What is the difference between assimilation and integration of ethnic relation?

Assimilation means absorbing minorities into the ways of the majority - requiring them to adopt the majority's language, customs and 'values'.

Integration, by contrast, requires acceptance of a country's laws, of human rights such as freedom of speech, and of basic democratic rights, but does not require the eradication of all cultural differences or group-identities; it is conceived of as a two-way process, through which both the majority and the minorities influence and change one another, and in which differences can be peacefully accommodated as long is there a common commitment to living together.