This thesis consists of three papers studying the economic situation of immigrants in Sweden in terms of wage earnings, labor participation and family internal migration. Paper [I] (http://www.econ.umu.se/ues/ues622.html) studies the determinants of the wage earnings for immigrants from different countries, and secondly whether their wage earnings converge to those of comparable native-born Swedes. The study is based on a longitudinal dataset, and the data refers to 1991 and 1995, respectively. The empirical results indicate that immigrants in Sweden are heterogeneous, and different income determinants, such as education, cohortspecific factors and time of residence, affect different groups of immigrants in different ways. Even after 20 years of residence, almost none of the groups appear to reach the same level of earnings as natives. In particular, the earnings of immigrants from typical refugee-sending countries tend to be much lower. Paper [II] (http://www.econ.umu.se/ues/ues623.html) examines whether the transition probability from employment to non-employment among married immigrant women is consistent with the Family Investment Hypothesis (FIH). A dynamic random effects model is used and the estimations are based on a longitudinal database covering the period 1990-1996. The results indicate that the relationship between the transition probability from employment to nonemployment and the family’s time of residence in Sweden, considered here as an indication of the husband’s need for host country-specific human capital, does not seem to be consistent with the interpretation of the FIH. Further, when immigrant women married to native-born Swedes are used as a comparison group, the corresponding relationship is similar despite the fact that this group should not need to apply family investment strategy. Paper [III] (http://www.econ.umu.se/ues/ues624.html) uses a longitudinal dataset from the years 1995 and 2000, respectively, this study examines whether migration within the host country of Sweden generates higher total annual income for (two-earner) immigrant families. The empirical findings indicate that internal migration generates a positive outcome in terms of higher family income for newly arrived refugee-immigrant families. Further, with the length of residence in the host country, the monetary gain accruing from internal migration decreases. On the other hand, I could not find similar results for immigrant families from the Nordic countries, Europe and Asia.

This thesis investigated the relationship between subjective uncertainty, threat, and psychological and behavioural acculturation from the perspective of well-educated Canadian women who emigrated from Asia. In the first study, 153 women completed a questionnaire. These women lived in Canada for an average of 17 years, and were proficient in English. In the second study, in-depth qualitative interviews with three women who scored high and three women who scored low on the cultural uncertainty scale in the first study illustrated how women describe uncertainty in their lives. Subjective uncertainty reduction theory (SURT) posits that higher uncertainty leads to stronger group identification. However, Study 1 and Study 2 contradicted SURT, in that higher certainty was related to stronger cultural and Canadian identities. Women in this research identified strongly with their cultural group and as Canadians, they reported low levels of uncertainty, and they did not feel very threatened. Womens stories from Study 2 illustrate these findings. Moreover, threat and uncertainty were not related, suggesting that they are two conceptually different constructs. In Study 1, uncertainty and threat significantly contributed to the prediction of womens strength of social identifications after controlling for background variables, providing support for social identity theory. As well, Study 1 and Study 2 found support for the bidimensional approach to acculturation, remooring of cultural identity, and the compatibility of womens cultural and Canadian identities. These findings are consistent with past research, and suggest that women had very secure cultural and Canadian identities. The six interviews demonstrated the breadth and idiosyncratic nature of womens experiences. However, several themes revealed that social identifications served three functions for women: enhanced self-esteem, ingroup cooperation and cohesion, and social interactions. Whether these motives are derivatives of subjective uncertainty needs further investigation. Taken together, these results suggest that SURT may be more applicable as a theory of adaptation, in that the initial adjustment period may induce high uncertainty and insecure social identifications. More broadly, the findings suggest continued application of theory to real-life settings is critical to the investigation of the motivational dynamics of identity choice and maintenance.

