In response to the recent surge in migrants entering Italy, the Italian government has implemented several laws since early 2023 to expand the administrative detention system for migrants - mostly males - pending repatriation, commonly known as Centri di Permanenza per il Rimpatr io (CPR). Despite the large body of evidence provided by national humanitarian organizations and academic research concerning their overall detrimental effect - both on national budgets and detainees’ psychophysiological health –, these centers are still deemed as the best way to deal with the migration phenomenon. Nevertheless, the high incidence of self harm episodes recorded within these venues, together with their secrecy and isolation symptomize their problematic nature. Thus, focusing on three different administrative detention facilities located in the Southern Italian regions of Apulia and Sicily, this thesis aims at penetrating these closeted realities in order to raise awareness about the prisoners’ true living conditions and grasp the potential political weight of their self injurious gestures. Moreover, it argues for the need to partially de medicalize the approach toward this specific health issue, as it prevents to acknowledge it as a full fledged expression of rebellion against this specific detention regimeand, simultaneously, to identify the strategies used by authorities to suppress it.

A comparative study on how Swedish media portrayed Syrian refugees in 2015 compared to how the same media portrayed Ukrainian refugees in 2022. This paper presents a thematic analysis of seventynine newspaper articles published in 2015 and 2022 by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. The comparison was made to see if the chosen articles portrayed these different groups of refugees differently, and I later engage in a discussion based on the results of the analysis. The thematic analysis showed a difference between the cases in how different themes manifested, as well as what themes were given more space in each case. The discussion later provides a set of different alternative explanations on why these differences exist – engaging with different theories and explanations as to why these cases had such a different impact on and given different portrayals by the Swedish media.

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.

This project deals with the experiences of asylum-seeking persons in their struggle to receive protection in different European countries, exploring how the sense of belonging is shaped during fragmented migration journeys. Conducting biographic-narrative interviews with five persons I met while working in a community centre in Greece, the research shifts the gaze from exclusionary citizenship regimes to migrant agency, revealing the distinct tactics, perceptions and performances of belonging on the move. The findings highlight the dynamic nature of belonging, challenging the notion that migration necessarily implies a rupture with significant attachments. Encounters with state and asylum authorities and regulations are experienced as renewed instances of insecurity, hindering belonging, whereas the community centre offers solace and alternative membership. The research partners express a pragmatic sense of “elective belonging” in Germany and Switzerland, based on long-awaited security and existential mobility, despite weakened community ties and the constraints imposed by European migration policies.

The study explored the question of how Kosovar-Albanians living in Sweden identify themselves; whether they felt that they belonged in Sweden, Kosovo or both places, and; the transnational ties they maintain with Kosovo. The study participants included six individuals  with Kosovar-Albanian origins, half of them born in Sweden and the other half who had immigrated to Sweden from Kosovo. The data for the study was collected using semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study suggest that both immigrants born in Sweden to first generation Kosovar immigrants and those born in Kosovo but immigrated to Sweden had fluid and dual identities. Sometimes they identified as Kosovo-Albanians, sometimes they identified as Swedish while at other times they identified as both. Those born in Sweden indicated that they felt that they belonged in Sweden, while those born in Kosovo did not have a clear sense of belonging. The study established that the sense of belonging was determined by the perception of others. Native Swedes did not think the immigrants belonged in Sweden because of their Kosovo-Albanian heritage while those in Kosovo felt that the immigration process had changed the immigrants thus they did not belong in Kosovo. The study established that both the first and second generation immigrants maintained transnational ties with Kosovo.

This thesis explores individual, highly situated, embodied and relational performances of Palestinian-ness based on life history interviews with one Palestinian woman and one LGBTQIA+ Palestinian individual. Based on the concept of performativity and with the help of intersectionality theory, this thesis provides insight into the fluid negotiation of Palestinian-ness through everyday acts and practices. In doing so, this thesis demonstrates the multiple and complex ways in which underrepresented Palestinian profiles navigate their identities at different stages of their life, across time and space. Via employing narrative analysis as a method and as an analytical framework, the participants’ performances of Palestinian-ness were revealed to be articulated in the form of anti-colonial performances, leftist performances, collective performances and performances of multiple Palestinian identities.

