What do we know about socio-economic integration, and what are the key emerging issues? Anthony Heath and Yaojun Li

Introduction

This briefing addresses socio-economic integration, understood as covering the educational and economic attainment of migrants and their children in Britain. Since fluency in the English language is also crucial for educational and economic success, we briefly cover this too.

We need to recognize that integration is a process which takes time. We cannot expect migrants to be instantaneously integrated into British society the moment they arrive. We therefore take account both of changes over the life-course after arrival in Britain, and of generational changes. We also take account both of ethnic differences and of faith differences.

Anthony Heath is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester and Director of the Centre for Social Investigation at Nuffield College, Oxford. Yaojun Li is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester and a member of the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMIST), Manchester.

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Topics

EducationGeneration and Life courseIntegration