Abstract

Given the importance of immigration policies today in deepening inequality in the attribution of rights, the article looks at immigration as an inherently political process and tries to disentangle the different aspects involved in it. Discussing various strategies adopted in the past decades in the US and in Europe, it attempts to correct distorted views about the real meaning of ethnicity, race, cultural identity, national belonging, all of them crucial to the task of incorporation of newcomers today. Despite a diffuse anxiety, solid evidence indicates that interactions between residents and newcomers are not undermining the integrity of the receiving community. The article therefore claims that reconstructing our conceptualization of incorporation is by no means a minor part of our task, and could help opposing the deterioration of the public sphere in the receiving countries.