Social integration: the sociological significance of a concept Abstract: As a widely circulated academic term, social integration has attracted the attention of many scholars at home and abroad. However, so far, the academic community has not yet formed a unified understanding. At present, there are three representative viewpoints in academic circles: social exclusion theory based on social participation, social integration theory based on social equity and immigrant integration theory based on citizenization. However, these three viewpoints all have shortcomings and do not meet the scientific requirements of conceptual expression. From the sociological point of view, social integration is a social action process in which the subject in a weak position actively and continuously interacts with individuals and groups in a specific community. Keywords: social integration; Social action;

Although many scholars pay attention to social integration, due to the complexity, restriction and fuzziness of the concept, different researchers hold different research perspectives in different historical periods and have different understandings and definitions of social integration. In addition, the complexity of the subject, content and process of social integration itself shows the complexity and multiplicity of the concept and connotation of social integration. Therefore, there is no accurate and comprehensive definition of "2" for what is social integration. There are many different views on the definition of social integration, and even equate social integration with concepts such as social integration, cultural adaptation, citizenization and assimilation. It can be said that the academic circles at home and abroad have not yet reached a consensus, and there are still different opinions. This paper aims to define an abstract, objective, scientific and practical concept of social integration by summarizing and analyzing previous concepts. I. Three representative viewpoints on the study of "social integration" 1. "Social Exclusion Theory"-From the perspective of social participation, western scholars are also very concerned about social integration, in which the social integration of unemployed people, single-parent families, disabled people, the elderly and adolescents is studied from the perspective of social exclusion. The European Union Foundation defines "social exclusion" as "it (social exclusion) refers to the process in which individuals or groups are completely or partially excluded from full social participation." [1 ]Burchardt and other scholars also believe that social exclusion means that an individual lives and lives in a certain society, but he or she does not participate in the normal activities of citizens in this society, then this person is socially excluded, and the lack or non-participation of social members in consumption, production, politics and social interaction may be considered as the existence of social exclusion [1]. From this perspective, social exclusion has multi-level characteristics, including institutional level, economic level, political level, cultural level, relational level and spatial level. Social exclusion theory holds that social exclusion is a multi-level dynamic process, and it is completely or partially excluded from the economic, social or cultural system that determines the degree of integration between a person and society.