Ethnic Minority Migrants in Britain and France : Integration Trade-Offs

This book analyzes migrants' labor market and political integration outcomes. It offers a unique perspective on why migrant groups have different integration outcomes and provides the first systematic way of understanding why assimilation outcomes do not always match economic and political outcomes.

This book addresses why some ethnic minority migrant groups have better economic and political integration outcomes than others. The central claim is that social integration leads to trade-offs with economic and political integration. The logic behind this claim is that socially segregated groups may have difficulties interacting with mainstream society but will have more capacity for group mobilization. That mobilization can improve economic and political integration. In comparison, socially integrated groups may have greater capacity to interact with mainstream society but also less likelihood of developing significant group mobilization resources. As a result, this can limit their economic and political integration outcomes. Rahsaan Maxwell develops this argument with evidence from Britain and France, claiming that similar group-level dynamics exist despite numerous national-level contextual differences, and provides a brief extension of the argument to The Netherlands and the United States.