Negative attitudes towards out-groups have been of academic interest for many years — and even more so with the increased levels of migration to European countries in recent years. Building on insights from intergroup contact theory, this paper seeks to extend our knowledge of the association between contact and negative attitudes toward immigrants among youth in Sweden. Multiple regression analysis and fixed effects models are used to analyze a large, high-quality dataset on Swedish adolescents based on representative survey information, complemented with extensive registry data and official statistics. Our objective is to measure contact on different levels in order to better understand the importance of these different contact variables’ associations with negative attitudes. The results of the analysis indicate that high-quality contact in the form of friendship is associated with a reduction in negative attitudes among Swedish adolescents, even after controlling for background variables. Superficial forms of contact — measured on the school level — are, on the other hand, associated with an increase in negative attitudes.

When Nordic Migration Research (NMR) was launched in 2008, there was total agreement among the founding members that one of the primary objectives of the organization was to establish a high-quality, interdisciplinary Nordic journal for research on international migration and migration-related issues in an international and transnational setting. Accordingly, the NMR statutes define the aim of the Nordic Journal for Migration Research (NJMR) as "devoted to publishing high-quality, peer -reviewed research in different aspects of international migration and ethnic relations, such as integration, ethnicity/race, culture, religion, marginalization, citizenship, nationalism, discrimination and racism". The statutes further specify that the NJMR aims to develop into "a forum for both applied and theoretical research, seeking to attract high-quality, original contributions from both Nordic and non-Nordic countries", and that an important part of its mission and raison d'etre would be to focus particularly, although not exclusively, on the areas mentioned above with respect to their relevance to and impact on "the Nordic countries in a global perspective" (Hedetoft & Sicakkan 2011: 1).

Denna studie utforskar orsakerna till hatbrott, särskilt bland unga i Malmö, med hjälp av ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt. Tre unga individer med personlig koppling till hatbrott deltar i diskussioner om motivation, syn på offer och strategier för att bekämpa hatbrott. Strainteorin används som en av teoretisk ram för att förklara hur missnöje kan leda till avvikandebeteende, inklusive hatbrott. Resultaten pekar på negativa beteendemönster, nationalistiska tendenser och intolerans mot religioner eller etniciteter med religiös koppling som bidragande faktorer till hatbrott. Betydelsen av denna studie framhävs genom den begränsade mängden forskning i svenskt sammanhang där förövare intervjuats.

This thesis aims to investigate the refugees' experiences when it comes to their participation within the Extra Service job; which is the subsidized job that the Public Employment Service offers to the refugees as part of their integration process. This thesis investigates the thoughts, perspectives, and experiences of the refugees involved in the Extra Service jobs based on conducting fifteen semi-structured interviews. The research findings indicate that the Extra Service job had a positive impact on many refugees, as they used their refugees' agency to gain new human capital, however, this thesis suggests that being involved in such a subsidized job could lead to imprisoning the refugees within the low ranked jobs in the labor market. Throughout this thesis, Human Capital Theory, Segmented Dual Labor Market Theory, and the refugees' agency were used as the theoretical background of the thesis. The thesis contributes to understanding the subjective side of integration in addition to enriching the literature of subsidized jobs when they are to be used for the sake of the refugees' integration.

Keywords: Extra Service job, subsidized job, refugee agency, human capital, dual labor market, secondary segment. 

Abstract 

The purpose of the study is to unaccompanied children's experiences of the communal management of transit and asylum accommodation in Malmo looks as well as to what part they feel that their needs are satisfied in the asylum accommodation. The study is accomplished on an asylum accommodation in Malmö. Five unaccompanied children/youth were interviewed for this study.  

The main question is: How do the children experience municipality's handling of their asylum accommodation while awaiting a decision from the Swedish Migration Board regarding their asylum applications? 

The following questions are: 

1. How do the unaccompanied children experience treatment and the receiving from the authorities like the Social Services and the Migration Board? 

1. How does the unaccompanied children understand their being at the accommodation? 

1. What social network (family, residential staff, friends, public officials) are understand as important by unaccompanied children while in transit? 

1. What are the unaccompanied children future plans? 

This study shows a satisfaction about the authorities receiving the unaccompanied children. The method that have been used is interviews. The theories that have been used in the analysing discussion is Bourdieu´s theories about field, habitus and capitals and Maslows need stairway. 

