The integration of migrant people in receiving societies: From utopia to reality test

The essay displays how the social integration of foreigners is a modern utopia in industrial societies and how its absolutism is under discussion nowadays. The attempt to monitor, measure and describe integration is still remarkable, despite all problems in finding the correct data and updating them. The term “integration” itself has been criticized and gradually overlapped to that of “inclusion” (i.e.in the school settings) but I argue that the former still has the strength to evoke the necessary responsibility of both (the migrant person and the receiving environment) for the ultimate integrative result. After showing and discussing the three models of integration (assimilation, differentialism, interculturalism), I introduce the last challenge for integration: the increasing populism. I conclude suggesting to use a proper vocabulary to interact with the lay people who follow populist references.