Immigrants and Local Societies. Why and How to Measure Their Integration

The aim of this contribution is to discuss possible tools for the measurement, in synthetic form, of the integration of immigrants in the destination societies. The discussion will centre on both the possible uses of such tools and, especially, the numerous and important issues to be addressed in their design and implementation. Three problems are addressed in particular: definition of the concept of integration, the complexity of the concept to be measured, choice of the unit of analysis. The conclusion is that it is not possible to devise a tool for the measurement of integration which has a general validity. Such a tool must therefore be constructed in relation to the purposes for which it will be used.