SAMMANFATTNING Bakgrund: Livmoderhalscancer orsakas av humant papillomvirus (HPV). De flesta fallen inträffar bland kvinnor som inte deltar i preventionsprogram mot livmoderhalscancer. Syfte: Att undersöka invandrarkvinnors inställning till prevention av livmoderhalscancer. Metod: En explorativ kvalitativ studie. The Health Belief Model har använts som teoretisk modell. Fem fokusgruppintervjuer med 32 kvinnor ålder 18-54 år, som studerade svenska för invandrare. Data analyserades med latent innehållsanalys. Resultat: De temata som kunde urskiljas var svårigheterna med kommunikation med sjukvården, positiva till hälso- kontroll, behov av information för att fatta beslut samt ojämlikhet mellan könen. Kvinnorna i studien var mycket positiva till prevention av livmoderhalscancer och hade hög tilltro till det svenska sjukvårdssystemet. De poängterade i synnerhet kontakten med barnmorska. Deltagarna hade överlag svårigheter med information från sjukvården och saknade kunskap och information om HPV för att kunna fatta beslut om prevention av livmoderhalscancer med HPV- vaccin. Det framkom även att kulturella skillnader och ojämlikhet mellan könen påverkade inställning till prevention av livmoderhalscancer. Slutsats: Informanterna var positiva till prevention av livmoderhalscancer och vill få adekvat kunskap och information om sjukdomen men de har svårigheter med kontakten med sjukvården. Sjukvårdspersonal behöver beakta att kulturella normer påverkar kvinnors inställning till deltagande i det nationella preventionsprogrammet av livmoderhalscancer. / ABSTRACT Background: Cervical cancer is caused by Human papillomavirus (HPV). Most cases occur among women who don’t attend prevention programs. Objective: To explore immigrant women’s attitude towards prevention of cervical cancer. Method: An exploratory qualitative study. The Health Belief Model (HBM) has been used as a theoretical model. Five focus groups interviews with 32 women age 18-54, who studied Swedish for immigrants. Data was analyzed with content analysis. Results: Four main themes were found: difficulties to communicate with healthcare, positive to health control, the need of information to make a decision and inequalities among genders. The informants were positive to prevention of cervical cancer and had high confidence in the Swedish health care system. They appreciated in particular the meeting with the midwife. They had difficulty understanding the information from health care and had inadequate knowledge about HPV to make decisions about prevention of cervical cancer. Cultural differences and inequalities among genders were also related to prevention of cervical cancer. Conclusion: The informants were positive to prevention of cervical cancer and want to have adequate information about the disease. Healthcare professionals should consider that difficulties in contact with healthcare as well as inequalities in gender and cultural aspects have an impact on immigrant women’s attitude to prevention of cervical cancer. / HPV-projektet

This thesis investigated the relationship between subjective uncertainty, threat, and psychological and behavioural acculturation from the perspective of well-educated Canadian women who emigrated from Asia. In the first study, 153 women completed a questionnaire. These women lived in Canada for an average of 17 years, and were proficient in English. In the second study, in-depth qualitative interviews with three women who scored high and three women who scored low on the cultural uncertainty scale in the first study illustrated how women describe uncertainty in their lives. Subjective uncertainty reduction theory (SURT) posits that higher uncertainty leads to stronger group identification. However, Study 1 and Study 2 contradicted SURT, in that higher certainty was related to stronger cultural and Canadian identities. Women in this research identified strongly with their cultural group and as Canadians, they reported low levels of uncertainty, and they did not feel very threatened. Womens stories from Study 2 illustrate these findings. Moreover, threat and uncertainty were not related, suggesting that they are two conceptually different constructs. In Study 1, uncertainty and threat significantly contributed to the prediction of womens strength of social identifications after controlling for background variables, providing support for social identity theory. As well, Study 1 and Study 2 found support for the bidimensional approach to acculturation, remooring of cultural identity, and the compatibility of womens cultural and Canadian identities. These findings are consistent with past research, and suggest that women had very secure cultural and Canadian identities. The six interviews demonstrated the breadth and idiosyncratic nature of womens experiences. However, several themes revealed that social identifications served three functions for women: enhanced self-esteem, ingroup cooperation and cohesion, and social interactions. Whether these motives are derivatives of subjective uncertainty needs further investigation. Taken together, these results suggest that SURT may be more applicable as a theory of adaptation, in that the initial adjustment period may induce high uncertainty and insecure social identifications. More broadly, the findings suggest continued application of theory to real-life settings is critical to the investigation of the motivational dynamics of identity choice and maintenance.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze the reasons and consequences of international labor migration of women workers into Turkey. With the process of new global restructuring, transformations in production structure and labor organization, and rise of informal economy widen the gap between different geographies and generate a tied demand and supply relation between female labor and service sector. Today millions of women who suffer from poverty leave their countries in order to sell their labor in another country. Turkey has been a popular destination for women from post-Soviet countries since the 1980s. Many of them enter Turkey legally in accordance with Turkish visa requirements but become illegal by overstaying and working in country. Service sectors absorb this female labor, and many of them are employed as live-in domestic workers. This study aims to investigate how macro factors of international migration like global restructuring and transformations in the informal economy affects meso and micro structures. In this context, this study focuses on the formation of intermediary agencies and particularly individual migratory experiences of post-Soviet women in Ankara.