Keywords: unaccompanied children, authorities, asylum accommodations, Malmö.  

This study aims to investigate challenges within the provision of integration support to quota refugees and municipal integration staffs understanding of these challenges in Skåne. It was conducted through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with municipal integration staffs in Skåne. The research findings indicate three key challenges in the reception of quota refugees namely lack adequate housing, lack of financial resources from the region and government, and lack of provision of psychosocial support. Further challenges are connected to the lack of translators available to municipalities in the quota refugees’ mother tongue, the lack of English or major refugee languages among quota refugees, and often poor mental health which slow down Swedish language learning process and affect integration negatively. As its contribution, this study provides a broader view on challenges with the provision of integration support by municipalities regarding reception capacity, housing, and integration programs to quota refugees simultaneously. Thereby, it points out the differences among municipalities in terms of resource allocation for integration, as well as the political will to integrate quota refugees which create unequal chances for integration.

This dissertation explores the connections between the group construction of Swedishness, whiteness, and belongingness, exploring how these dynamics shape individuals' experiences of belongingness and non-belongingness. Employing a social-psychological lens, the research investigates the interplay between race and ingroup construction, shedding light on the complexities of Swedish identity within the broader global context. The dissertation comprises of a introduction (Kappa) and three stand alone articles, each contributing to the academic discourse while intersecting in their themes.

The first article utilizes quantitative data to examine the feelings of belongingness among individuals from different ethnic backgrounds in Sweden. Results indicate a positive correlation between national and ethnic identifications, allowing for concurrent membership in various groups without contradiction, yet also suggests an empirical link between being appraised as Swedish and being white. The second article presents qualitative data, revealing that 'Swedishness' is closely tied to whiteness, particularly among white participants who also espoused hesitancy and adversion to the concept of ‘race’. In contrast, non-white participants display a more nuanced perspective on race and racialization. The third article investigates whether majority ethnic in-group and non-majority out-group members perceive and agree upon broad and specific representations of 'Swedishness' through a classic social categorization experiment. Results suggest a prevalence of associating 'Swedishness' with white individuals, despite efforts towards multicultural representation.

Through these investigations, the dissertation provides valuable insights into the construction of Swedish group identity and its implications for both in-group and out-group members. By addressing research gaps and employing diverse methodologies, this work contributes to a deeper understanding of intergroup relations and identity dynamics in contemporary Swedish society.

The theme of the work is very central and is often addressed during debates, in the media and in general in society. Second-generation immigrants may find it difficult to understand the conflicts that exist around fitting into a society and shaping themselves according to social reality.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to highlight, on the basis of second-generation immigrants with roots in the Balkans, the concept of identity that is formed at the intersection of the values of the majority society and the cultural background of immigrant parents. 

This study consists of primary data through qualitative, semi-structured interviews. Interview technology is based on predetermined questions based on my chosen themes. The chosen theoretical perspectives include: Symbolic Interactionism and the impact of ethnicity in social interaction.

The conclusions of this study are that second-generation immigrants are being squeezed with their cultural affiliation because they cannot be fully accepted, either in Sweden or in their parents home country. Furthermore, second-generation immigrants are formed on the basis of both their parents cultural background and the majority society. 

This study explores the influence of social media on Iranian students’ migration decisions, specifically choosing Sweden as their study destination. The study contributes to addressing identified gaps in understanding major factors and drivers of migration decisions and social media’s potential role in the process. A quantitative approach was utilized to collect data through the online survey of Iranian students currently residing in Sweden. The online survey aimed to research the key migration influencers and assess the impact of social media on respective decisions. The analysis indicates that migration decisions are influenced by a combination of internal and external factors. Generally, migration decisions are influenced by economic factors, related to the country of relocation, political climate, and personal development potential. Social media, specifically Instagram and Telegram, was a valuable source of information and social interactions; its impact was moderate compared to identified influencers. Despite a clear role in creating migration perceptions, economic, social, and safety factors drive these decisions to this point.

