Immigration and Integration: Key Characteristics of Host Countries and their Immigrants

This chapter provides a context to the integration of children of immigrants and their families by outlining key characteristics of our four survey countries, England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. For many immigrants, these countries are arguably very similar: affluent, safe, modern, democratic and predominantly secular. There are however differences: For example, the Netherlands and Sweden appear to be more ‘child friendly’, and Sweden has more ‘immigrant-friendly’ policies and shows less immigrant-sceptic popular attitudes, while England hosts more highly qualified immigrants. A substantial difference between our four countries lies in the composition of the immigrant population, with large heterogeneity in arriving groups (for example, in their human capital and host country language skills) and their reasons for migrating (labour migrants or refugees). In perspective of such differences, it is a challenge to assign inter-country differences in immigrant integration to receiving countries' differences in policy or other characteristics.