Zigzag Paths to Social Integration

Abstract

A significant tension exists between discourses shaping integration policies in the West, with the increasing emphasis on the securitization of immigrant polices post-9/11 and the demands on women by their own communities to protect their local culture and heritage by keeping their traditional roles intact. In the context of the UK, Kofman and Vacchelli (2012) show that the main political discourse of social integration is built on problems related to the lack of integration. Social exclusion of minorities, ghettoization into segregated societies and lack of integration have resulted from the poor acquisition of the fundamentals of British culture, i.e. its language and lifestyle. In particular, lack of integration and social exclusion have been mostly ascribed to women who have joined their husbands through family reunification, who usually do not speak English and hence put economic strain on existing social services. For this reason, policymakers advocate an urgent need for pre-entry tests, to ensure better economic integration through a better knowledge of language and life in the UK (Kofman and Vacchelli 2012). Therefore, this approach treats ethnic minority women as scapegoats for non-integration and the representatives of non-Western values.