I kapitlet behandlas hur kvinnor kommer till tals i asylprocessen. Genom att analysera implementeringen av Migrationsverkets riktlinjer under utredningsstadiet i asylprocessen påvisas invanda strukturer och förhållningssätt i Migrationsverkets implementering som försämrar kvinnors möjlighet att komma till tals. Vad gäller exempelvis ifall handläggare på verket ställer frågan om en kvinna har önskemål om handläggaren, tolken och det offentliga biträdet efter kön indikerar aktstudien att den oftast inte ställs. Dessutom förklarar handläggarna ofta inte varför de ställer denna fråga, vilket kan riskera att motivet till frågan blir oklar. I de fall som rör asylsökande kvinnors hälsa, i synnerhet hos dem som utsatts för sexuella övergrepp, finns det på mottagningsenheterna mycket begränsad dokumentation. Det förekommer även bristande dokumenterad samverkan mellan mottagnings- och asylenheter i fall som rör könsrelaterad förföljelse. Vissa grupper av asylsökande kvinnor har inte samma möjlighet att komma till tals i asylprocessen. “Kvinnor i familj” får ofta mindre tid vid utredningen av sina asylskäl än ensamkommande kvinnor. Vidare utreds kvinnor utifrån mannens berättelse, för att antingen komplettera eller bekräfta denna. Dessutom belyser undersökningen att lågutbildade eller icke läs- och skrivkunniga kvinnor, samt kvinnor som har varit utsatta för sexuellt våld, ofta befinner sig i en extra utsatt situation. Det ska också framhållas att det även förekommer bristande kännedom om riktlinjerna på Migrationsverket. Det finns en okunskap om vilka konsekvenser deras arbete med utredningsaspekterna på asylprocessens initiala stadier – i synnerhet i frågan om kön på det offentliga biträdet, handläggaren och tolken, samt i den separata utredningen – kan ha för bedömningen av kvinnors asylskäl.

This open access book brings novel perspectives to the scholarship on transnational migration. The book stresses the complexity of migration trajectories and proposes multi-sited field studies to capture this complexity. Its constituent chapters offer examples of onward migration spanning all major world regions. The contents exemplify a range of interdisciplinary approaches, including both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The result is an impressive remapping and reconceptualisation of global migration and mobility, of interest to students and policy-makers alike. 

This introductory chapter sets the scene for the book. It defines onward migration as a migration trajectory that involves extended stays in two or more destination countries and distinguishes it from competing and overlapping terms like stepwise and transit migration. Onward migration is a growing phenomenon within overall global migration dynamics, although statistics to document the scale and trends of this type of migration are scarce. The main aim of the chapter is to examine how onward migration and transnationalism are connected. This is achieved both by reference to a range of existing literature and by citing evidence from the succeeding chapters in the volume. We demonstrate both how transnationalism can shape onward migration and, the reverse, how different onward migration trajectories may result in different forms of transnationalism. In this latter context, we identify inter-generational, split, widening and re-routed transnationalism, again drawing on examples both from the book and from the wider literature. The final section of the chapter consists of a methodological discussion on the practicalities of researching onward migration and multi-sited transnationalism, in which the technique of multi-sited ethnography is discussed, critiqued and modified.

This thesis aims to investigate social integration experiences of Nigerian students in the United Kingdom, focusing on the influence off participating in social activities and building connections with the local community. The research aims to understand how these factors contribute to the overall social integration of Nigerian students in the United Kingdom. Study shows that many of the participants form meaningful social connections with natives in their host communities. However, few expressed a preference for maintaining cultural boundaries and avoiding social connections. Findings show that, sense of belonging within the host community was found to be influenced by personal ideologies, experiences, cultural background, and attitudes. The outcome of this study provides deeper understanding of the challenges faced by migrants during the process of acculturation, it also reiterates the significance of establishing inclusive and supportive environments to facilitate migrants’ integration into the host community.

This study has analyzed five different judgments from the colonial anti-sodomy law Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code using the frameworks of Foucauldian genealogical discourse, and Judith Butler’s heterosexual matrix. The aim was to understand and expose how sexuality and lesbianism were constructed within these judgments and to make the norms within the discourses visible.

The findings showed sexuality as dependent on a heterosexual and gender-binary norm. Gender hierarchy creates structures of the gender binary that positioned the man in the center of sexual interaction, desire, and sexuality. In contrast, the woman played a passive and often invisible, and nonsexual role. Further, the gender hierarchy produced a sexual hierarchy with natural heterosexuality as the most desirable. To maintain good heterosexuality, differentiation was crucial hence the undesirable and perverted male homosexuality acted as a hostile opposition. Due to the role of women as passive lesbianism appeared invisible. The discourse of the nonsexual woman made lesbian sexuality unimaginable. As a consequence, the lesbian was assumed asexual.

