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9 Eur. J. on Crim. Pol'y & Rsch. 1 (2001)

handle is hein.journals/eurjcpr9 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL Semantics do matter. This insight came up while the editorial committee was preparing this issue on crime problems among ethnic minorities in European countries. Over the last 30 years the population of many Euro- pean countries has radically changed. Migrants from all over the world have become part and parcel of European countries, or better European culture. Multiculturalism has become the intellectual nominator to describe what has happened to Western civilisation with its long roots in Christian religion and humanist philosophy. Assimilation cannot be the aim of a cul- ture with its emphasis on freedom of speech, meeting and lifestyle. On the other hand, a melting pot is not an attractive alternative if some kind of social cohesion and mutual trust is found to be essential in order to guar- antee the economies of the welfare states. 'Multiculturalism' stresses the challenges which the new composition of the populations imply, but seems to underestimate the problems which happen to occur when new groups have to be included in existing cultures. For a long time a (criminological) debate on the crime problem among immigrants was not possible in many European countries. It would have triggered racist actions and nationalistic policies. These are still strong ar- guments, but not strong enough to ignore completely the problems among immigrant groups. It might even be the other way around: ignoring the problems does not help integration but brings about the risk of stigmatis- ing migrants as such - also the migrants who do succeed in finding their way in European societies. Ethnic diversification describes in a neutral way the actual situation in Europe. The crime problem in Europe cannot be understood anymore if this diversification is not included in the analy- ses. This is the rationale behind this issue of the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. The hypothesis of the research reported by Josine Junger-Tas is that a lack of economic and social integration of ethnic minorities in our society can lead to criminal and antisocial behaviour. The first part of this article deals with the various dimensions of social integration into Dutch society, some of which are connected to characteristics of this society while others relate to the features of various ethnic groups. Attention is given to group differences in the integration process. Useful concepts in this regard in- clude the level to which these groups have social, informative and cultural a European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 9: 1-3, 2001.

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