In the example of the "Pale of Settlement", life in the area was bad, but "Jewish identity" and "Yiddish culture" flourished due to the hardships.
"Integration", when applied to Jews, makes them into proto-nationalists. They see themselves as "different", just as the people who granted them autonomy see them as "different".
That understanding of "difference" is what lies behind the motives pushing Zionism.
Without "difference" there would be no need for "Jewish identity" and there would be no need for Zionism, or even anti-Zionism or antisemitism.
It is worth remembering that the most ardent Zionists (including Zionism's founders!), even before the 1930's, were Eastern Jews. Westernized Jews, viewed Eastern Jews (in German Ostjuden) as miscreants and subversives who wanted to force Western Jews (who mostly saw themselves as Western Europeans above all else) to become just Jews.