Immigrant Integration in Germany: Language Skills, Physical Appearance, and the Role of the Host Society

How to achieve favorable integration outcomes has become a pressing and contentious issue in Germany. Some see cultural distance as the main impediment to integration. The more immigrants¿ culture and value systems differ from those of the host society, they contend, the more immigrants stay in their own communities and opt to forego host society interaction crucial for integration success. Acquiring the language and cultural skills to engage in such interaction is thus seen as a critical first step to facilitate integration. This book challenges this view. Drawing on conceptual frameworks of seminal theoretical literature in the United States and Germany, the author uses quantitative and qualitative research methods to show that the majority of second generation immigrants in Germany already speak the language well, and are highly integrated. To gauge the role of the host society in the process, the author also tests immigrants¿ physical appearance as a predictor of economic integration, in which immigrants still lag behind. The book will be of interest to scholars and policy makers in the field, as well as the educated general reader interested in the subject matter.