Social integration

Social integration is about how we all live together. It is the extent to which people positively interact and connect with others from different backgrounds. It is shaped by:

• the level of equality between people
• the nature of our relationships
• our levels of community participation.

Improving London’s social integration is one of the Mayor’s top priorities and it means:

• helping Londoners to build meaningful and lasting relationships with each other
• supporting them to be active in their communities and to play a part in the decisions that affect them
• reducing barriers and inequalities, so that Londoners can relate to each other as equals.

There is not going to be a quick fix to this issue, but if we treat it with the seriousness it deserves, we can make a real difference.

This will create stronger communities and will give us a renewed sense that we are united as neighbours and as Londoners.

The Mayor’s work on social integration

The Mayor’s work on social integration has four parts:

• relationships – promoting shared experiences
• participation – supporting Londoners to be active citizens
• equality – tackling barriers and inequalities
• evidence – gathering evidence to measure and evaluate the state of social integration in London.

How to measure social integration

We have developed a social integration measurement toolkit to be used by organisations when monitoring social integration and evaluating interventions. The toolkit provides practical guidance to support the collection of data and measuring different aspects of social integration in a range of different contexts across London.