This is a thesis conducted in San José, Costa Rica during two months in the spring of 2021. The purpose of this study is to explore what factors are causing migration from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, if the migration has included discrimination in any form and to what extend the staff at the non-governmental organizations Dale una mano a tu hermano (Give your brother a hand), and Ticos y Nicas (costaricans and nicaraguans) somos hermanos (Ticos y Nicas, are brothers) find their vision of integrating Nicaraguan refugees into Costa Rica possible.  The data for this project was collected through semi structured interviews with staff members at the non-governmental organizations “Dale una mano a tu hermano”, “Ticos y Nicas somos hermanos” and migrants from Nicaragua. The concepts of The Rational Choice Theory, Lee’s Push and Pull Migration Theory, and Hall’s theory of the “Other” was used as a theoretical framework to the thesis. The conclusion of this study is that migration from one country to another is caused by several factors, that migration can lead to discrimination in any form, and that the mentioned non-governmental organizations still find their work of integrating migrants into Costa Rica hard.

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Migration to Sweden and integration of immigrants in Sweden is an ongoing subject in politics and the media. Swedish people migrating to other countries that have different cultures and values is not as talked about. One example of such a country is Japan which has experienced a drastic demographic change in the last decades with a growing elderly population. Japan has a restrictive migration policy and while the easiest way of solving this issue is allowing more migrants into the country, little has been done to change policies so far. This study aims to explore what experiences Swedish migrants in Japan have in their everyday life. What challenges do they face? To explore this the study focuses on their experiences of contact with Japan’s public sector, workplaces, and relationships with Japanese people. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with Swedish people that all had experience of living and working in Japan. The results show that the respondents generally have a positive experience of Japan’s public sector, while they wish there were more English-speaking staff. They also critiqued Japan’s restrictive migration policies. In the workplaces they also had generally positive experiences. They talked about cultural differences they encountered and that they had to adapt how they behaved in certain ways. When it came to relationships with Japanese people it was a mixed bag. While they all had Japanese friends, and some had Japanese partners, they all felt that it was difficult to get close to or befriend Japanese people. Several of the respondents also experienced different types of discrimination and harassment. None of the respondents felt fully integrated into Japanese society, where some of them wanted to feel fully integrated, while some were happy the way it was.

Approximately eight people have died every single day since January 1, 2014 attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Put another way, more than 23,000 migrants have met their end in the Mediterranean while attempting to enter the European Union. Yet, it has not always been this way. Dangerous and lethal Mediterranean crossings have been on the rise since the 1990’s as a result of more restrictive EU migration policies and increasing conflict and unsettlement in the Middle East and North Africa regions. This thesis seeks to understand how and why death has become a hallmark of the Mediterranean Sea by examining the laws relevant to the Sea. To do so, this work examines three case studies: the Successful Crossing, where a migrant vessel safely crosses the Mediterranean; the Thwarted Crossing, where a vessel is intercepted while crossing; and, the Failed Crossing, where a migrant vessel sinks or is pushed back from safety. The most relevant international, EU, and state laws are then contrasted with these case studies to determine if the vessels and the government actors around the vessel behaved according to the law or not. Across all three case studies, government actors violated some level of law (international, EU, or state.) In most cases, these violations are stipulated by another level of law (e.g., state laws allow for violations of international laws,) demonstrating a mismatch between the three levels of laws. In other cases, there is absolutely no legal support for the actions that have created so many deaths in the Mediterranean. Such violations are often met with impunity for the operators. This thesis documents such violations and then reflects on why the laws are built and broken in these ways. Subsequently, this thesis then recommends pathways to reform the laws in-line with human rights norms.

Sweden continues to prioritise highly-skilled migration while restricting low-skilled migration, idealising the highly-skilled migrant as being easier to integrate into the labour market and into Swedish society at large. This project answers to these assumptions by investigating the lived experiences of highly-skilled female migrants in Sweden through the lens of social capital theory. Through qualitative analysis, this project aims to determine what barriers or privileges exist for the subject-group when accessing and utilising social capital, focusing on the aspects of social networking and relationship building.

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Speaking to the people is part of politics. But, who are the people? In populistic and nationalistic discourse, the people is constructed against either the elite or the people outside the nation, "the people" is created in opposition to those who are not the people. This thesis examines political manifestos in Sweden during the election years of 2014 and 2018 to investigate how the political parties in the Swedish Parliament construct and speak to the people, whom they exclude from the people and how the discourse changes between the two election years. During the year 2015, Sweden, together with the rest of Europe, had a socalled refugee crisis. An understanding of populism in relation to crises is that it is increasing. This thesis examines, without claiming a causal link, a potential discursive change between the two election years that took place before and after the refugee crisis.