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.

There is an on going debate in academia on the health of immigrants in their host countries. Many studies have indicated that immigrants tend to have poor health as compared to the native born population. Researchers in this field however hold divergent views on the causes of the poor health of immigrants. One school of thought attributes poor health of immigrants to premigration period. The contenders of this theory argue that during this period immigrants experience and are subjected to hardships which will affect their health later on in their lives. On the other hand, some researchers view post migration period as an ultimate determinant of the poor health of immigrants in their host country. These researchers ascertain that during this period immigrants are faced with many challenges of adaptation and most often lack good integration in their host countries which hampers their health. The aim of this study is to explore and describe the impact of migration and integration on the health of African immigrants in the Swedish society. A combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods was used to collect and analyze data with the help of the “triangulation “technique. A structured questionnaire was used as a guideline to the in-depth interviews conducted with African immigrants who have lived in Sweden for a period of five to twenty years and plus. Twentyfive African immigrants from fourteen African countries took part in this research. This study was conducted in the city of Linköping in Sweden. Results from this study revealed that majority of African immigrants self rated their health as being good. Many affirm to be in good health. However, a majority of African immigrants reported psychosomatic symptoms such as stress, fatigue, and other illnesses such as high blood pressure, and diabetes. It was also observed that African immigrants hardly seek medical help except when necessary. Health as defined by immigrants is “a combination of physical and mental well being”,” health is ” happiness and joy”, health is “self realization and self esteem”, health is “vitality”, Health is a “sine qua non condition to good life”. However mastery of the Swedish language, and flexible opportunities, which will enable immigrants to access the labor market and be self-sufficient, may improve the immigrants health condition. Also integration of immigrants’ health professionals in the Swedish health care system may be a vital tool to encourage immigrants to seek health attention and improve their health condition.

<p>There is an on going debate in academia on the health of immigrants in their host countries. Many studies have indicated that immigrants tend to have poor health as compared to the native born population. Researchers in this field however hold divergent views on the causes of the poor health of immigrants. One school of thought attributes poor health of immigrants to premigration period. The contenders of this theory argue that during this period immigrants experience and are subjected to hardships which will affect their health later on in their lives. On the other hand, some researchers view post migration period as an ultimate determinant of the poor health of immigrants in their host country. These researchers ascertain that during this</p><p>period immigrants are faced with many challenges of adaptation and most often lack good integration in their host countries which hampers their health.</p><p>The aim of this study is to explore and describe the impact of migration and integration on the health of African immigrants in the Swedish society. A combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods was used to collect and analyze data with the help of the “triangulation “technique. A structured questionnaire was used as a guideline to the in-depth interviews conducted with African immigrants who have lived in Sweden for a period of five to twenty</p><p>years and plus. Twentyfive African immigrants from fourteen African countries took part in this research. This study was conducted in the city of Linköping in Sweden.</p><p>Results from this study revealed that majority of African immigrants self rated their health as being good. Many affirm to be in good health. However, a majority of African immigrants reported psychosomatic symptoms such as stress, fatigue, and other illnesses such as high blood pressure, and diabetes. It was also observed that African immigrants hardly seek medical help except when necessary. Health as defined by immigrants is “a combination of physical and</p><p>mental well being”,” health is ” happiness and joy”, health is “self realization and self esteem”, health is “vitality”, Health is a “sine qua non condition to good life”. However mastery of the Swedish language, and flexible opportunities, which will enable immigrants to access the labor market and be self-sufficient, may improve the immigrants health condition. Also integration of immigrants’ health professionals in the Swedish health care system may be a vital tool to</p><p>encourage immigrants to seek health attention and improve their health condition.</p>

In this analysis, the aim is to investigate the embodiment and transmission of identity among Swedish female converts to Islam. The examination centers on the position these women occupy in both Swedish society and the Muslim community, and whether they experience a state of “in-betweenness” due to identity conflicts. The focus is also on how Swedish female converts, who are ethnically Swedish, can become perceived as “the Other” within their own society, rooted in concepts of “Swedishness”. Assessing the position of Muslim female converts in Sweden is crucial as they frequently confront prejudiced attitudes and discrimination from both Swedish society and the Muslim community. Simultaneously, they may be considered “traitors” by Swedish society due to their conversion to Islam, resulting in a complex identity conflict where these women find themselves situated between cultures and societies. Hence, finding themselves in a position of “in-betweenness”. This essay endeavors to shed light on the difficulties and opportunities that Swedish Muslim female converts encounter, as well as to examine how they navigate their identity in a Swedish context and how they undergo a transformation from being “part of the majority” to “the Other”.

