy, and the categories of immigrants, on immigrant integration.

Moreover, much of the literature refers to immigrants as a group, without distinguishing those who are visible minorities, or more recent arrivals. Much of the earlier literature on immigration deals with mainly European immigrants. It is an empirical question, as yet unanswered by the available literature, as to whether the trajectory followed by those earlier waves will prefigure that of the newer, largely non-European immigrants. But it is of crucial importance.

It was also clear that none of the disciplines (perhaps excluding urban studies) has focused on immigrant integration from the specific perspective of the city. The streaming of immigrants into Canadian cities is not a new phenomenon, but the scale now is far greater than in the past. Some disciplines, as seen through these reviews, are more amenable to a specific urban focus than others.

This paper will first review the six disciplines which have been studied. Then it shall analyze the six domains of research and policy, as they may cut across the various disciplines. Both the six disciplines and the six policy domains were pre-determined by the Metropolis Project, Citizenship and Immigration Canada. A final concluding section will seek to pull together disparate threads.