Drawing on European Social Survey, the main objective of this essay is to analyse the difference in the probability of being unemployed between natives and foreign born in Sweden. Using traditional statistical methods such as Linear Probability Model (LPM) and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition and controlling for standard socio-economic variables we found that immigrants born in Europe have 5.3 percentage point higher likelihood of being unemployed compared to their Swedish counterpart. Regarding non-European we found that they have 5.2 percentage points higher probability of being unemployed compared to Swedish counterpart. An extension of BlinderOaxaca decomposition suggests that 4.9 percentage points of this gap is due to differences in endowment characteristics between immigrants born in Europe and Swedish counterpart. The difference in the characteristics between nonEuropean and natives amounts to 5.3 percentage points. On the other hand, approximately 1.5 and 10.3 percentage points of the differences in the unemployment probability between immigrants born in Europe and countries outside Europe and Swedish counterpart can be ascribe to different returns to those observable and/or unobservable characteristics that are not captured in the models.

The predicament of rational choice models in politics is seemingly the irrationality of participation in politics activity, in such, by voting. That it is irrational for most of the taxpayers to vote nor to attain education about politics. Some authors propose different approaches to understand why people vote, such as civic duty and civic voluntarism model. This essay examines language barrier and how it affects the voter turnout in Sweden. Furthermore, we observe foreign-born Swedes in Skärholmen region, and ask ourselves: • Should language deficiency lead to lower division? • If those with language shortages still vote, what is important to them? The study shows that people with higher language skills also tend to vote more often than others. And for those who have a lower language skill differs within the group some votes regardless and other abstain. I intend to link my research to existing theories to confront the theories with new empirical knowledge, using a hypothetical-deductive method.

Syftet med studien är ge ett kunskapsbidrag om hur några gymnasielever upplever att deras flerspråkighet inkluderas i svenskundervisningen för att främja språkutvecklingen. För att uppnå syftet har följande frågor besvarats: Hur upplever de inrikes- och utrikesfödda eleverna sin flerspråkighet och hur talar de om sin flerspråkighet? Vilka språkliga aspekter upplever de inrikes- och utrikesfödda eleverna påverkar inlärningar av det svenska språket? Hur upplever de inrikes- och utrikesfödda eleverna att deras flerspråkighet tas tillvara i svenskundervisningen? Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i den sociokulturella teorin där språket har en viktig funktion för elevernas inlärning. Undersökningen bygger på självrapporter och intervjuer i fokusgrupper. Studien inleds med en förundersökning där självrapporterna inhämtar förkunskaper och bakgrundsinformation om eleverna medan intervjuerna utgör den material som presenteras i resultatet. Det innebär att intervjuerna har en framträdande roll i studien. I resultatet framgår det att elevernas flerspråkighet är både en resurs och ett hinder i svenskundervisningen. Vidare synliggörs det i studien att ordförrådet och grammatiken är de främsta faktorerna som påverkar elevernas språkutveckling. Enligt eleverna blir de mer engagerade och motiverade till att lära sig svenska när deras flerspråkighet tas tillvara i undervisningen. Det innebär att elevers flerspråkighet främjar språkutvecklingen. / The aim of the study is to give knowledge about how some high school students perceive their multilingualism to be included when learning the Swedish language in order to encourage their language development. In order to achieve this purpose these questions have been answered: How do the native-born and foreign-born students experience their multilingualism and how do they speak regarding their multilingualism? Which aspects of language do the native-born and foreign-born students perceive to affect their learning of the Swedish language? How do the native-born and foreign-born students perceive their multilingualism to be utilized in Swedish language education? The study is based on the sociocultural theory where the language has an important function for students learning. The survey is based on self-reports and interviews in focus groups. The study begins with a preliminary investigation where the self-reports gather prior knowledge and background information about the students while the interviews constitute the material presented in the results. This means that the interviews have a prominent role in the study. The results show that students' multilingualism is both a resource and an obstacle when learning the Swedish language. Furthermore, the study makes it clear that the vocabulary and grammar are the main factors that affect the students' language development. According to the students, they become more engaged and motivated to learn Swedish when their multilingualism is being utilized in their education. This means that students' multilingualism promotes language development.