1. Introduction: How Relations to Institutions Shape Youth Integration—Ethno-Religious Minorities, National Contexts and Social Cohesion

This chapter aims to set out the conceptual framework implicit in the chapters but also provides an introduction to the eight following chapters of the book. Social cohesion depends on a range of societal mechanisms that make individuals feel attached to one another, supportive of public organisations and bonded to a larger imagined community. The book investigates how socialisation of children plays an important role in shaping their norms and value and their social identity and thus generating a sense of attachment to, or detachment from, society. It also tests whether integration is also dependent on how institutions work and therefore on processes or policies that are adopted regarding schooling and policing. Given the importance of migration as a demographic factor and as a political reality and of the ethnic cleavages that in general can be consequent on migration, this book sets out empirical findings comparing migrant and nonmigrant teenagers, focussing on their experience of, and attitudes towards, their integration into society and institutions in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. Chapters consider orientations to religion, morality, crime and the impact of institutions (schools and police in particular).