Construction of complex software systems with off-the-shelf components has become a reality. Component-based frameworks tailored specifically for the domain of database integration are lacking, however. To use an existing component framework, data integrators must construct cus- tom components specialized to the tasks of the data integration problem at hand. This approach allows other components provided by the framework to be reused, but is overly tedious and requires the integrator to employ the pro- gramming paradigms assumed by the component framework for interconnec- tion and intercommunication between components, and manipulation of data provided by them. An alternate approach would employ a framework con- taining components tailored to data integration and which allows them to be interconnected using programming methods that are more natural to the do- main of data integration. Souk is a language-independent, component-based paradigm for data integration. It is designed to allow the rapid construction of data integration solutions from off-the-shelf components, and to allow flexible evolution. This paper gives an overview of this paradigm.