<p>The official Swedish interpretation of the concept of citizenship is based on the social-liberal concept of citizenship. According to feminist critique, this interpretation of the concept contains male norms that lead to the exclusion of several groups from full citizenship. There is also a corresponding feminist critique which holds that in the womens´ movement and gender research there are strong norms as well, especially in the form of ethnocentrism. Also, the image of immigrant women in public debate is being questioned and the critics here raise the question of the responsibility of the society for integration. Swedish research on citizenship has focused very little on the situation of immigrant women, and this essay aims at helping to fill this empirical gap. In order to do so, a number of interviews with immigrant women living in Sweden are conducted in order to study how they experience their situation as citizens. These interviews support the view that, in spite of formal rights and possibilities, the citizenship of immigrant women isn´t fully successful. A number of factors in different areas and levels are obstacles to these womens full usage of their citizenship.</p>

<p>To end up as an immigrant in an unknown country and to try to participate in the majority society means both psychological and physical difficulties where their whole life is changing. Gemensamma Krafter is a prevention changing work in a housing area in Borlänge. It works among other things as a meeting place for people from different cultures. The aim with this study was to describe and to get increased understanding for the lives of a number of immigrant women who lives in Borlänge/Sweden and which importance “Gemensamma Krafter” has had for them. Eight women from Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Somalia were interviewed and the material was analyzed on the basis of categorisations of expressed meanings. The results show on a complex picture of these women’s lives in Borlänge. Their experience that Sweden is a safe country with a personal freedom without wars and with social rights as equal as other citizens is obvious but their experience of exclusion, discrimination and everyday racism is always present. The community with compatriots becomes important when one does not become accepted and participating in the majority society. It is in this community where the immigrant women strengthens their own identities and mobilizes the force to a future's faith on work, education and participation in the society. Gemensamma Krafter is described by the women as an oasis, a meeting place where they can be confirmed and accepted for the persons they are. Here they meet Swedish women and get an insight in their world. The study gives an increased knowledge and understanding for the lives of the immigrant women and the importance of natural meeting places in the local society.</p> / <p>Att hamna i ett okänt land och försöka bli delaktig i majoritetssamhället innebär både psykiska och fysiska svårigheter där hela ens livsvärld förändras. Gemensamma Krafter är ett förebyggande förändringsarbete i ett bostadsområde i Borlänge. Det fungerar bl.a. som en mötesplats för människor från olika kulturer. Syftet med studien var att beskriva och få en ökad förståelse för invandrarkvinnors liv i Borlänge/Sverige och vilken betydelse Gemensamma Krafter haft för kvinnorna. Åtta kvinnor från Syrien, Irak, Turkiet och Somalia intervjuades och materialet analyserades utifrån meningskategorisering. Resultatet visar på en komplex bild av dessa kvinnors liv i Borlänge/Sverige. De uttryckte att Sverige är ett tryggt land med frihet utan krig och med sociala rättigheter som andra medborgare men att upplevelsen av utanförskap, diskriminering och vardagsrasism finns ständigt närvarande. Gemenskapen med egna landsmän blir viktig när de inte blir accepterad och delaktig i majoritetssamhället. Det är där de stärker sin egen identitet och mobiliserar kraften till en framtidstro på arbete, utbildning och delaktighet i samhället. Gemensamma Krafter beskrivs av kvinnorna som en oas, en mötesplats där de blir bekräftad och accepterad. Där träffar de svenska kvinnor och får en inblick i deras värld. Studien ger en ökad kunskap och förståelse för invandrarkvinnornas liv och visar på vikten av naturliga mötesplatser i lokalsamhället.</p>

This study presents an account of experiences of recent immigrant women professionals in negotiating labour market opportunities after arriving in Canada. The purpose of this research is to bring in immigrant women’s perspectives on immigration and employment study. Six immigrant women professionals from different cultural backgrounds were interviewed within the framework of qualitative research. Informed by feminist theories, this study intended to make women’s experience in post-arrival integration and settlement more visible and prominent. Research findings indicate both labour market and household factors contributed to shape the labour market experience of immigrant women professionals of recent years. Their experiences reveal the complicated social relations of their doubly burdened and triply oppressed location.

