Integration, Participation, Identity: Immigrant Associations in the Province of Milan Marco Caselli* ABSTRACT The paper presents some results from a multi-year research project on immigrant associations in the province of Milan, Italy. The analysis yields numerous issues for reflection and recurrent features of particular signifi- cance. The first is the fact that for all the associations surveyed, their main goal and the essential reason for their existence was the desire to integrate their community of membership into the host society. However, such inte- gration did not consist in a desire to be assimilated into Italian society. Quite the opposite: the majority of the associations studied were wholly committed to maintaining – and sometimes rediscovering – the identity and culture of their reference community. The second main feature is that immigrant associations are crucial nodes in a dense network of relations involving numerous actors of very different kinds: the immigrants them- selves, other immigrant associations, third-sector organizations, and the local authorities. The third and final important issue concerns the represen- tativeness of immigrant associations: whether, that is, they can be consid- ered the legitimate representatives of the community of membership. INTRODUCTION One of the features most distinctive of contemporary society, and which contributes to the consolidation of so-called ‘‘globalization processes,’’ is the extent and growth (in number and intensity) of the flows that traverse the planet. These flows are highly diverse in their nature because they comprise goods, money, ideas, values and people (Appadurai, 1996). The flows of people are probably the most visible, at least for those who live * Department of Sociology, Universita` Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano Italy. Ó 2009 The Author Journal Compilation Ó 2009 IOM Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., International Migration Vol. 48 (2) 2010 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, ISSN 0020-7985 and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2009.00530.x MIGRATION Edited by Elzbieta Gozdziak, Georgetown University