As the police authority moves to exploit its power, by using its advantage through individual police officers' initiatives, it will lead to serious societal consequences based on unequal power relations. Situations characterized by discrimination and oppression occur and are reproduced through intersections of power relations, based on ethnic affiliation, social standing, gender and sexual orientation. The purpose of this study is to analyse how this relationship between the police and the public are represented, reflected by the TV series Tunna blå linjen (The thin blue line), produced by Sveriges Television AB, SVT. Futhermore, the purpose of this study is also to analyse how the TV series relate to the criticized police practices, called into question during recent years. To attain these objetives, the TV series will be analysed based on the following question formulations: - How are power relations between the police and the public represented in the TV series Tunna blå linjen? - In what way does the TV series Tunna blå linjen relate to the various kinds of occuring criticized police practices, called into question during recent years? The material consists of seven selected image sequences, from which several aspects can be deducted. To evaluate and examine this material, a visual text analysis is performed, which includes text as well as imagery. The seven selected image sequences, retrieved from the TV series Tunna blå linjen, and the identified representations, illustrate the results of this study, that various kinds of situations characterized by discrimination and oppression occur. These situations are reproduced through intersections of power relations between the police and the public, based on ethnic affiliation, social standing, gender and sexual orientation. The results of this study also show that these power relations generate stigmatisation of individuals, a consequence which has affected each one of those being the subject of the actions initiated by the police, as the seven selected image sequences illustrate. The prasieworthy approach to problematize the police actions based on ethnic markers, which each of the seven selected image sequences represent, is not suffciently far-reaching, which is an additional result of this study.

Focusing on the readmission agreement between Sweden and Afghanistan, this study aims to enhance our understanding of why and how states use readmission agreements and the discourse underpinning these practices. Based on interviews with key officials working in the Swedish deportation infrastructure, the findings show that the agreement is presented as a successful measure resulting in a more predictable process and increased forced returns. The agreement is a critical technique for minimizing disruptions in the deportation corridor to Afghanistan, however, not without interruptions due to the infrastructure’s reliance on many elements and the complexity of bilateral cooperation. The discursive practices, including “problem” representations and assumptions justifying the agreement, can be questioned considering that most Afghans abscond or travel to another Schengen country instead of returning. The absence of an agreement evaluation further necessitates calling the increased governmental focus on readmission agreements into question. The study contributes to deconstructing governmental rationalities through a novel methodology of studying deportation and readmission.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the entanglement of various power axes with the body through 'body mapping' and to look into how the implementation of the method enriches research processes. 'Body mapping' is an arts-based method which places the body in the center of social inquiry. This allows the body to be explored as a central site where social identity is negotiated, while being engaged in this exploration. This orientation might allow insights into how embodied power relations affect people’s lives and how 'body mapping' can contribute to this exploration through raising consciousness and bringing forward personal embodied knowledges. 'Body mapping' will thus ideally allow participants to see themselves through a different angle and thereby engage with questions of how normative ideas in relation to identity are shaping their experiences and feelings of non/belonging in Swedish society. This might initiate newly informed understandings in participants’ lives regarding critical consciousness on their positionality and foster participants’ connection to their bodies as sources of knowledge.

This thesis is a qualitative study focusing on the situation that has evolved in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from the beginning of 2018, when migrants and refugees started entering the country in large numbers in the context of the so-called Balkan route. The approach adopted in the thesis is informed by critical studies emphasizing the asymmetries entailed in the emerging multilevel governance of migration. The European Union (EU), the BiH state, IOM, civil society, activists, and citizens, are inserted in a “situational map” presenting their inter-relations, and the potential of each to influence the situation of concern. This thesis analyses in details the role of the EU, which is implementing in BiH its security-informed approach to irregular migration through externalization and multilevelling strategies. Eight semi-structured interviews allow the investigation into the potential and challenges of a “governance from below”. The main argument of this thesis is that the EU, outsourcing its strategy to curb irregular migration to BiH, fails to address the humanitarian crisis that is developing there, besides mining the stability and democracy of the country.

Over the last decade, a new trend of Global Remittances has emerged within the international development community, especially a growing interest in women’s migration and remittances, and their potential for poverty reduction and economic growth. Due to the staggering amount of transnational money transfers, migrant remittances have become a central component in multilateral discussions on alternative development financing, and has been included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The present study thus explores the multiple ways in which this gendered migration-remittance-development nexus has come to play out the recent years, seeking to understand how the “banking the unbanked” logic along with microfinance profit-making agendas serves neoliberal governmental and infrastructural discursive formations of transnational migration and its development impact. By using a decolonial approach, the study uses critical discourse analysis to scrutinize selected multilateral actors’ policy documents to explore in what ways migrant women’s “financial inclusion, independence and economic empowerment” have been included in the goals and targets within the 2030 Agenda. The main finding is that the rights-based approach towards migrants in the sustainability discourse rather tends to dismantle migrant agency into monetary practices which have come to be an important means for the financialization of migrant and non-migrant communities as well as for the transmittance of western knowledge doctrines, and in turn, are to prolong regimes of “modern slavery.”

