Naomi Carmon has brought together a group of distinguished scholars from post-industrial countries to discuss changes in immigration flows, their impact on the receiving countries, and alternative policy responses. Experts in sociology, economics, political science, geography and urban planning base their analyses on evidence from USA, Australia, Britain, France and Israel. They examine past experience and analyze the present situation, in which new types of immigrants, in changing circumstances, are creating new patterns of settlement and integration.

The story of West Indian immigrants to the United States is generally considered to be a great success. Mary Waters, however, tells a very different story. She finds that the values that gain first-generation immigrants initial success--a willingness to work hard, a lack of attention to racism, a desire for education, an incentive to save--are undermined by the realities of life and race relations in the United States. Contrary to long-held beliefs, Waters finds, those who resist Americanization are most likely to succeed economically, especially in the second generation.

Immigration from diverse origins has not only changed the social composition of highly industrialized societies. It has also profoundly affected their cultural identities. Nations originating from immigration, such as the USA, Australia or Israel, have reluctantly abandoned the vision of a melting pot wherein all ethnic origins would be transformed into a homogeneous national identity. But will common citizenship be sufficient to integrate an ethnic mosaic? Many European societies have traditionally identified the political nation with specific ethnic traditions. How much cultural adaptation can they expect from immigrants and how open are their national cultures for accommodating the immigrant experience? Ten authors address these questions. There is a common denominator: Cultural diversity resulting from immigration is neither seen as inherently desirable nor as a problem to be overcome, but rather as a challenge to which liberal democracies have not yet responded adequately.

This publication analyses in detail the nature and content of policies being implemented to promote the integration of immigrants in urban areas.

Michael Bommes (1954–2010) was one the most brilliant and original scholars of migration studies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This posthumously published collection brings together a selection of his most important essays on immigration, transnationalism, irregular migration, and migrant networks. “In Bommes, the academy lost a scholar with penetrating analyses of migration, the welfare state and social systems where the two interact. By completing his last project, Boswell and D'Amato have done scholarship a lasting service. A major contribution to public debate and a tribute to a very great man.”—Randall Hansen, University of Toronto