During the past four decades researchers note that educational institutions fail to “connect” with minority students (e.g. Clark, 1983; Coelho, 1998; Dei, 1994; Duffy, 2003; Ogbu, 1978, 1991). Carr and Klassen (1996) define this lack of “connection” primarily as teachers’ disregard for each student’s culture as it relates to race, and thus, his or her achievement potential. Hence, this disregard encourages minority students to question their ability to be successful. Dei (1994), furthermore, shows a tremendous disconnectedness from schools and education systems being felt by Black students. Few studies give voice to specific groups of Black female high school graduates who opt out of pursuing higher education. I interviewed four Black Guyanese immigrant women to: (a) investigate their reasons and expectations when immigrating to Canada, (b) identify what influenced their decision not to pursue postsecondary education, (c) explore their definitions of success, and (d) investigate how/if their notions of success relate to obtaining postsecondary education in Canada. Critical Race Theory (CRT) was employed in this study to: (a) provide a better understanding of the participants’ classroom dynamics governed by relationships with their teachers, guidance counsellors and school administrators, (b) examine educational outcomes governed by personal and educational relationships and experiences, and (c) provide conceptual tools in the investigation of colour-blindness (Parker & Roberts, 2005) that is disguised in Canadian education, immigration, and other government policies. To support my investigation, I used CRT to guide the research design, modes of documentation, and the process of analysis. It is hoped that my findings and analysis enriches the academy and society by communicating why there is a scarcity of Black Guyanese immigrant women in Canadian postsecondary institutions, making recommendations, to increase their participation in higher education. This study communicates the experiences of four Black Guyanese immigrant women in Canada. It does not intend to make generalizations about the experiences of all Black Guyanese immigrant women in Canada. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-27 11:29:04.43

What is integration? How is integration achieved and to whom is it directed? And how is integration implemented in respect to immigrant women? This thesis examines ideas concerning integration and the policy and practice of integration on the basis of a set of policies which include Swedish society as “multicultural”, with the focus on immigrant women. Integration as a political project exists at a national level in Sweden but also in most of Sweden’s municipalities. This study concentrates mainly on the local level. Four medium-sized Swedish municipalities with differing conditions, political governance, geographical location and immigration history have been selected for a study of how integration is implemented and how ideas about integration also produce and reproduce both local and national space. Various political documents on integration and interviews with politicians, officials and immigrant women form the basis of a study of how integration is achieved as seen from the positions of different actors at the municipal level and how similarities and differences are constructed and expressed in the example of integration. Conceptions regarding similarities and differences on the basis of gender and ethnicity in an imagined Swedish space, but also in more local spaces, have been central to an understanding of the phenomena studied in the thesis, given that at the core of a policy of integration lie differences that need to be integrated. The theoretical points of departure in the thesis are the ideas of Henri Lefebvre regarding the production of space, which are combined with theories inspired by gender theory and phenomenology to illustrate the individual and physical aspects of the process. A model of the complexity of creating spatiality is devised from this theoretical basis and is used throughout the thesis both as an analytical tool and as an instrument for creating structure. On the basis of the study it is concluded that integration may be likened to a space of similarity, as integration is construed by means of different metaphors as a move from something “outside” to Sweden, as a room to be entered. The policy and practice of integration, as it has so far functioned, is shown to be based on a (dis)similarity paradox in that integration is constructed on a discourse of similarity at the same time as assumptions and constructions of difference are a fundamental point of departure for the policy objectives.

