Will they still be dancing? (1982)

serious analysis of alternative patterns or groups them under the notion of
"deviance",5 Operating with concepts such as Hassimilation", "acculturation"
and "absorption", such research makes the host society's homogeneity a
dominant or even the only indicator of integration. 6 Thus, much of the current
debate still contains strong assimilationist assumptions, despite lip service to
"freedom ofchoice" and "coexistence of different value systems" (e.g., Esser
et al. 1979). European research on immigrants continues to treat "integration"
and "assimilation" as nearly identical. The "well integrated" migrant is the
one who has assimilated functionally into ways of speaking, thinking and
behaving in the host society. Both "liberal" and "Marxist" research orientations
have suffered from such assimilationist biases.
Most mainstream social research on integration is marked by an atomistic
approach. Migrant integration is treated alongsid~ a number of separate
dimensions of adaptation using abstract- standards of culture or behaviour
taken to represent the majority. Theoretically, the process of integration is
analyzed via varieties of decision making models based on individual rationality
(e.g., Esser et al. 1979). Empirically, integration is typically investigated
in relation to specific sectors of society such as linguistic competence,
norms and values, education, work, housing and use of social services. The
results are often expressed as a series of statistical averages. 7
While mainstream research on immigration and integration excludes from
its conceptual framework the power structure ofthe global or national society,
this is the very point of departure for most researchers in the Marxist tradition.
However, the atomism and subjectivist rationalism of liberal research is
replaced by Marxist "hyperintentionalism" (Shanin 1978) and an "objectivist"
bias. Capitalist accumulation, labour processes and relationships of production
are seen to reflect global and national hierarchies of power and class.
Interpretations of the immigrants' situation derive from analyzing their role in
the production process and their position within the working class. 8 Analyses
of the relations between immigrant groups and the indigenous population tend
to reflect marxist dogma, which assert that the position in the production
process is determinant for consciousness; presumably, similar positions in the
process of production should lead to a common class consciousness. Once
immigrants enter the threshhold of West European capitalist society they are
thus stripped of their culture and ethno-historical heritage.
Theodor Shanin (1978) was one ofthe first to note the consequence of such a
narrowly defined class concept in Marxist migration research. Shanin argued
that the specific socio-cultural background of migrants should be a component
part of Marxist analysis, and that structural determination could be avoided
through detailed studies of migrants' experiences and practice in everyday
situations: 9
".., it is important to advance Marxist analysis by bringing the desks of those who write
closer to the human experience and struggles which matter" (Shanin 1978:286).
16