This thesis is about exploring the politics within and around research. The starting point is a European project which ran from late 1997 to the end of 2000. It was called "Self-employment activities concerning women and mi­norities: their success or failure in relation to social citizenship policies" and had as its objective to provide the EU-Commission with recommendations for improved self-employment policies. Background material was comple­mented by interviews with "experts", but the main source of information was in the form of biographical interviews with the self-employed, or for­merly self-employed, themselves. The qualitative method was used as a way of researching how individuals' background and experiences influenced their decision to become self-employed as well as their tendency to use labour market policies available for starting businesses. It was also a way to find out how those policies impacted on the individuals' lives. The conse­quent recommendations included a suggestion for broadening existing policies to comprise social aspects as well as financial allowances, and also the caution that self-employment was perhaps not the best solution to labour market and social exclusion. This latter doubt arose during project work, as did questions about methodology, the role of the researcher, and eventually about the politics that inform research. Only briefly touched upon in the project reports, these issues instead became the basis for the thesis. A reflexive rereading of the Final Report led to a critical examination of the political uses of con­cepts and categories, of how stereotypes affect research, and of the embeddedness in ethnocentric discourses of both research and researcher. The use of postcolonial and feminist theory, discourse analysis and a social constructionist perspective broadened the analytical possibilities and fur­thered understanding of the connections between politics and research. A conclusion is that a comprehensive change in the social order as well as in people's conscience is required to stem ethnic discrimination in society and the perpetuation of stereotypes and preconstructed categories in research. / digitalisering@umu

This study presents an account of experiences of recent immigrant women professionals in negotiating labour market opportunities after arriving in Canada. The purpose of this research is to bring in immigrant women’s perspectives on immigration and employment study. Six immigrant women professionals from different cultural backgrounds were interviewed within the framework of qualitative research. Informed by feminist theories, this study intended to make women’s experience in post-arrival integration and settlement more visible and prominent. Research findings indicate both labour market and household factors contributed to shape the labour market experience of immigrant women professionals of recent years. Their experiences reveal the complicated social relations of their doubly burdened and triply oppressed location.

Inledning: Bröstmjölk är den bästa näringskällan för spädbarn. Alla friska mödrar rekommenderas att exklusivt amma sina barn upp till sex månaders ålder samt därefter fortsätta amma och ge annat födotillägg upp till två års ålder eller längre. Flertalet faktorer kan dock påverka beslutet om att välja att amma eller inte. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersökta iranska invandrarkvinnors uppfattningar och bruk angående amning och bröstmjölksersättning. Metod: En kvalitativ studie med strategiskt urval genomfördes där tio iranska invandrarkvinnor intervjuades. Intervjuerna bestod av tolv frågor och spelades in och sedan transkriberades. Innehållsanalys användes. Resultat: Resultaten delades in i fem kategorier: ”Hälso- sjukvårdskontakt i Sverige och i Iran”, ”Typ av föda som givits barnet”, ”Information och råd angående amning och bröstmjölksersättning”, ”Faktorer som påverkar valet att amma” samt ”Slutgiltig uppfattning angående valet att amma”. Resultaten påvisade bl.a. att samtliga kvinnor hade ammat och introducerat bröstmjölksersättning samt att faktorer som påverkat valet att amma var positiva och negativa. Slutsats: Alla deltagarna i studien hade ammat eftersom de ansåg bröstmjölk var det bästa för barnet. Kvinnorna uppgav att de i efterhand är nöjda med beslutet som togs angående amning och kunde se det hela som en positiv erfarenhet. / Introduction: Breast-milk is the best source of nutrition for infants. Healthy mothers are recommended to exclusively breastfeed their children until they are six months old and then combine with solid food up to two years of age or longer. Many factors can affect the decision to breastfeed. Aim: The aim was to investigate about perception and practice concerning breastfeeding and infant formula among Iranian immigrant women. Method: A qualitative study with strategic selection. Ten Iranian immigrant women were interviewed. The interviews consisted of twelve questions that were recorded and transcribed. Content analysis was used. Result: The result was divided into five categories: “Health-care contact in Sweden and in Iran”, “Type of food given to the baby”, “Information and advice about breastfeeding and infant formula”, “Factors affecting the decision to breastfeed” and “Conclusive perception about breastfeeding”. The result showed for example that all of the women had breastfed and introduced infant formula, and factors that affected there decision to breastfeed was positive and negative. Conclusion: All women had breastfed. They thought that breast-milk is the best for their children and stated satisfaction with their decisions about breastfeeding. They could see it as a good experience.