Ce travail porte sur le phénomène de l’immigration en Espagne et son impact dans la société espagnole contemporaine. L’étude de l’arrivée de nombreux migrants en Espagne permet en effet de rendre compte de l’évolution de la société espagnole: D’une part en analysant comment et pourquoi un pays traditionnellement exportateur de main d’œuvre a pu attirer des immigrants; d’autre part en observant ce que l’Espagne a fait pour intégrer ces flux migratoires. L’analyse de ce phénomène se fait à travers un prisme particulier, celui des femmes roumaines. Les Roumains sont depuis quelques années la première nationalité étrangère en Espagne. Je présente ici les différentes étapes de l’immigration roumaine et ses caractéristiques, et enquête auprès de migrantes roumaines. Je veux en effet, à travers leur expérience, mettre en lumière certains aspects importants de la société espagnole contemporaine (dans la mesure où ils sont révélateurs de l’attitude de cette société face à des problèmes nouveaux). Je m’intéresse également à quelques cas particuliers, afin de présenter l’immigration roumaine dans toute sa diversité: j’analyse l’immigration des Roumaines roms et reviens également sur la situation de femmes roumaines en situation de marginalisation: les Roumaines victimes de réseaux de proxénétisme, et les Roumaines détenues en Espagne. Par ailleurs, il m’a semblé tout aussi essentiel de déterminer la vision que la société espagnole a des immigrés, et en particulier des Roumains à travers l’analyse d’un corpus journalistique qui reflète la période comprise entre la fin des années 90 et 2013, et complète cette analyse de l’immigration roumaine. Dans les années 50, des flux migratoires d’un tout autre ordre se sont dirigés vers l’Espagne franquiste: J’évoque l’exil en Espagne, sujet encore très inédit et très rarement objet de recherches. Ce travail, qui porte essentiellement sur l’immigration en Espagne, présente, en outre une comparaison ponctuelle avec la situation en France Cette brève analyse permet de comparer et de nuancer ce qui, dans l’expérience migratoire des Roumaines en Espagne et en France est semblable ou foncièrement différent. / This survey focuses on the immigration phenomenon in Spain and its impact on contemporary Spanish society. Studying how numerous immigrants have been settling in Spain is a way to account for the evolution of Spanish society: on the one hand by analysing how and why a country that traditionally used to export its labour-force could attract immigrants; and on the other hand by examining how Spain has been managing these influxes. This phenomenon shall be approached thanks to the case of Romanian women. For the last couple of years, Romanians have been the largest group of foreign nationals in Spain. I shall herein set to describe the various stages and characteristics of Romanian immigration in Spain, as well as report on a survey conducted with Romanian women. Through their experience, I thus wish to highlight some important aspects of contemporary Spanish society, insofar as they are relevant to this society's attitude towards new issues, and the solutions it brings out. So as to display the full diversity of Romanian immigration, I shall focus on some specific cases such as: the immigration of Roma women, but also the situation of women at risk, like victims of prostitution rings, or Romanian women being detained in Spanish prisons. Moreover, it seems to me just as important to find out what image Spanish society has been forming about immigrants, and especially about Romanians, thanks to the analysis of a body of media material dealing with the period going from the end of the 1990s to 2013, and thus completing this study of Romanian immigration. In the 1950s, a very different type of migration was reaching Franco's Spain, in other words: exile into Spain, a subject which I turn to, still rarely touched upon or being researched into. This study which centres primarily on immigration into Spain, also briefly draws a comparison with the situation in France, in order to examine what may or may not be similar in Romanian women's experience of migration in Spain or France.

