This introductory chapter looks at the factors leading to and the implications of the integration of second-generation immigrants into societies, as they diversify their host communities' ethnic, religious, and racial profiles. The second generation occupies a key position with respect to the future of the new groups and the societies where they reside, for this generation, born and/or raised in
... [Show full abstract] the host society, has a far greater capacity for integration than does the immigrant one. However, the complex picture of the integration of the second generation in Europe and the United States that emerges from studies of the second generation does not point to an easy answer to the question of how best to integrate the children of immigrants. Thus, this book takes on a more comparative approach in order to advance further studies on this phenomenon.