Since Germany was finally officially recognised as a ‘country of immigration’ at the turn of the millennium, ‘immigrant integration’ has emerged as the dominant social policy framework in the country. The events of 2015, often referred to as ‘the refugee crisis’, further propelled integrationism towards its peak. By applying a structural analytical approach to sociocultural change centering cultural values and categories, this study ethnographically investigates ‘immigrant integration’ through its uses, effects, practices, and everyday meanings in hyperdiverse inner-city neighbourhoods of Berlin. It follows in particular two case studies: an integration project targeting stay-at-home Muslim women with children and a Neighbourhood Initiative run by creative individuals, who seek to shape the social world they inhabit through sustained collective action that blurs the boundaries between categories of locals and foreigners. The study unravels contradictions found at the core of dominant assimilationist notions of immigrant integration, most notably newcomers’ experiences of it as a mechanism of categorical exclusion. The research findings indicate a further move away from integrationism towards participatory models of citizenship that rest on inclusive and pluralistic understandings of society and what it might mean to be a Berliner or ‘German’.