This thesis attempts to analyse how refugees and immigrants were portrayed by some of the major Swedish newspapers that have high readability in Sweden, and thus probably may highly impact public opinion in Sweden, mainly during the autumn of 2015. This is achieved by analysing 19 articles from the three biggest newspapers Dagens Nyheter (DN), Aftonbladet, and Sydsvenskan out of which 10 are editorials and 9 are quotes from interviews with politicians. Content analysis is used to analyse the articles. Securitization theory is applied as the theoretical framework. The analysis found that there was an approach of welcoming refugees and promoting immigration in the autumn of 2015, which changed to a negative one just a few months later by the same Swedish media calling that influx of refugees a “refugee crisis”. The newspapers have similar political positions on the refugee issue regarding favouring reduced immigration. 

Finland is recognized as a country with high human rights standards including the rights of the indigenous people that are protected by various declarations, conventions, and international human rights laws. Finland first enacted a Sámi Parliament Act in 1995 and has most recently in 2019 received criticism from the UN Human Rights Committee for not guaranteeing the rights for the legally recognized indigenous Sámi people living within Finland’s borders. Government proposal to reform the Act sparked the discussion of Sámi rights in Finland in the fall of 2022. Through a critical postcolonial perspective together with examining purposeful sampling material and the reform opposing discourse in the Finnish parliament, this thesis aims to get a view for the reason of the dismissal of the reform. It suggests that Finland’s position as a human rights model country in indigenous people’s rights is questionable in the matter of the Sámi rights.

This research investigates the complex relationship between nationhood, nation-building and womanhood, providing a nuanced understanding of women’s experiences. In specific, this study is centered on the experiences of Kurdish women in the only semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the world: the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The research is characterized as a qualitative case study and incorporates the method of in-depth semi-structured interviews. A total of six women – residing in the city of Sulaymaniyah (KRI) – were interviewed and the findings illuminate the multifaceted nature of womanhood in an ethnic group impacted by a tumultuous history. The findings in this study underscore the interlinkages between societal structures, such as kinship systems, with the cultural product of Kurdish nationhood. It is demonstrated that whilst women are influenced by these societal structures and the prevailing socio-cultural norms, they also inherit a degree of agency that sculpts their position as independent agents within the cultural body.

The approach of this study is that conversion to Islam leads to stigmatization. Based on that the aim of this study is to examine what reactions and treatment Swedish Muslim converts have experienced from their families regarding their conversion to Islam, how they prepare for revealing their conversion, what strategies they use to handle their families’ reactions and whether this has any significance in their self-perception.

The study is qualitative and was made with semi-structured interviews with five Swedish female converts. The theories used are Erving Goffman’s stigma and the concepts of Islamophobia and Swedishness. The results show that the converts prepare the revealing of their conversion by speaking openly and positively about Islam a long time before the revealing. The reactions received indicate reproduced Islamophobic prejudices and aversions and take form of grief, shame, and despair to more far-reaching reactions such as negative violations, distancing, lack of support and exclusion from the family unity and from Swedishness. The women explain that they hide the fact that they pray, and, in some cases, they take off their headscarves when visiting their families. Furthermore, they wear a turban or put on headscarves and clothes with bright colors to look more ‘normal’. Finally, their self-perception is affected by all the negative reactions and treatment, and they clarify that they feel ambiguities about how to perceive themselves: as ‘real’ Swedes or not since their families tell them they areno longer considered as such

The subject of this study deals with the work of social workers with unaccompanied

children. The problem is presented from a perspective where statistics show that a large

proportion of unaccompanied children are compulsorily cared for in youth care for

problems such as substance abuse, crime and vagabondage. The study's hypothesis is

insofar as there is a problem in the performance of the social services regarding their

assignment towards unaccompanied children. Based on the problem, the purpose of the

study is to investigate whether social workers experience a problem or obstacle in their

work with unaccompanied children in relation to social workers' assignments and

professional role, and what factors may have an obstacle. The essay has therefore been

carried out according to a qualitative methodology and includes semi-structured

interviews with three social workers that describe their experiences of working with

unaccompanied children. The conclusions show that the main problems that social

workers experience in their work with unaccompanied children are time pressure and a

high workload.

