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This special issue collects articles, which aim to re-envision integration, dislodging the previously monodirectional conceptual flow sourced in the Global North. Jointly, the articles pursue a critical scholarship contributing to multicentric knowledge production, disrupting binaries of integrated/nonintegrated, inclusion/exclusion, citizen/non-citizen, or indeed self/other. They evidence ambivalent subject positions, neither fully-included nor fully-excluded, and engender forms of belonging to the places immigrants are momentarily located in, albeit without a steadfast position granting them rights. The collected articles also emphasize the various scales of integration, be it wider global or regional flows, as well as more localized, zoomed-in, and ephemeral manners of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the egalitarianism that informs French civic culture, the socio-economic marginalization of citizens of non-European origin, mostly from North African countries, provide empirical evidence that challenges the French Republican ideal of integration. Such marginalization needs to be reconciled especially within the cultural realm. In this article, we look at French newspapers' coverage of the children of immigrants during a ten-year period (2003-2013). We analyse coverage in three major newspapers since French news coverage can be considered to follow a specific political/literary model, which has a profound influence on how news in France is both coded and decoded. The article examines the ways political allegiances affect the portrayals of the children of immigrants. Using the constant comparative method, an analysis of the discourse over time shows that the narratives of integration of the decedents of North African immigrants have been complicated by the 2005 riots, both as a romantic illusion, a reflection of reality, or a possible outcome of events. The three newspapers grapple with the ambiguous position of the children of immigrants in French society in different ways. Coverage of children of immigrants continues to be divided along partisan lines which are bounded by the political/literary model of journalism. What is also clear is that the changing portrayal of children of immigrants is intrinsically attached to evolving social, political, and economic dynamics both nationally and beyond state borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on postcolonial understandings in order to offer a sociological analysis of Lebanese immigrants in Montreal, New York City and Paris. I argue that the concept of diaspora provides a framework for understanding the contradictory aspects of Lebanese immigrant experiences, as some immigrants may undergo a process of assimilation while others continue to hold on to their ethnic identities. Investigating Lebanese immigrant communities as a diaspora leads to the understanding of the ways immigrants construct solidarities that include their homeland, host societies, and the larger diaspora community in various parts of the world. As an analytical framework, “diaspora” incorporates multiple loyalties and attachments that are integral to processes of international migration. Thus, the framework of diaspora promises significant contributions to the understanding of the complex dynamics involved in migration and globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]