This investigation is about how the Civic Orientation Course within Umeåregionen has been received among newly arrived refugees. The purpose of the essay is to research how the Civic Orientation has worked within the Umeåregion with focus on the municipality of Umeå, with both a perspective of transmitter and receiver. The Civic Orientation Course is a legal right for all refugees between 18-64 years in Sweden and it is an introduction to the Swedish society. To do this, interviews have been done with one Social Consultant from Umeå kommun and three newly arrived refugees. The requirements on interviewed newly arrived refugees have been that they have finished the Civic Orientation course and are over 18 years. To answer the investigation questions; what kind of information and through which communication channels have Umeå kommun addressed their communication to newly arrived refugees, how have the information from Umeå kommun been received among the newly arrived refugees and how cultural and social differences may matter in the receiving of the information, three theories have been used; orientalism by Said, Shannon and Weaver “Model of Communication” and the Encoding/Decoding by Hall. The result shows that language is the largest barrier for newly arrived refugees to interact within the Swedish society, even though it is not the purpose of the Civic Orientation to teach Swedish the course has to give ideas about where interaction can happen with other Swedes. Overall social and cultural experiences have been the purpose to the distance between refugees and Swedes. The interviewed are pleased with the course and the teachers but lack information about how they in certain specific situations are supposed to act in the Swedish society.

Earlier research have portrayed Afro-Swedes’ situation in mostly negative terms and have often concentrated on just one or a few spheres of society. Success stories are overridden by examples of discrimination. This research aim to contribute to a broader picture and asks how the situation of Afro-Swedes as a minority group in the Swedish society could be understood. This qualitative desk study uses the framework from Hans-Ingvar Roth’s book Mångkulturalismens utmaningar (2005) [Challenges of Multiculturalism], to answer this questions. This research shows that Afro-Swedes experience positive and/or negative distance and/or inclusion within twelve identified spheres of society. Sometimes both positive and negative inclusion/distance is present even in the same sphere. The analysis of this research suggests that Afro-Swedes as a minority is rather distanced than included in the Swedish society, no matter if it is voluntary or not. This research do not neglect the discrimination or racism that many Afro-Swedes witness about, however, it supplements the more often negative picture presented. It does so by showing a more complex image where positive – as well as negative – elements of Afro-Swedes’ situation can be found in the Swedish society.

The purpose of this study is to identify the problems that immigrant women face when attempting to integrate in the Swedish society. The investigation seeks to scrutinize the aspects that facilitate in this process of integration for non-Swedish women and whether the administrative authorities responsible for handling matters of integration does so in an efficient way? This is a qualitative study where a bottom-up approach has been implemented. The study revolves around 5 interviews that have been conducted with immigrant women, who have narrated their situation from which a number of aspects have been chosen to highlight the integration problems that have risen in Sweden. These factors that have been identified in the study are: ‘cultural differences’, ‘gender roles’, ‘discrimination’, the importance of the language’, residential segregation’ and ‘the roles of the administrative authorities’. The empirical evidence drawn from the before mentioned interviews has been combined with theoretical material in order to strengthen the credibility of the study. The thesis ends with a concluding discussion where emphasis has been put on evaluating the findings of the thesis and aiming to provide an answer to the research questions. The conclusion and thus the results of the study displays that the Swedish government has indeed taken measures to improve the situation. Yet, issues such as societal and institutional discrimination, residential segregation and cultural barriers between groups remain evident, creating immense difficulties for the immigrants to become part of the Swedish society. / Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera de problem som invandrade kvinnor möter i integreringen i det svenska samhället. Undersökningen ifrågasätter aspekter som underlättar icke-svenska kvinnors integration i det svenska samhället och om de administrativa myndigheterna hanterar integrationsfrågorna på ett effektivt sätt? Detta är en kvalitativ studie, där ett bottom-up-strategi har tillämpats. Studien kretsar kring 5 intervjuer som har genomförts med invandrarkvinnor, som har återberättat sin situation från vilket ett antal aspekter har valts för att lyfta upp de integrations problem som har uppstått i Sverige. De faktorer som har identifierats i studien är: "kulturella skillnader", "könsroller", "diskriminering", betydelsen av språket, “boende segregation” och de "administrativa myndigheternas roller". Den empiriska delen har kombinerats med den teoretiska för att stärka trovärdigheten i studien. Uppsatsen avslutas med en sammanfattande diskussion där vikt har lagts på att utvärdera resultaten av uppsatsen och syftar åt att tillhandahålla ett svar på frågeställningarna. Slutsatsen av denna studie påvisar att den svenska regeringen förvisso har vidtagit åtgärder för att förbättra situationen, men att frågor som samhällelig och institutionell diskriminering, bostads segregation och kulturella barriärer mellan grupper fortsätter att existera, vilket skapar svårigheter för invandrare att bli en del av det svenska samhället.