This email conversation revolves around ten decolonial propositions on Sweden. It offers reflections on the roles of race in Swedish society. Including, its denials or forgetting, its intersections with gender, sexuality, religion, culture, nationhood, migration, class and other social categories, the roles of blackness and whiteness to anti-racist struggles, the realities of residential racial segregation, the existence of racism in healthcare, the internal colonialism of Roma in Europe, the ties of race and whiteness to colonial history, and more.

This paper is a qualitative study with the aim of investigating how immigrants who have an academic  education from their home country experience their situation in the Swedish labor market. The study  aims to find out immigrants' own experiences regarding the obstacles they encounter in the pursuit of a  job that matches their level of education and work experience. Six Arabic-speaking immigrants have  participated in this study through the interviews I have conducted with them, which have been the  empirical material for this study. In this study and on the basis of what my interviewees have told me,  I have been able to identify various obstacles that make it difficult for them to get a job that corresponds  with the education they have. The assessment of the foreign degree, language skills, and lack of social  networks seemed to be obstacles for immigrant academics to find the right job. Most of the interviewees  felt that it is important to work, but what is also equally important is that they put their skills and  knowledge to use. Therefore, they have expressed different wishes regarding different forms of support  that they think can enable them to have the chance to show what they can and what knowledge and  competence they have. Support that they think can benefit their situation in the labor market is a clear  guide, better language teaching and a guide to internships that are linked to their education and work  experience.

On May 26th, 2020, the world was shocked after learning that George Floyd had died at the hands of the police while being wrongfully arrested. Protests took place worldwide, demanding justice for Floyd as well as the end of the systematic racism present institutionally in police forces. In Europe, people started raising their voices, denouncing that this phenomenon was no stranger to the Old Continent. Indeed, the last few years have witnessed the media coverage of multiple cases of police violence based on ethnic grounds. The media play a key role as the source of information for the population, they decide what is going to be on the headline, catching people’s eye. France has especially attracted attention with its racial profiling practices that go against the 2001 European Code of Police Ethics acting as recommended guidelines for the Member States. Therefore, this study aims to analyse media discourses depicting three specific cases of police violence: the Adama Traoré Case, the Theo Luhaka Case, and the Michel Zecler Case. Following the model of Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, the point of this thesis is to find whether the power relations regulating the world can be identified within these discourses. By analysing the articles and finding similarities in how they portray the events then an idea of the institutional and societal power relations in France.

The aim of this study is to describe and explain how five women with a non-European background find the expression of everyday racism in today’s Swedish society, how everyday racism can affect their mental health and how they experience that the Swedish majority population handle and respond to everyday racism. The study is qualitative and was made with semi-structured interviews. The theories used are the theory of everyday racism, "we" and "the Others" and Goffman’s stigma. The results indicate that everyday racism is manifested through the population's ignorance and silence, comments, prejudices and stereotypes and is mainly expressed in arenas where there are many people at the same time. According to the women, the school and the labor market are the two most common arenas for the expression of everyday racism. They witness that the Swedish majority population rarely deal with the occurrence of everyday racism. Their mental health is negatively affected by everyday racism and can lower the individual's self-esteem. The study’s three theories that include everyday racism, “we” and “the Others” and stigma can be applied to the women's stories about their experiences and feelings about everyday racism in the Swedish society.

The article examines how categories of race, incl. whiteness, is construced in everyday interactions. It emphasizes how power relies in the norm, i.e. the 'normal'. It illustrates how interactions, which might appear as neutral, are not neutral; rather the interactions contributes to discriminative structures.

In this thesis, through critically analysing images and text in a selection of Swedish children's picture books, the aim is to investigate how white and non-white bodies are represented, and how racial differences between these white and non-white bodies are depicted and racial meanings addressed. Theoretical concepts from within the field of Critical race- and Whiteness studies are applied, to demonstrate how hegemonic whiteness and colour-blindness as discourse is prevalent in these children´s books, which is achieved by using non-white characters as tokens. Moreover, this study of representation is an illustrative case for how race can function as social construct, and thus should have value as an analytical concept also in IMER-studies performed in the Swedish context. It can additionally lift a discussion about the importance for children at an early age, to develop awareness and understanding of how race can affect individual lives.

