Relational integration From integrating migrants to integrating relations

In this dissertation, I introduce the notion of relational integration as an alternative theoretical starting point for thinking about integration in contexts of immigration. My arguments for such a relational approach to integration are based on a diagnosis of two conceptual problems that are afflicting current integration research practices, which leave integration as a concept under-theorized, causing ambiguity about what constitutes an integration problem in the first place, what kind of social phenomena are relevant for its investigation, and what kind of social change integration processes involve.
Relational integration starts from the assumption that, normatively, we should be interested in integration as an issue of relational inequality. More specifically, it is concerned with relational inequality in terms of membership relations. Immigration inherently changes such relations, as people who formerly did not reside within a certain territory and were not subjected to its rules and institutions, now transform into people who do and who are. Yet, we see that social standing as equal members is not automatically extended to newcomers, neither immediately, nor over time. This, I argue, is the core of the relational integration problem.
A relational conception of integration problems changes our understanding of the integration problem as it takes the membership relations amongst people, which are established through institutions and interpersonal relations, as the primary site of integration. Hence, it shifts away from a research focus on the ‘integration of immigrants’, towards the integration of institutions and interactions that constitute the co-existence of all members of society.