How multiculturalism has changed our lives

This book aims to focus on the change in societies as a result of migration and understand its impact on people. It intends to focus, in a sociological perspective, on the difficulties and transformations that in western European societies follow multicultural relations. Multiculturalism has changed. The diversity of growth and entrenchment of international migration has put a strain on the social integration mechanisms of the hosting societies. The emergence and development of ethnically based multiculturalist models have not proved effective over time. The promise or intention of achieving a more integrated society has not been fully realized. These difficulties have led scholars, politicians, and opinion makers to decree its crisis, failure, decline. How do societies change as a result of immigration? Some types of social change, such as those due to migration, have a significant impact on social configurations. A routine order is opposed to a chameleon-like change of immigrant communities that blend from numerical and cultural minorities in the daily life of the majority of natives. Immigrant communities populate places where they work, consume, meet.

Autorentext

Lorenzo Ferrante is Associate Professor of Sociology at DEMS Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Relazioni internazionali, Università degli Studi di Palermo-Italy.