Studien baserar sig på ett treårigt fältarbete i relation till de utvecklingspartnerskap som finansierats av medel från Europeiska Socialfondens programinitiativ EQUAL under dess femte tema – asyl. Utvecklings- och förändringsarbete kännetecknas av honnörsordet samverkan. Detta utgör också i och med en central överenskommelse grunden för de svenska myndigheternas arbete med mottagningen av nyanlända. Den teoretiska inspirationen kommer från nyinstitutionell teori och handlar om hur vi kan förstå den svenska flyktingmottagningen i ett interorganisatoriskt sammanhang. Analysen möjliggörs genom att betrakta intentionen om samverkan kring mottagningen av asylsökande som ett särskilt organisatoriskt fält, som benämns flyktingintroduktion. Detta för att överbrygga den diskrepans som idag finns mellan de traditionella formerna av asyl- och flyktingmottagning. Medan den förra har setts som Migrationsverkets ansvar är den senare ett uppdrag för kommunerna. Studien visar att det är först i samspel och samverkan med andra som de egna institutionella förutsättningarna, hindren och begränsningarna blir tydliga för de verksamma aktörerna inom ramen för det organisatoriska fältet flyktingintroduktion.

Abstract

Honor-related violence and oppression is a major problem in our society. Many individuals live in fear and don't dare to seek help from public authorities. The most targeted group of individuals are young girls and women. Most often, the perpetrators are the men in the family and relatives, but the women can also be the perpetrators. Many lives are taken because of collective norms in honor groups and many suffer in silence.The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge about the practices of the honor culture and the consequences with a particular focus on honor-related violence and oppression within close relationships. The study contains experiences of individuals who live in collective groups with honor norms. Previous studies on honor-related violence and oppression show that it has been difficult to map how many individuals are victims of this kind of crime. The chosen theories in this study are: stigma, individualism and collectivism and gender.These will be a tool to gain a deeper understanding of different kinds of honor norms and how they affect the victims.The collected material in this study consists of semi-structured interviews which were then analyzed with the help of the chosen theories and previous research. The results and the analysis show that honor norms express themselves differently depending on the gender and what kind of society you are in. It also shows that there is a lack of competence on honor-related violence and oppression. The respondents in the interviews demonstrate that standards of honor exist and that it must be talked about more in our society.

China's economic success has prompted both academic political economists and applied policy analysts to speculate about the implications of a new 'China model' of economic development and global economic governance. A particular issue is the degree to which the China model involves developing in opposition to or in cooperation with the pre-existing norms of global economic governance. Recognizing the ambiguity of the China model, we consider two alternative interpretations of China's role in global economic governance: China Challenge (CC) and Business as Usual (BaU). We flesh out these contrasting interpretations using evidence from the lending behavior of four major development finance institutions in which China plays a leading or determinative role: the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the New Development Bank (NDB), the Silk Road Fund (SRF), and the China-Africa Development Fund (CADF) of the China Development Bank. We find that (at least in the restricted domain of international development finance) China's role in global economic governance is largely characterized by BaU behavior, and although on a regional level this does represent a challenge to the historical role of Japan, it nonetheless suggests that the China model is not so revolutionary as many analysts suppose.

Building on the existing framework of educational returns in South Africa, this quantitative study uses statistical data from the Quarterly Labour Force Surveys for the years 2008-2018 with the aim to research educational returns on employment in South Africa. Findings from the logistic regressions models used indicate that tertiary education is essential for employment, and that returns for each additional school year below grade 12 are moderate. In addition, the Coloured and Black population groups receive lower returns than the White population group, and men have higher returns than women. By running independent regressions, new observations occurred that impact some race and gender combinations while being moderate for others, which contributes to the research on education and employment in South Africa.

This bachelor’s thesis is an effort to understand how black women in Sweden experience 'race' and racism in everyday life. The theoretical framework includes a postcolonial theory from Sara Ahmed, with the concept of 'race' as a key element. Additional to that, Judith Butler’s gender performativity theory contributes to a broader understanding of the informants’ situation. The material consisting of interviews with four young black women implies that everyday racism is present in Swedish society to that extent that 'race' is a major aspect of these women’s life. In everyday encounters with the white majority of the society, they often feel different, marginalized, objectified and exotified. Furthermore, the informants experience that their skin color and phenotypic markers are a magnet for white people’s fetish and fantasies, but also an obstacle to obtain legitimacy in interactions with them. To those reasons, the informants are considering migrating to a country where black people are forming a larger minority in society than it is the case in Sweden. That opens up the possibility to interact with more black people who have similar experiences of being exposed to everyday racism.