Interest in a multiracial society has increased in recent years and including on racism and prejudice and in the propensity to stereotype out-groups. Theories on racism help explain the dominant group's prejudice toward subordinate groups. Yet they only explain why dominant group members stereotype subordinates or if the dominant group's propensity to stereotype is different from that of subordinate groups. Recent assimilation theories suggest that some minorities are assimilating with Whites but Blacks are not undergoing assimilation. Classic assimilation theory suggests that when a subordinate group assimilates with the dominant group then they will also take on the dominant group's values and beliefs, including their prejudices and propensities to stereotype. The use of racial stereotypes in support of the assimilation of a minority group has not been tested. Results from the LSAF national survey provide support for Asians to be assimilating with Whites. However, Hispanics do not appear to be taking on Whites' propensity to stereotype, contradicting the prediction that Hispanics are assimilating with Whites.

Sweden has had an increase in refugees in recent years, while the situation in the housing market has been increasingly constrained. Housing has in earlier research been shown to form an important part of the integration of refugees in society. In Sweden, refugees have the option to arrange for their own housing (in Swedish ‘Eget boende’, EBO) or be accommodated by the immigration authorities (‘Anläggningsboende’, ABO). This study aims to examine how the national strategies EBO and ABO are applied in municipal practice through a case study of Botkyrka municipality. The primary source material for this study consists of interviews conducted with people who are working with the accommodation of refugees, but also related government official reports. The study indicates that there are a number of problems related to the strategies EBO and ABO. Interviewees expressed a desire for a more equitable and planned receiving system. As is argued in the study, social housing, housing subsidies and investigating the municipal housing companies' competitive opportunities, are important solutions that could provide refugees with better chances on the Swedish housing market. In sum the study contributes in part to a deeper understanding of the relationship between the Swedish housing market, policies and long-term planning, and in part of the opportunities for persons with newly granted residence permits to establish themselves on the Swedish housing market. / Sverige har haft ett ökat flyktingmottagande de senaste åren, samtidigt som situationen på bostadsmarknaden blivit allt mer ansträngd. Bostaden har i tidigare studier visat sig vara viktig för flyktingars etablering i samhället. I Sverige kan en asylsökande välja mellan att ordna ett ‘Eget boende’ (EBO) alternativt att bo i Migrationsverkets Anläggningsboenden (ABO). Om en asylsökande beviljas uppehållstillstånd, kan den som nyanländ i ABO bli anvisad en bostad i en kommun. En nyanländ som bott i EBO under asyltiden fortsätter göra det när den fått uppehållstillstånd. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur de nationella strategierna EBO och ABO omvandlas till kommunal praxis genom en fallstudie i Botkyrka kommun. För att besvara studiens frågeställningar genomfördes intervjuer med personer som har arbetsuppgifter kopplade till asylsökande och nyanländas boende, men även rapporter och artiklar studerades.  Studien indikerar att det finns ett antal problem kopplade till boendestrategierna EBO och ABO. EBO kan innebära osäkra boendeförhållanden för individen karakteriserade av trångboddhet och otrygghet. Ur ett kommunperspektiv innebär EBO svårigheter i planering för funktioner som skola och bostadsförsörjning eftersom kommunen saknar vetskap om hur många EBO som är bosatta i kommunen. ABO kan innebära trångboddhet men också att individen får vänta länge på att etableringsinsatserna kan startas. Studien visar att det finns skillnader i vilka möjligheter boende i ABO och EBO har för att få en permanent bostad. Enligt materialet från intervjuerna finns en önskan om ett mer jämlikt och planerat mottagningssystem. Genom att testa lösningar som social housing, bostadsbidragslöfte och utreda de kommunala bostadsbolagens konkurrensmöjligheter skulle nyanlända kunna få en bättre chans på bostadsmarknaden. Sammanfattningsvis bidrar studien med en djupare förståelse av relationen mellan bostadsmarknad, politik och långsiktig planering och om vilka möjligheter nyanlända har att etablera sig på bostadsmarknaden. Studien ringar också in problem som uppkommer i arbetet mellan stat, region och kommun när det gäller bostäder för nyanlända, och ger rekommendationer på möjliga lösningar.

This audience study explores the changes of news consumption and avoidance behaviour by young millennial immigrants from various backgrounds, living in Stockholm, Sweden. Considering various theoretical frameworks, such as the intentional vs. unintentional model (Skovsgaard & Andersen, 2020), the migration change model (Tabor & Milfont, 2011), as well as a combination of a phenomenology of news model (Bengtsson & Johansson, 2021) and media repertoires established by Swart et al. (2017), a qualitative research has been conducted consisting of eight semi-structured interviews. Through a thematic analysis possible patterns have been established and findings show that individuals tend to change their behaviour in news consumption for various reasons. (1) Participants want to be able to establish their own news-routines and use their migration as an opportunity for a new start, (2) there is a certain influence by people closest to them and with their social circle changing, their (news) interests change as well, and (3) motivation and interest play an important role in shaping new consumption behaviours in a new country: the more one is interested in learning more about the new country, its culture and its language, the more likely they are to check that country’s traditional news media sources.

