Book excerpt: How does immigration transform societies and relations between ethnic and racial groups? This volume brings together scholars working at the cutting-edge of theory and empirical research on integration and assimilation in the US and Europe. It is dedicated to the life and works of Richard Alba, who has done so much to re-invigorate and establish ideas about integration and assimilation. The book aims to open a dialogue on the continuing value of assimilation and integration for studying social change in an era of increasing ethno-racial diversity in Western liberal democracies. Assimilation and integration, and the understandings of societal change that they theorise, depict, and empirically study, remain a contested terrain that is open for critical re-evaluation. This insightful volume offers a set of expert scholarly contributions, including contributions from Richard Alba himself, that tease out critical junctures and disagreements, in the belief that this collective effort can provide insights about where the future research agenda needs to go. Re-thinking Assimilation and Integration will be a key resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of sociology, ethnic and racial studies, international politics, and migration studies. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.