Inkludering på olika villkor
En dokumentstudie av aktuella politiska diskurser om integration
Discourse theoryIntegrationIntegration policyIdentityImmigrantsFunctional impairmentDiskursteoriIntegrationIntegrationspolitikIdentitetInvandrareFunktionshinder
The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish governments discourse on integration of immigrants and thereby examine what social reality it constructs. The aim is to examine how integration and immigrants are constructed within the discourse. The method and theory being used in this essay is discourse theory. As a methodological instrument we use the policy on functional impairment as a comparison. The material being analyzed in this essay is political documents on the strategy on integration policy and the strategy on the policy of functional impairment. The main conclusions of the study are that immigrants are constructed as a homogenous group and immigrants are being discursively separated from the majority society. Social exclusion serves as an identity within the discourse. Another main conclusion is that integration is connected to labour and firstly constructed as labour market policy within the discourse. Integration is also related to social exclusion. The government often uses the term social exclusion instead of the term integration. The comparison with the policy on functional impairment serves as a possible alterative way of understanding integration and identity.