In Sweden, Muslims have increasingly become accused of being a threat to liberal, gender equal values and Muslim women constructed as victims and often excluded from Feminist discourses. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how Feminist Muslim women construct and navigate their Feminist beliefs in Sweden. Qualitative data was collected through opend-structured interviews with five foreign-born women, residing in Sweden. The thematic analysis showed that overall, the interviewees were navigating the complexities of intersecting identities - as Muslim, women, migrants and living in Swedish society. Main contributions included how intersectionality helped to communicate their beliefs and expereinces against percieved stereotypes of Muslim women and how experiences of othering reinforced how they understood obstacles they faced in their everyday lives. Postcolonial Feminist theory and the concept of "othering" were applied to help explain the findings.

This thesis is a qualitative case study that explores bisexual migrants’ experiences of belonging in Sweden. The study employs semi-structured interviews to gain an understanding of the importance of bisexual migrants’ different identities in facilitating belonging both in the context of a new country and within the wider LGBT community. Supported by theoretical concepts such as outside belonging, passing and monosexism, this thesis servers to highlight the complexities of belonging at the intersection of being bisexual and a migrant. The results of this study find that sexual identity is something more fixed than migrant identity which evokes feelings of outside belonging. The perceived LGBT-friendliness of Sweden however, proves significant in allowing participants to live out their bisexuality compared to their respective home countries, but navigating belonging within the LGBT community being bisexual can remain challenging, even in Sweden.

This paper investigates the level of consciousness regarding to the diversity work in the municipalities of Malmö, Lund and Landskrona. The study focuses on persons in a middle management position connected to various spheres of activities in each municipality. A survey concerning each municipality's diversity plan, diversity work, recruiting process, education and knowledge was used to investigate the participants' consciousness. The survey poses similar questions regarding equality between the sexes to compare the results from each field. The paper presents an overview of the development of Sweden's labour market and society, and gives an account for the differences between immigrants and natives positions in the labour market. This is both to give an understanding for why it is the way it is today, and to position the paper's investigation and the results in relation to labour markets structures and the national work to integrate immigrants in the labour market. The results of the investigation show that there exists a degree of consciousness in the different municipalities concerning questions about diversity, but it is limited mostly to the quantitative perspective of diversity work, meanwhile consciousness regarding the internal qualitative diversity work appears to be low, which can have a negative impact on immigrants integration at both municipal level and the national level. / Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka medvetenheten kring mångfaldsfrågor i Malmö, Lund och Landskrona kommun. De personer som deltar i undersökningen är mellanchefer från olika verksamhetsområden inom respektive kommun. För att undersöka respondenternas medvetenhet har de fått besvara en enkät som ställer frågor kring respektive kommuns mångfaldsplan, mångfaldsarbete, rekryteringsprocess, utbildning och kunskap. Ungefär samma frågor ställs om jämställdhetsarbetet i syfte att kunna jämföra resultaten angående mångfaldsarbetet med resultaten från jämställdhetsarbetet. Uppsatsen går också igenom Sveriges arbetsmarknads- och samhällsutveckling, samt redogör för det skillnader som finns på arbetsmarknaden mellan invandrade personer och personer födda i Sverige. Detta är först och främst för att ge en bakgrund till varför arbetsmarknaden ser ut som den gör idag samtidigt som det också sätter uppsatsens undersökning i ett större sammanhang, då resultaten från undersökningen kommer att sättas i relation till arbetsmarknadens strukturer och det nationella integrationsarbetet. Undersökningens resultat visar på att det finns en viss medvetenhet om mångfaldsarbetet i kommunerna, men att det samtidigt främst gäller det kvantitativa arbetet, medan medvetenheten om det kvalitativa interna mångfaldsarbetet är låg vilket kan få negativa konsekvenser både för kommunernas integrationsarbete och för det nationella arbetsmarknadsintegrationsarbetet.

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.