The main objective of the graduation thesis "Failure of Integration Policies in Europe: a Multi-case Study" is to understand the essence of conflicts and problems, which occur during the migrant integration process in European countries, and identify their common ground. The thesis offers an analysis of possible interpretations of cultural and value contexts, together with interpretations of multiculturalism and other main integration models, which led to creation and implementation of different policies. Discourse analysis is the crucial research method of the thesis. The core of the thesis is represented by case studies, each of them reflecting certain social problems. The final part of the thesis brings the problems together and aims to reveal the connection between them, the integration policies and the context in which the policies were created. The common reason and fundament of different social problems will be searched. The author will analyze the key question, is it possible that problems and conflicts of different shapes stem from the same root?

The thesis aims summarize political and legal framework of immigrant integration policies of Czech Republic and Slovakia. The main goal of thesis is to compare policies of these countries through comparative method and analyze what are their common characteristics and which features differ from each other. Attention is paid to influence of the European Union on development and form of integration policies of Czech and Slovak Republic, and on importance of international cooperation of these countries in this policy area. Thesis tries to confirm the hypothesis that integration policies of both compared countries are affected by regulations and documents adopted at the European Union level. Thesis consists of a theoretical part, analysis of integration policy of the European Union, analysis of integration policies of both countries and comparison of these policies. Analysis deals with development of these policies, legal framework, governmental and non-governmental institutions working in the field of immigrant integration and international cooperation of these countries within international organizations.

It´s of great importance for both democracy and integration that people have an equal opportunity to participate in society. The main challenge today, which of course is even the greatest enemy of democracy and integration, is exclusion. Active forms of collaboration are required to meet this challenge. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Umea municipality´s investment in integration and investigate how immigrants who came to Umea a number of years ago today experience their own integration into Swedish society. This study was conducted with qualitative strategy of individual semi-structured interviews. The result shows that 6 of 8 users were very satisfied with the way our Umea municipality received them and helped them to get into society and out into the labor market. Much of this was due to municipal initiative with different meeting places for immigrants and Umea citizens, which had a very positive impact on the social network of immigrants.

In this essay I am going to discuss the different forms of discrimination and disadvantages of immigrant employees in the Swedish labor market. By using policy analysis, the purpose is to study the policies that contain the guidelines of which discrimination laws and other directives about discrimination are presented. This work is going to study how discrimination and racism occur in the Swedish labor market and how the government counter the disadvantages by acting in the policies they have established. The results show that immigrant and foreign groups in the labor market have disadvantages because of the discriminatory structure that display the employers’ underestimation of these groups by acting on the prejudices and discriminations that these groups are affected by. Problems like ethnic occupational segregation, ethnic hierarchies, hate crime and mainly ethnic discrimination are all independent factors that leads to the disadvantages displayed on the immigrant groups in the Swedish labor market. Salaries and level of education are also determining how far one employee can succeed and be compared with the respective native Swedish employee. The conclusion is, based on the discriminations policies and guidelines, that immigrant groups of Sweden are having a lower salary and definitely not gaining same amount of salary despite the same education and qualifications attained. Worst case is for the black Swedes which have the lowest income compared to other immigrants and mostly to native Swedes. By the help of the government would the qualitative differences between these groups be less defined because of the government influence in form of multicultural projects and activities, which allow immigrants to be established firmly into the Swedish society and hopefully into the labor market

The concept of integration is complex and multifaceted and is widely discussed in the social sciences, social and political debates, as well as the media. Previous research in the field of integration has identified different modes of immigrant integration, i.e., multiculturalism, assimilation, and civic integration. The general trend in Europe is that of abandoning the multicultural approach to integration, and Sweden is considered an outlier in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the political integration rhetoric in Sweden over time by conducting a multiple case study and comparing three major political parties in the Swedish parliament, namely, the Social Democratic Party, the Moderate Party, and the Sweden Democrats. The goal is to analyze their respective definitions of integration and framings of immigrants over time. This paper conducts a qualitative analysis using the matic data analysis and deductive logic. The empirical findings of this study point to the fact that Sweden is no longer an outlier regarding the general trend in Europe in abandoning the multicultural approach to integration. This paper concludes that regardless of any external factors, party politics and the growing support for SD among voters, a populist radical right party with its anti-immigrantsentiments, have to some extent influenced both S and M and their integration policies overtime, which has resulted in a shift in the political integration rhetoric in Sweden. Currently, all the parties examined in this paper view rights as the end goal of the integration processes at an individual level, despite the differences in the definition of integration and modes of integration policy between the parties. This is also evident in the contemporary political integration rhetoric in Sweden, where all three parties agree that previous integrationstrategies have failed. Another major finding in this thesis is that the time period for integration processes is often neglected both in party politics and in the scholarly literature; therefore, further research is needed on this aspect to determine whether the time frame for integration processes should be country-specific or path-dependent.

Diploma thesis dedicated to the integration of foreigners in the Czech Republic is mainly focused on the usefulness and application of integration policy through the institutions dealing with socio-economic integration of foreigners in the Czech Republic. Integration strategies of foreigners in the Czech Republic are examined only very briefly and there is an open field for the many unanswered questions. The work consists of theoretical and practical part, while the theoretical part is devoted to the analysis of the current state of integration policy in the Czech Republic, highlighting the progress and shortcomings of the integration process. Moreover it examines integration policy key institutions on the state and local level that are an integral part of integration. Last but not least it discusses non profit organizations which play within the integration process crucial role. The practical part is focused on the ongoing projects of integration of foreigners at local level. Particularly to the integration project of Pilsen called Integration of foreigners in local government level and the ongoing project of nonprofit organization Slovo 21 - Next door family. Its attempt to create a genuine integration model aims to enable learning through direct contact between the families of foreigners and Czech families.

