In contemporary Sweden political participation among foreign-born Swedes is viewed as low and it is well known that foreign-born individuals do not use their voting rights to the same extent as the general population. At the same time there are numerous ethnic associations around the country who work with various activities involving political, democratic and integration issues. This study aims to study how four members of a Somali association regard, relate to and work with politics, democracy and integration. The study is based on these four people, but also on their relationship with authorities and other agencies in the community. The conclusion of this study shows in brief that the desire to participate politically is great, but that democracy and politics is accessible to all, depending on the level of language skills and what political knowledge the individual has.

The aim of this study has been to reach a deeper understanding of how refugee adolescences experience their ethnic identity, particular ethnic consciousness in terms of integration, assimilation and segregation. Further my intention has been to investigate if the adolescences experienced changes in their ethnic identity.   In order to investigate these questions a qualitative method consisting of four interviews were conducted. The study included two young men at the age of 18, and two young women at the age of 17 and 18. Three of the interviewed persons can be defined as refugees, but not the fourth adolescence.

The purpose of this essay was to examine the role of the acquisition of the Swedish language for integration of adult Immigrants given by the seven parties currently in the parliament and other players on the field. The questions were meant to bring light upon the arguments used by the different players concerning the role of the Swedish language, to enlighten which discourses that are constructed, and the contradictions that exist between these. We parted from a postmodern position and used social constructionism to back up our method and theory of analysis; discourse theory. The results revealed three different discourses concerning the role of the Swedish language in the integration process; the liberal discourse, the discrimination discourse and the social democratic discourse. The liberal discourse claims that Immigrants have a responsibility to learn Swedish to be able to achieve employment and to provide for themselves.

This paper aims to present a theoretical understanding of the emergence of extreme right- wing populist parties (ERP), and more specifically the electoral breakthrough of the ERP party, Sverigedemokraterna in the municipality of Karlskrona. By doing so the study is constructed as a theoretical framework, where the empirical material and the theoretical aspects are interwoven. This means that the theoretical framework also functions as an analytical part. The paper shows how Sverigedemokraterna could be understood as an ERP party, based on e.g its populist anti-establishment critique, and its critique towards the ?Immigrant issue?.

Sweden is a multi cultural country, where almost twenty percent of the population come from another cultural background. This study examines to what extent people with a foreign origin appear in two local, Swedish newspapers, Barometern and Östra Småland, and what role they are given. Do they appear as foreigners or Immigrants or do they figure as any Swede, irrespective of their origin background?We have made a review by studying pictures of people with a foreign origin, based on name and appearance. During the time period, March 1st ? April 30 th 2010, there were 2206 articles with pictures of people where 189 of them did show people with a foreign origin.

Abstract    The purpose of my essay is to understand how language and identity interact in individuals with an Immigrant backgrounds? My main focus is rooted in the individual`s identity and my questions are:-        How is the informants talkning about the importance of being able to make themselves understood with the language?-        How do they talk about the creation of identity?-        How does language and identity be linked in their discourse about language and identity?   To accomplish this and to answer my questions I have chosen to use a qualitative method based of interviews. I believe that this method is the most appropriate in order to provide answers to my questions. I interviewed four people who have lived in Sweden between 3-6 years. Two of  the  informants are from Latvia and speak fluent swedish, the two other informants come from Chile and are currently learning swedish.

The focus of this thesis is on social workers? knowledge in assessing and making decisions in child welfare cases. The primary aim is to identify what skills or knowledge social workers find most useful within child welfare agencies in Swedish municipalities. Six different types of knowledge, social policy and the approach of child welfare cases are perspectives considered in the analysis. The interviews with social workers were held in three agencies in southern Sweden, in 2014.

The competition between the Swedish municipalities has increased as the world has become more globalized, which means that they need to become more attractive for sustaining sound finances and not to find themselves to have a downward trend. One possibility to show the attractiveness of a place is by using place marketing and therewith attaining a stronger brand position. There are 20 suburban municipalities in the county of Stockholm, of which six are multicultural or are having a minimum of 20 percent Immigrants among the residents. These Immigrant areas are segregated based on class, income and culture. Problems associated with these areas have historical aspects that dates further back than modern immigration does.