This thesis investigates strategies of digital activism pursued by Indigenous activists in the age of Reconciliation in Canada. The point of departure is the relationship between Indigenous people and the settler establishment, which has been historically informed by several attempts to assimilate the Natives into the white majority. Discarding the integration concept in IMER research as colonial, this study focuses instead on anticolonial advocacy strategies pursued through Indigenous knowledge within digital environments. It does so by adopting digital ethnography as method and conducting participant observation of one selected Indigenous association on Instagram. In line with these premises, Indigenous theories are operationalized into a context-specific analytical framework. This approach leads to two overarching results. On the one hand, four recurrent motifs are identified as key in Indigenous digital advocacy in the age of Reconciliation in Canada. On the other hand, a full set of anticolonial strategies is recognized as the alternative response to Reconciliation.

Sweden is a country known for its gender-equal family policies, which prompt fathers toshare childcare responsibilities with their partners. However, lots of immigrants living inSweden might face cultural clashes, if they come from countries where family norms assignfathers the role of breadwinners and mothers that of homemakers. This thesis therefore aimsat studying the experience of fatherhood in Sweden for immigrants from different culturalbackgrounds. It attempts to understand how they relate to the Swedish state's incentives, howthey navigate between their two cultures, and how their social networks influence theirexperience. The findings are presented in the form of a typology of the forms of fatherhoodthat immigrants can develop in a post-migration context. Three types were identified:Modernized-Traditional fathers, Adaptive fathers and Allowed-To-Be-New fathers. Thisresearch thus contributes to the literature on post-migration parenthood and offers insightsinto immigrants’ realities for professionals and policymakers.

The aim of this research is to acquire an in-depth understanding of how organized nature-based integration activities can impact recently arrived immigrants’ place attachment. This qualitative study is based on participant-observation of organized nature-based integration activities in Helsinki, Finland, and semi-structured interviews with five of the participants. The research combines social integration theory used in previous studies of nature-based integration with Scannell and Gifford’s (2010) model of place-attachment. The results of the research show how nature-based integration activities had a positive impact on recently arrived immigrants’ place-attachment, as they 1.) promoted health and wellbeing, 2.) increased social interactions, 3.) transferred culture-specific knowledge and 4.) increased independence and confidence in a new environment.

Bevelander observes that economic and structural changes in the European economy have led to a gradual increase in the low-skilled service sector, as well as an increased demand for educated workers in the production of high-tech content. The increase in the number of humanitarian migrants being received by European states, as well as the subsequent family reunion migration, has further weakened the economic integration of migrants in Europe. In addition to this, these migrants have to overcome a number of thresholds to be successful in the labor market. Policies addressing this problem have primarily focused on an individual migrant's shortcomings but have not addressed the structural barriers individual migrants face, which hamper their economic integration. Continuation of this state of affairs will both increase marginalization and segregation of immigrants and contribute to growing anti-immigrant sentiment, thus undermining the legitimacy of migration and welfare states. 

