1. Sponsored by: INTRODUCTION TO THE EDITED VOLUME Laura Morales & Marco Giugni

2. Goals Discuss how to conceptualise the political integration of migrants. Describe the underlying analytical model that we aim to examine with different chapters in the book. Describe the research design, the methods and the data collection. Describe the context of the cases studied: political opportunity structures. Describe the patterns of political engagement across cities and groups and explore multidimensionality. Present outline of the book: summary of chapters.

3. Conceptualising political integration Political assimilation? political incorporation? A relative or an absolute concept? We propose to view it as political inclusion (or the absence of political exclusion). Not necessarily equal to ‘assimilation’ understood as identical patterns to autochthonous population.

4. The underlying model: micro, meso and macro factors. The degree of civic and political integration of migrant/ethnic groups is dependent on: (1) the individual characteristics of immigrants; (2) the ethnic and non-ethnic character of organisation formation (i.e. the structure of organisational networks); (3) the institutional and discursive opportunity structure; and (4) the characteristics of the ethnic group in the host society (demographic composition, size, position in the socio-economic structure).

5. Organisational structures and networks WORKPACKAGE 3: Organisational survey Political and discursive opportunity structures (host society) - Local policies towards immigrants’ associations. - Openness of public authorities. - Openness of formal institutions. - Configuration of local power. - General policies towards immigrants. - Prevailing discourse on immigration and immigrants. WORKPACKAGE 1: Analysis of documents, decisions, and structures. Characteristics of the ethnic group (in host society) - Socio-demographic composition and size - Migration history of the ethnic group. - Socio-economic status. - Relevant aspects of the political culture of the ethnic group. WORKPACKAGE 2: Collection of statistics and official data Individual characteristics of immigrants Social, political and economic resources. POLITICAL INTEGRATION Socioeconomic integration Power inequalities WORKPACKAGE 4 Population survey

6. The context: POS