This thesis examines how native Swedish citizens’ and immigrating Syrian citizens define the concept of integration. To give the definition a practical turn, the interviewees are asked to explain their role in the integration process as well as explaining how they believe the other part in the integration process are defining the concept of integration. Thereby it is possible to understand how both groups define the concept and how they look upon the responsibility distribution in the process. The very aim of the thesis is to compare whether there are any differences in how Swedish citizens’ and immigrating Syrian citizens define the concept of integration.

The thesis is designed as a descriptive, qualitative, comparative study, based on semistructural interviews with strategically selected Swedish citizens’ and immigrating Syrian citizens. It takes its departure in theories of discourse and hermeneutics and it is argued that due to the history of the Swedish integration politics, where integration has been defined in different ways, integration should belong to the category of essentially contested concepts. Four major theoretical definitions of integration are identified - integration as multiculturalism, transculturalism, one-sided preservation of culture, and assimilation – and are used to analyse the answers of the respondents.

The study shows that there is no unified version of a definition for neither of the groups. However, what the both groups has in common is that they initially explain the integration process as a one-sided process; it is the immigrants who should in first hand integrate by learning the structures of the society and the Swedish norms.