IntegrateYouth is a research project that studies integration of youth and young adults in Norway, Sweden, England, Germany and the Netherlands. It is funded by Nordforsk under the joint Nordic-UK research programme on Migration and Integration, and is a collaboration between the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, Fafo Research Institute in Oslo, and Nuffield College at Oxford University. For the first time, we match the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU) with its Norwegian sibling, CILS-NOR. We conceptualize integration as an (1) empirical phenomenon, that is (2) multi-dimensional, and (3) multi-sided.

Integration as an empirical phenomenon

We study integration as the degree of similarity between members of different “ethnic” groups in terms of their opportunities, structural resources, and culture, and as the degree of their mutual acceptance and inter-relations in social networks.

Integration is multidimensional

We focus on four main elements of integration:

• Structural integration, such as youth’s educational and economic situation;
• Social integration, such as friendship across ethnic lines, but also exclusion and bullying;
• Cultural integration, such as values, identity and religiosity;
• Psychological adaptation, such as mental wellbeing and anti-social behavior.

Structural, cultural, social and psychological aspects are intertwined, and a better understanding of the links between them is an important goal of the project.

Integration is multi-sided

Integration is not just about immigrants and non-immigrants, but involves many groups of diverse origins.