Integration är ett omtalat fenomen över hela Europa i och med den ökande globaliseringen som bidrar till att människor av flera olika skäl rör sig över landsgränser i större utsträckning än någonsin. Ett gemensamt krafttag krävs för att invandrare ska integreras och inkluderas fullt ut i sina värdsamhällen, vilket gynnar både invandraren i fråga och samhället i stort. I föreliggande studie analyseras Europeiska kommissionens handlingsplaner för integration med avsikt att skapa en djupare förståelse för vad kommissionen ser som de främsta verktygen för att uppnå framgångsrik integration för invandrare. EU-kommissionen har publicerat två handlingsplaner, en från 2016, strax efter flyktingkrisen, och sedan ett uppföljande plan år 2020. Syftet med studien är att identifiera vilka verktyg för integration som bör prioriteras enligt EU-kommissionen, hur detta förändrats över tid samt hur det skiljer sig alternativt överensstämmer med Diaz integrationsmodell som utgör studiens teoretiska ramverk. Diaz integrationsmodell förklarar integrationsprocessen utifrån sju dimensioner som appliceras på texterna i enlighet med textanalys med inriktning på kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Studiens resultat visar att kommissionen företrädesvis prioriterar åtgärder kopplade till den ekonomiska dimensionen vilket syftar till arbetsmarknadsåtgärder och ekonomisk självständighet. Europeiska kommissionen har i den senare handlingsplanen ett betydligt större fokus på att själva utföra åtgärder inom kommunikativ integration vilket innebär språkkunskap och tillgång till information. Utifrån detta dras slutsatsen att handlingsplanerna förändras i takt med att behovsbilden ändrats några år efter flyktingkrisen då många invandrare anlände till Europa. Vidare tycks kommissionen prioritera sådana åtgärder som gynnar samhället i stort, främst kopplade till ekonomisk välgång, medan exempelvis politisk integration är lågprioriterat trots handlingsplanernas tydliga koppling till politiska aktörer. / Integration is a well-known phenomenon all over Europe as a result of the increasing globalization that contributes to people moving across boarders more than ever. A joint effort is necessary for immigrants to integrate into their host societies which benefits not only the immigrant but the society overall. This thesis analyses the European Commission’s Action Plan on Integration in order to create a profound understanding of the main tools for integration of immigrants according to the Commission. The Commission has published two action plans, one from 2016, shortly after the refugee crisis, and one from 2020. The aim of the thesis is to identify which tools for integration are prioritized, how this changes over time and how it relates to Diaz integration model which is the theory that is used in the thesis. Diaz integration model explains the integration process in seven dimensions. The dimensions are used as a tool to interpret the texts in accordance with a qualitative content analysis. The results suggest that the Commission mainly prioritizes efforts related to the economic dimension, meaning workforce measures and economic self-sufficiency. The European Commission increases their focus on communicative integration in the latter action plan and intends to implement more measures to ensure improved language skills and better access to information. This leads to the conclusion that the action plans changes as the needs and requirements for integration tools changes a few years after the refugee crisis when many immigrants arrived to Europe. The commission seems to prioritize measures that favor the entire society, mainly referring to economic welfare, while for example political integration is low priority despite the  plans association with political actors.

In recent years Sweden has witnessed an increasing number of newcomers into its schools from an array of sociocultural and ethnic backgrounds. Rather than see this as a ‘burden’, this case study looks at ways teachers can embrace diversity, build upon students' prior knowledge and experiences and challenge traditional notions of how knowledge is produced in the classroom. Drawing on multicultural and critical pedagogies, 11 class teachers across four subject disciplines and working at 2 different schools, in a provincial town in the south of Sweden, were asked about their pedagogical practices teaching in mainstream classrooms with students of different ethnic backgrounds. The analysis focuses on whether the teachers are able to create spaces for inclusive learning. Findings suggest that while aspiring to a participatory model of teaching which welcomes students’ views and experiences newcomers are largely excluded from such practice further cementing their marginalised status. Furthermore, in navigating dominant discourse around race, ethnicity and cultural diversity teachers, for the most part, end up reproducing stereotypes or rely on common sense understandings of otherness which do not change the status quo. However, some of the teachers’ pedagogical practices demonstrate ways of moving beyond normative practice towards a more critical approach by providing students with alternative ways of knowing that aim to challenge stereotypes, avoid generalisations and disrupt the Western/Eurocentric ideal of the universality of truth.