Setting the Stage: Definitions, Previous Literature, and Gaps Therein

In this chapter, I define the key terms used throughout the book—“migrant” and “integration”—so that readers with different backgrounds and levels of prior knowledge will fully understand their meaning and be able to connect them with related research and discussions. This chapter also reviews existing studies on the determinants of migrant integration, arguing that this literature has paid relatively little attention to the effects of sociopolitical conditions in the host country on migrant integration outcomes. Moreover, the literature review provided in this chapter suggests that additional research is needed regarding the psychological mechanisms connecting sociopolitical conditions and integration outcomes, as well as the ways in which some integration outcomes may feed back into certain mechanisms and determinants (i.e., feedback effects). These observations are then connected to a discussion of why it is important to fill these gaps in the previous literature and the ways in which my book contributes to this end.