Social integration

Social integration is a dynamic and structured process in which all members participate in dialogue to achieve and maintain peaceful social relations. Social integration does not mean forced assimilation.

Social integration is focused on the need to move toward a safe, stable and just society by mending conditions of social disintegration and social exclusion—social fragmentation, exclusion and polarization; and by expanding and strengthening conditions of social integration—towards peaceful social relations of coexistence, collaboration and cohesion.

In many instances education is used as a mechanism for social promotion. Neither education nor work can be ensured without a form of law. In relation to tolerant and open societies, members of minority groups often use social integration to gain full access to the opportunities, rights and services available to the members of the mainstream of society with cultural institutions such as churches and civic organizations. Mass media content also performs a social integration function in mass societies.

The 2005 documentary ”Utan gränser – en film om idrott och integration” (Without Borders - A Film About Sports and Integration) was a film described by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet as "a documentary on how to succeed with integration" of migrants into Swedish society.

The term "social integration" first came into use in the work of French sociologist Émile Durkheim. He wanted to understand why rates of suicide were higher in some social classes than others. Durkheim believed that society exerted a powerful force on individuals. He concluded that a people's beliefs, values, and norms make up a collective consciousness, a shared way of understanding each other and the world.

In the emerging world of social networking applications on the internet, social integration is a term that can be considered when members are being transparent in all of their various work, personal, faith and local community interactions.

A 2012 research review found that working-class students were less socially integrated than middle-class students at university.

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Wikipedia