In what way has the ethnic housing segregation changed from the 1970´s until today and has the politics concerning these matters dealt with the ethnic segregation as a phenomenon that occur due to free choices of ethnic groups or as a stigmatization and marginalization of ethnic groups? To be able to find out what actual changes there are to be seen in the political measures regarding the ethnic housing segregation from the 70´s until today, I have made a discoursive investigation of some of the states official investigations from each of the decades. I chose to focus on a qualitative analysis and my theoretical framework consists of theories considering grouprights as well as structural and cultural explanations.I realize that the changes have been proportionately high retorically, but the actual changes have not been that obvious. I find a retorical development that has changed from the idea of the great impact of the Immigrant in the ethnic segregation process, at the same time as huge differences between groups emerge, to establish a gap between us an them and a stigmatization of ethnic groups. The development somehow seems to have reconnected to the first stage.

Vellinge is one of few municipalities in Sweden that refuses to accept refugees. The subject of this thesis is to find out how the local politicians in Vellinge make their considerations when they decide not to welcome refugees. The analysis uses the representation theory as a starting point. The two ideals of the representative role, either as a bound mandate or as a free independent role, is the base of the analysis. Vellinge is in the analysis compared to Lomma, a very similar municipality in southern Sweden that for a long time alsohas refused to accept refugees, however suddenly in 2007 decided to change their mind.

SummaryThe numbers of students in higher education with foreign background are still lower than expected. The universities around the country are increasingly committed to attract students among this group. Many of investments and researches have been done to explore new approaches. There is need to understand how students evaluate their choices. These studies will help marketing the educations which are more responsive to student's expectations.

AbstractWhen Immigrants move to Sweden from their native country it is not unusual that they experience some kind of identity crises. Their own experience of their cultural identity can be very problematic and they often lose a part of what they previously saw as their own identity. To handle such crises the Immigrants can use different strategies. They can for example accept their disparity, deny it or emphasize it. The aim of this study is to examine how Immigrants in Sweden experience that their cultural identity has changed since they moved here from a country that has a culture that is different from the Swedish culture.

Integration policies have failed to make diversity into anything more than occupying the same physical space. People of different cultural background still do not share their lives to any real extent. Attempts made within planning and landscape architecture to catalyst the integration process have mainly been focused on structural measures, such as residential policies. As for outdoor environments, non-verbal casual encounters in the shape of crossing paths are assumed to lie at the heart of urban social integration.The aim of the thesis is to question this assumption and, as the thesis will show, there is literature supporting this aim. Looking at the works of Gordon Allport, Lewis Coser and some of their followers, I find intercultural contact to require more complex ways of interaction in order to reduce prejudice and to generate tolerance and understanding.

Integration policies have failed to make diversity into anything more than occupying the same physical space. People of different cultural background still do not share their lives to any real extent. Attempts made within planning and landscape architecture to catalyst the integration process have mainly been focused on structural measures, such as residential policies. As for outdoor environments, non-verbal casual encounters in the shape of crossing paths are assumed to lie at the heart of urban social integration.The aim of the thesis is to question this assumption and, as the thesis will show, there is literature supporting this aim. Looking at the works of Gordon Allport, Lewis Coser and some of their followers, I find intercultural contact to require more complex ways of interaction in order to reduce prejudice and to generate tolerance and understanding.

The purpose of our master thesis was to investigate how a multicultural society is reflected in childrens books picture books, books for children and young people, published in 2002. We found this issue interesting since children of today experience a change in society, where people of many ethnicities, cultures and religions live together to a greater extent than before. Since children in their everyday life are exposed to these different cultures, we think they also should be exposed to them in the books they read. In order to enhance an understanding of why such books are important to children, especially Immigrant children, we have in our thesis included a passage with childrens linguistic development, identification and stereotypes. Other passages concern libraries and their roles in a multicultural society.