Den "mångkulturella" samhället finns i Sverige om vi bara ser till på antalet utlandsfödda i förhållande till födda i Sverige. När vi däremot undersöker två viktiga mått på integration, sysselsättningsintegration och boendesegregation, visas tydligt att stora grupper av invandrare är marginaliserade i det svenska samhället. Sett ur detta perspektiv har den svenska integrationspolitiken misslyckats de senaste decennierna. Hur har denna situation uppkommit? Såväl invandringen som arbetsmarknadsintegrationen och boendemönstret av nyligen anlända immigranter har över tiden fått en förändrad karaktär. Majoriteten av invandrarna som kom till Sverige under de första decennierna efter andra världskriget var från de nordiska och de andra europeiska länderna. Invandrarna kom huvudsakligen på grund av ekonomiska skäl. I Sverige ändrades invandringspolitiken under slutet av 1960-talet till stor del som en följd av påtryckningar från fackföreningsrörelsen (LO). En relativt liberal politik ersattes med en mer restriktiv politik som begränsade fri arbetskraftsinvandring från de icke-nordiska länderna. Under senare delen av 1900-talet har interna konflikter, krig och geopolitiska förändringar lett till ett ökat antal flyktingar i världen. Invandringspolitiken gentemot flyktingar och familjeåterförening var fortfarande relativt liberal i Sverige under denna period. Detta innebar att de flesta invandrare som kom till Sverige på 1970-talet, men framförallt under 1980- och 1990-talen var flyktingar från Östeuropa och icke-europeiska länder och familjer från tidigare invandrade flyktingar och arbetskraftsinvandrare. Statistiken visar att familjeåterförenare och flyktingar står för vardera hälften av dem som har fått uppehållstillstånd de senaste decennierna. Den ekonomiska krisen under första halvan av 1990-talet samt den dramatiska ökningen av asylsökare under samma period gjorde att flyktingpolitiken skärptes. Sveriges integrationspolitik förändrades också med tiden och är sedan mitten av 1970-talet baserad på kulturell pluralism och på honnörsorden, jämlikhet, valfrihet och samverkan. Arbetsmarknadsintegration och att motverka boendesegregation har varit högt prioriterade mål i denna politik. Bosättningspolitiken som implementerades under mitten av 1980-talet och som fördelar flyktingar som fått uppehållstillstånd över ett flertal kommuner kan ses som en sätt att förverkliga dessa mål. Under 50- och 60-talen integrerades arbetskraftsinvandrare relativt väl på arbetsmarknaden. Koncentrationen i boende av en del av dessa invandrargrupper sågs som ett sätt att behålla vissa kulturella särdrag i en ny omgivning. Den successivt minskande ekonomiska integrationen av senare invandrargrupper medförde för vissa grupper en mycket stark ökning av boendesegregationen. Human- och social kapital, överförbarhet av yrkesskicklighet, strukturella förändringar på arbetsmarknaden, olika typer av diskriminering, generell integrations- och arbetsmarknadspolitik kan ses som faktorer som ökar transaktionskostnaderna för att som invandrare lyckas på arbetsmarknaden i jämförelse med svenskar. Framförallt den strukturella förändringen inom den svenska ekonomin i en tjänsteekonomi som efterfrågar högre generella kunskaper och ökad tonvikt på språkkunskaper har ökat kostnaderna för nya invandrare att förvärva dessa färdigheter. Ökande rekryteringskostnader för potentiella arbetsgivare medför att vissa grupper löper risken att diskrimineras. Utestängningen från arbetsmarknaden ökar socialbidragskostnaderna. Svag arbetsmarknadsintegration påverkar på ett negativt sätt individens möjligheter att välja bosättningsort. Etnisk segregation är även ett problem för välfärdsstaten i och med att många sociala tjänster som skola, förskola, vård av olika slag och andra offentliga tjänster är organiserade enligt geografiska faktorer. Så, när segregerade områden väl har uppstått är risken stor att både social och ekonomisk ojämlikhet förstärker varandra.

Labour market integration of immigrants, the extent to which and the pace with which immigrants reach (close) parity with natives regarding labour force participation, employment and earnings is a major public concern. Human capital theory suggest labour immigrants are positively selected and that the disadvantage at arrival are expected to diminish as they learn new valuable skills. However, a growing diaspora at destination and migration for non-economic reasons reduces the selection.

Empirical studies show the importance of accounting for differences between cohorts of migrants; early cohorts typically perform better than later ones. Another important thing to note is the large and highly persistent differences in integration between labour migrants, family re-union migrants and refugees. The two latter categories, which never catch up with the labour migrants have been increasing over time. Their difficulties to reach same levels are not well understood, however.

Not only Swedish studies, but also several international studies, claim an increase in anti-Semitic attitudes in recent decades. As prejudice is acquired in the early years of socialization, and/or is innate and fairly stable over the life cycle, examining adolescents’ attitudes is vitally important. Hence, by controlling for individual demographic and socio-economic background factors, we study two interrelated questions: Has anti-Semitism among Swedish secondary school-age youths changed between 2003 and 2009? Are changes equal across groups, with a specific focus on religious groups? Using two unique cross-section surveys of secondary school-age students in Sweden for the years 2003 and 2009, we try to address the above questions. Our analysis shows, in contrast to the views of the general public and other related studies, that anti-Semitism has decreased slightly during the examined period. Moreover, the study finds a variation in anti-Semitism by religious affiliation: it has increased among Muslim youth, but remains stable in other groups.