The internet has revolutionized the way we socialize, and as a consequence the way to love. The new communication technologies have facilitated intercultural relationships. Nowadays family relations are one of the major factors in immigration to European countries. Family relations means persons who arrive as family dependents and in accordance with laws regulating family reunification. This thesis aims to apply the classical assimilation theory stated by Milton Gordon (1964), which formulates a series of assimilation stages through which an individual must pass in order to be completely assimilated. In accordance with this theory, marriage is the final phase for a newcomer to fully incorporate into the host society. Thus, based on this presumption and other contemporary theories, the present study has analysed how women who get involved in intercultural marriages based on internet meeting experience these assimilation stages and evaluated the resources used by respondents to incorporate themselves into Swedish society.The main goal of the study was to determine if jumping to the last stage of assimilation does assure the incorporation in the social or/and labour spheres and the findings demonstrate that even though husbands are a valuable resource for assimilation, several cultural issues in Swedish society make it difficult to assure success for the newcomers.On the other hand, Sweden is a country with a strong national sentiment and the assimilation of immigrants still is an important issue to deal with. The Swedish Integration Board has disappeared and major projects for integration have been left in the hands of the municipalities or the Migration Board, institutions that still do not know how to deal with this dilemma.

Att vara en äldre invandrare i ett nytt land kan påverka erfarenheten och åtagandet i människors vardagliga aktiviteter. Det är ett flertal olika faktorer som påverkar delaktigheten av aktiviteter i det dagliga livet. Förändringar i det vardagliga livet kan leda till att aktiviteter, struktur, syfte och motivation förändras eller till och med försvinner. Studiens syfte var att beskriva aktiviteter i dagligt liv hos äldre invandrarkvinnor från forna Jugoslavien men även att beskriva vad som motiverar dem att utföra de aktiviteter som de gör.Till studien valdes en kvantitativ design med kvalitativa inslag eftersom den baserades på ett strukturerat intervjuformulär med två tilläggsfrågor. Studiens resultat visade att ett flertal deltagare har förändrat sina dagliga aktiviteter och att saknad efter den sociala gemenskapen har medfört ett mer inaktivt liv. Detta i sin tur har inneburit att aktiviteter i dagligt liv har anpassats eftersom flytten till ett nytt land har medfört en högre aktivitetsnivå. För några av deltagarna har förändringen även bidragit till glädje. Resultatet visade även hur förändringarna har bemästrats genom att deltagarna har hittat nya motivationer i vardagen. Majoriteten av deltagarna har visat att de klarar av att hantera omställningen men även att de har återfått kontroll i vardagen i samband med förändringen. / Being an older immigrant in a new country can affect the experience and commitment in people's everyday activities. There are several different factors that influence participation in activities of daily life. Changes in everyday life can lead to activities, structure, purpose and motivation to change or even disappear. The study aims to describe the activities of daily life in elderly women immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, but also to describe what motivates them to perform the activities that they do.The study was elected a quantitative design with qualitative elements because it was based on a structured interview form, with two additional questions. The study results exposed that several participants have changed their daily activities and missing for the social community has resulted in a more inactive lifestyle, which in turn has meant that the activities of daily life have been adapted since the move to a new country has led to a higher activity level. For some participants, the changes also contributed with pleasure. The result also exposed how the changes have been dealt with by locating new motivations in everyday life. The majority of participants have shown perseverance but also that they have regained control of everyday life in connection with the change.

Immigrant women are frequently found to have higher fertility relative to women in the majority population. This is often attributed to their socioeconomic characteristics, cultural preferences and patterns of childbearing, and adaptation to the destination context. However, several limitations in the research to date may mask the associations and processes which shape women’s fertility: 1) frequently used indicators are not sensitive to the way in which fertility is shaped by the migration process 2) key proximate determinants of fertility are often not integrated into analyses and 3) non‐migrant women in sending countries are often excluded as a reference for immigrant women’s childbearing behavior. In order to assess how women’s migratory moves and social context affect fertility, I compare the risk of first birth and patterns of contraceptive use at higher‐order parities for non‐migrant, immigrant and native‐born women. For these analyses, I use data from nationally‐representative surveys of reproductive health and family formation from Mexico, the United States, Turkey and Germany. The results from these analyses demonstrate that both foreign‐born Mexican‐ and Turkish‐origin immigrant women experience first birth earlier than non-migrants, second generation immigrants, and native-born women at destination. However the underlying determinants of earlier birth are different for these two groups. There are also differences for second generation women; US-born Mexicans experience first birth at significantly younger ages than whites, whereas age at first birth is very similar for German-born Turkish women and ethnic Germans. Furthermore, patterns of contraceptive use among immigrant women who have at least one child are notably different than patterns observed for non-migrants. US-born women have similar contraceptive use compared to whites, but Mexican-born women are less likely to use permanent and highly effective methods, even after controlling for fertility intentions. Turkish-origin women in Germany exhibit large differences in contraceptive use relative to non-migrant women, particularly the very low reported use of withdrawal. These findings indicate that fertility determinants vary across origin and destination context. The observed differences between Mexican- and Turkish-origin women suggest that distinct processes of migration, socialization, and access to contraception lead to variation in the fertility outcomes for these two groups. / text

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