One of the defining characteristics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is the increasing importance of international migration, an epoch Castles and Miller term the "age of migration." The precise size of the international migrant population is unknown. Much of this movement--such as unauthorized and other irregular flows--is not recorded in official statistics. Nonetheless, by all accounts international movements have soared in recent decades, especially since the 1970s, with the acceleration of cross-border flows of trade, investment, ideas and people--key features of globalization. As in the past, many of today's international migrants move toward areas of economic opportunity. In this paper, the author talks about immigrant incorporation and presents articles that focus on how integration opportunities and constraints shape social membership among newcomer immigrant groups across a number of advanced industrial nations, including European countries, the United Sates and Canada. Social membership here refers to a set of basic social rights conferred on members of a society, including the right to work, the right to participate in political life, or the right to education. The author discusses the historical views on immigrant incorporation and social membership and the narrative that emerges from the papers on social membership opportunities emphasizing the strong arm of national integration policies and institutional characteristics in influencing integration processes and outcomes. (Contains 4 notes.)