The link between the transnational behaviour and integration of the second generation in European and American cities. Does the context of reception matter?

Abstract

This article investigates the transnational behaviour of the children of immigrants – the second generation – in 11 European and two U.S. cities. We find evidence that transnational practices such as visits to the home country, remittances and use of ethnic media persist only among a minority of the second generation. At a personal level, these second-generation transmigrants are less socio-culturally integrated but more economically integrated in the host country. They also tend to live in those cities and countries with policies that are more assimilationist or exclusionary than multicultural. keywords: Immigrant integration; second generation; transnationalism; comparative immigration contexts; multiculturalism