Does Integration Still Take Place 'at the Local Level'?

Abstract

Roman Lietz and Magdalena Loska discuss in this chapter the (German) integration paradigm which argues that integration takes place 'at the local level', i.e. in the social sphere, at school, at work, in sports clubs, etc. The Internet seems to challenge the logic of this integration paradigm. Contacts to the native society as well as to 'established migrants' no longer have to take place in the analogue 'neighbourhood', but have been increasingly occurring on the Internet. Integration continues to take place 'at a local level', but the 'local level' is no longer solely to be understood in a material sense.