The final stage of migration is the process of integration, which takes time. There is disagreement among academics over whether this is a desirable state or not, with some arguing that nothing approaching an “integrated society” is real. There is no consensus on a single definition of integration because it is still quite context- and nation-specific. The word “integration” in this context refers to the social, economic, and cultural components of immigrants' integration into their new host society, which then requires action to facilitate their adjustment by assimilating its norms and habits. Another approach to characterize it is as a means of mutual adjustment between the migrant community and the host society.
Published in Chapter:
Social Constructivism vs. Pragmatism: A Search for a Suitable Social Work Paradigm for Research on Immigrants
Copyright: © 2024
|Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-1726-6.ch007
Abstract
Migration is one of the most significant areas where we can connect social work research, with an estimated 281 million people living outside of their country of birth in 2020. Given the social work profession's commitment to serving marginalised and disadvantaged populations, it must acknowledge the importance of researching immigrants. The primary problem with immigrant studies is that there are no unified paradigms, and this is a subject of ongoing discussion in social work research. However, a number of paradigms, such as constructivism, post-positivism, participatory action frameworks, pragmatism, etc., frame and construct modern social work research. To determine which paradigm is best for researching immigrants, this chapter primarily examines the paradigms of social constructivism and pragmatism. It concludes that social constructivism is the best paradigm for this type of research.