Modes of migrant incorporation in contexts of socio-economic downward mobility

In this contribution I deal with two weaknesses of integration theories which have become particularly evident since the deterioration of migrants’ and natives’ conditions produced by the economic crisis that began in 2008. The first weakness that I will address is the tendency to establish a conceptually tight relationship between integration and migrants’ upward socio-economic mobility. The second can be identified in the almost exclusive focus on migrants’ conditions neglecting natives’: given that integration is generally conceived of as a relational concept which considers reciprocal positions of migrants and natives, I argue that changes in the situation of the latter should be taken into much greater consideration. Starting from these remarks, I propose a typology of incorporation modes which takes into account both natives’ and migrants’ downward mobility, and progress and regressions in migrant incorporation with two main aims: on the one hand, to reconcile integration with migrants’ downward mobility, and, on the other hand, to translate the reversible nature of integration, on which scholars generally agree, into analytical modes of incorporation which are still lacking in the literature. Finally, I assess the soundness of my typology by considering some empirical evidence from Southern European countries.