Toward a Cultural Sociology of Immigrant Incorporation

Abstract

Migration has been a central research topic in sociology since the late 19th century, with a focus on understanding how immigrants succeed or fail to become incorporated into the receiving society. Less examined until recently is how migrants understand and relate to their original homelands. Most research on migration looks at incorporation in terms of location in the social structure without paying sufficient attention to the cultural dimension, in particular the meanings attached to making sense of the migration experience. For that reason, it is argued that a cultural sociology of migrant incorporation remains to be developed. Four important concepts are used in immigration studies as potentially valuable building blocks for such an undertaking: ambivalence, assimilation, transnationalism, and multiculturalism.