Cette thèse étudie les formes de subjectivation produites au cours des parcours de soins de femmes enceintes primo-arrivantes – étrangères arrivées depuis moins de cinq ans sur le territoire français. L’enquête de terrain s’appuie sur des observations au sein de structures de soins à Paris et en Seine-Saint-Denis, ainsi que sur une soixantaine d’entretiens semi-directifs menés avec des professionnelles de la périnatalité et des femmes primo-arrivantes enceintes ou ayant accouché récemment en Île-de-France. À partir de ce travail ethnographique, la thèse analyse de manière intersectionnelle les effets subjectivants de l’entrée dans des dispositifs médico-sociaux dédiés aux femmes enceintes primo-arrivantes. Alors que dans un premier temps, l’annonce de la grossesse fragilise les conditions de vie de ces sujets déjà exclus en France, les femmes primo-arrivantes acquièrent en revanche une légitimité auprès des institutions médicales du fait de leur grossesse. Identifiées comme public à risque prioritaire par les politiques de santé publique, ces femmes sont orientées vers des prises en charge spécifiques, qui participent à les reconnaitre en tant que sujets. La thèse interroge les effets réifiants de cette reconnaissance : reconnues uniquement grâce à leur corps enceint, ces femmes connaissent une forme d’assignation racialisée à la maternité. Dans ce contexte, les femmes enceintes primo-arrivantes peuvent en venir à mobiliser leur corps enceint comme ressource pour limiter les effets de la domination. En définitive, la thèse donne à voir les mécanismes d’altérisation ethno-raciale opérés par les professionnelles de santé et les pratiques de résistance des usagères au sein des dispositifs dédiés. / This thesis studies subjectification’ process produced during the care path of pregnant newly arrived immigrants – foreigners who arrived for less than five years in France. The field study is based on observations in health care structures in Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis, and sixty semi-directive interviews with perinatal health professionals and newly arrived immigrant women, pregnant or who have just given birth, in Île-de-France. From this ethnographic study, the thesis analyses, with an intersectional perspective, the entrance in perinatal dedicated health structures and their effects on newly arrived immigrants’ subjectivities. At first, the announcement of pregnancy can degrade their living conditions in a context where they are excluded in France. However, they acquire a legitimacy with health care institutions because of their pregnancy. Targeted as public at risk by the perinatal public policies, these women are guided into dedicated healthcare facilities, which recognize them as subjects. The thesis interrogates the reifying effects of this type of recognition. The newly arrived immigrant women are recognized only through their pregnancy; they experience a racialized assignment to maternity. They develop incorporated strategies to counter mechanisms of domination, by using their pregnant body as a resource. Finally, the thesis analyses racialization mechanisms inside the health care structures and users’ practices of resistance.

Low-income Hispanic women are the fastest growing minority population in the United States, and they have increased risks of obesity and secondary health issues, such as diabetes, related to their obesity. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the barriers to lifestyle change among obese, low-income Hispanic women (OLHW). A health belief model lens was used. The study sample consisted of 15 OLHW who were clinic patients and ranged in age from 20-59. Recruitment occurred in a low-income, Southern California, outpatient clinic setting through volunteer participation from recruitment flyers. Fifteen women took part in 1-hour, in-depth interviews, which were digitally audio-taped with their consent. All interviews were transcribed and analyzed using both NVivo 11, and hand coding to identify common themes after word frequency and concept frequency analysis. Common themes identified included barriers of cost, time, physical health, family care, location, knowledge and education, depression and stress, and sleep issues. These findings contribute to the existing literature by increasing public health researchers' and program planners' knowledge of the experiences and obesity-related barriers to health behavior change within this underrepresented minority group, which can provide guidelines for future public health interventions in addressing these barriers. Obesity reduction efforts may help increase quality of life and create a new paradigm of public health interventions based on the stated needs of OLHW.