Abstract
In this book, authors Inken Sürig and Maren Williams have provided a detailed interpretation of ‘The Integration of the European Second Generation’ (TIES) project undertaken by the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES) at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI). The comparative study conducted across eight EU member states including France, Germany, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Sweden was inclusive of immigrants of Turkish, Yugoslavian, and Moroccan descent and ‘control groups’ consisting of non-migrant people whose parents were born in the country (p. 7) the survey was conducted in. The survey aimed to understand the integration of the second generation of children of the immigrant groups who were born in their parents’ country of immigration.
The book is divided into nine well-defined chapters, each highlighting a distinct issue associated with the economic, social, cultural, and normative integration of Turkish and Yugoslavian second-generation immigrants in Germany. The book examines how education policymaking affects integration of immigrant children, adolescents, and young adults. Given the complex history of the German education system, a great deal of attention is paid to elaborating upon the nuances of the historical evolution of this system. However, issues such as the realisation of the impenetrable nature of the tiered educational system that was subsequently dissolved after the discovery of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shock (see Davoli and Entorf, 2018) have not been discussed. The authors emphasise the importance of social and cultural capital (pp. 12, 29), and how the generational transcendence of the same aggravates disparity in future.
The authors discuss the importance of geographical factors, racial and/or ethnic identities, gender, and religion to create multi-layered comparative analyses of indices indicating the quality of life that second-generation immigrants have access to. The role played by paradigm shifts in the kind of labour that globalised, technologically evolved marketplaces demand today, in affecting the lives of first- and second-generation immigrants, is discussed. This allows the authors to reaffirm the notion that the level of education and/or vocational training one receives is directly proportional to rates of employability in the 21st century. Since cultural capital and social networking (pp. 79, 82) seem to play a role in determining the kind of resources one must possess in order to be able to access such resources – both materially and immaterially – second-generation immigrants continue to be less represented (p. 33) despite significant effort by policy makers to promote multicultural integration and inclusivity.
In Chapter 4, the authors look at the demarcation of neighbourhoods into working class, middle class, and upper class as they compare the level and kind(s) of integration that have taken place based on income brackets and ethnic identities. It is intriguing to note how economy is not the sole factor that comes into play while determining the degree of integration of second-generation Turkish and Yugoslavian immigrants within middle and upper-class neighbourhoods. This perhaps points towards the persistence of social classes that contain an economic lease of life but are rather strongly represented by assumed behavioural patterns. For example, working-class neighbourhoods comprising Turkish and Yugoslavian immigrants are often considered to be associated with ‘rubbish, vandalism and crime’ (p. 104). As observed in Chapters 3 and 6, the affiliation to social class plays an important role in determining the chances of having a more successful career (p. 41) and could act as a determining factor for initiating hostile responses from control groups (p. 163). Such compartmentalisation contributes towards Turkish students benefitting less compared to their German peers in Hauptschule (Secondary general school) or Gymnasium (Academic secondary school) (see Faas, 2012).
An insightful study of how gender identities influence treatment of the immigrant groups is examined in Chapters 2 and 8. While gender distribution in terms of labour participation differs greatly within the Turkish and Yugoslavian immigrant groups, some similarity is shared between women of all backgrounds, including control groups, to engage in emotional labour. This is in accordance with a universalistic conformity to gendered normativity that compels women to cater to roles that translate into jobs that require caregiving. The authors show significant sensitivity in dealing with the subject of how presumptions about religious affiliations affect cultural distancing and discriminatory behavioural patterns. Overall, the book derives from the TIES study but does not at any point remain constrained to the findings of this specific study. Instead, an inter-disciplinary approach has been adopted, combining impressive qualitative research work with quantitative studies. The book is an important contribution in the field of sociology of migration in the post-globalised world.
