How do people without migration background experience and impact today’s superdiverse cities?

For over forty years researchers have studied the integration of migrants and their descendants in Western European cities. In the meantime, many of these cities have become majority minority cities, hence, cities in which an ethnic numerical majority no longer exists. This raises the question how the old majority group, the people of native descent, participates in and relates to these superdiverse cities. In this special issue, we raise long overdue questions about some of the inherent problems of mainstream theoretical frameworks explaining integration and assimilation outcomes. While primarily focusing on people with a migration background, these frameworks usually omit the attitudes and practices of people without migration background that impact the societal climate in which people with migration background live and work. In this introductory article we discuss the literature and theoretical notions about the experiences and the impact people without migration background have on societal outcomes in superdiverse cities. We will further introduce the articles in this special issue and propose a research agenda for studying people without migration background in majority minority cities.