Institutional responds for social inclusion

Abstract

This article reviews the social inclusion issue and describes a differentiation between the two terms – social inclusion and social integration. Social integration refers to the social network of the individual and his membership within a group, and here the focus is on unemployment as one of more reasons to an impaired social integration. It is the base for the quality of life, health and length of life of the individual. Integration is now and then related to the terms of assimilation and segregation, this approach gives us a better understanding of social inclusion. Inclusion and integration is not the same, and what divides the two concepts is the part dealing with the individual in focus and its ability to participate. By solely focusing on inclusion in the integration process no attention is paid towards how the individual in action could or should participate in order to adjust itself adequately into social society. As the two concepts appear in a dualistic relationship, which makes it important to discuss both inclusion and integration when attention is drawn on how to solve the problems occurring in an integration process.