Integration in a Swedish community: A qualitative study on the understanding of integration
2020 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
In Sweden, integration has been a dominant political topic, especially in the last decade. Mainly because integration is one of the most important policy areas for the average Swedish voter. With this background in mind, what we want to achieve with this thesis is to study how different social groups within a Swedish municipality understands integration. To reach that goal, we will primarily focus on three specific groups. First and second-generation immigrants and native Swedes. The main goal of this study is to discover if the selected focus groups have a similar or different understanding of integration. Because if there are any eventual differences between them, how can various social groups achieve social cohesion with others? To answer this question, we have conducted focus group interviews. The groups are composed of people of the selected categories: first-generation, second-generation immigrants and native Swedes. We found out that there are both similarities and differences between the groups on how they percept integration. The interesting part with our findings was that, despite the differences from their social environments they grew up in, their view on integration was much alike. The differences were noted when we discussed about how integration should be implemented. There was an agreement between the majority of the attendants that multiculturalism and interculturalism are two concepts that are equally as important, in order to overcome challenges with integration. However, there was a dispute in how to coexist, when the question came up on how to adapt, where some attendants thought that minorities should adapt to the majority, while the others argued about the importance of meeting up in the middle.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. , p. 56
Keywords [en]
Immigrants, integration, first-generation, second-generation, Swedes, perceptions, multiculturalism, interculturalism, social identity
National Category
Political Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-15469Local ID: EIS501OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-15469DiVA, id: diva2:1454346
Subject / course
Political science
Educational program
International Programme in Politics and Economics
Supervisors
Examiners
2020-07-232020-07-162020-07-23Bibliographically approved