This thesis consists of three studies that discuss and analyse Sweden's immigrant and integration policy from different perspectives. The main aim is to provide an understanding of and try to explain why the goal to develop an equal status and situation for immigrants and refugees in Sweden not has been realized. The first study, which also is a licentiate thesis, investigates national and local immigrant policy. It focuses on the political application in Umeå, a community in the north of Sweden. The second study extends the analysis by investigating interests and values that have dominated in the process which led to the Swedish integration policy of 1997. The third study extends the discussion about shifts in interests and values in Swedish immigrant policy. Its focus is on the recent increase in interest for questions about integration and repatriation respectively. The three studies are also discussed in introductory and summarizing discussions. The integration problems are here discussed from an extensive theoretical and analytical perspective with focus on questions about integration, citizenship and human rights. One main conclusion is that fundamental organisational, social, economical and political problems must be solved before the goals of Swedish immigrant policy can be reached. In addition it shows that Swedish immigrant and integration policy has developed parallel to, and been influenced by similar developments in other European immigration countries. In addition, international agreements on 'immigrants' and 'refugees' legal position have been of great importance in this development process as well. Accordingly a conclusion is that Swedish immigrant and integration policy not can be seen as an isolated Swedish phenomenon, but must be studied in relation to the development in both Sweden and to its international context. The results of the study of Swedish integration policy show that the moral foundation for this 'new' policy is both well informed and ambitious. It deals with the burning need to abandon the former immigrant policy that stigmatized and often segregated the people it was supposed to support. Yet these ambitions have been restricted by world events, Sweden's financial problems and disagreements among politicians, local workers and affected actors about political practice. The study shows that pragmatic economical considerations largely determine the development of this political field. It also shows that the contemporary debate about Sweden's integration policy consists of tensions between different perspectives, values, interests, ideologies and the like. These kinds of tension are revealed in the study of Swedish integration and repatriation policy as well. I show that both arguments for integration and repatriation political efforts can be built upon apparently humanitarian motives. An argument put forward is that two parallel and often conflicting approaches to what is meant by 'humanitarian efforts' for immigrants and refugees have developed. One approach means that fundamental structural problems in society must be solved before conditions for immigrants and refugees can be more similar to those of the majority. The other approach means that Swedish society only can offer them a life with social, economical and political marginalisation and that the best solution is to set them free from this fate. This later approach is discussed and criticized for being ambiguous and for involving moral political dilemmas. An argument put forward is that it is doubtful whether a repatriation policy can be justifed from a moral and human perspective. In the introductory and summarizing discussions I argue in favour of expanded citizenship and expanded human rights as means to promote participation in a multiethnic and multicultural democracy. / digitalisering@umu

Seit Mitte 1950er Jahre hatten Bundesregierungen immer wieder betont, dass die Bundesrepublik „kein „Einwanderungsland“ sei. Das Bekenntnis der Rot-Grünen Koalition zum „Einwanderungsland“ und die Reformen im Bereich des Staatsbürgerschaftsrechts (1999), des Arbeitsrechts (2000) und der Zuwanderung (2004) markierte daher für viele Experten einen Paradigmawandel in der deutschen Immigrations- und Integrationspolitik. Dieser Wandel ist nie systematisch untersucht worden. Für den Zeitraum von 1981 bis 2005 geht die Arbeit auf der Basis einer stichwortbasierten Inhaltsanalyse und eines Gesetzgebungsindexes deshalb den Fragen nach, (1) inwieweit sich Veränderungen in der politischen Zuwanderungsdiskussion in Deutschland am Beispiel des Deutschen Bundestags nachweisen lassen (Diskursebene), (2) inwiefern die gesetzliche Steuerung und Regulierung von Immigration und Integration in dieser Periode von Liberalisierungstendenzen gekennzeichnet war (Policyebene), und (3) in welchem Verhältnis Diskurs und Policy zueinander stehen. Politische, ökonomische und gesellschaftliche Rahmenbedingungen werden dabei berücksichtigt. Theoretisch basiert die Arbeit auf den Annahmen der Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, die etwas ausführlicher dargestellt und mit den Konzepten Paradigma, Frame und Policywandel verbunden wird. / The paper deals with parliamentary discourse and public policy in the realm of immigration and integration in the Federal Republic of Germany between 1981 and 2005. All federal governments until the late 1990s had publically denied that Germany was a “country of immigration”. After the coalition under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder took office in 1998 this traditional “anti-immigrant” rhetoric seemed to change and reforms of long held policy strongholds in the areas of citizenship, work, immigration and integration were initiated. Some experts interpreted these changes as a fundamental policy “paradigm shift”. The paper sets out to examine this diagnosis as it has never been systematically tested. At the theoretical level, the author links the Punctuated Equilibrium Approach with related concepts of paradigms, frames and policy change. Methodologically, he combines a keyword-based content analysis for analyzing parliamentary debates on “foreigners” with an index approach that helps tracing liberalization tendencies in federal policies on immigration and integration over time.

This thesis is a qualitative study of a new law that was applied in December 2010. The law is called Lagen om etableringsinsatser för vissa nyanlända invandrare, and is meant to help newly arrived immigrants that come to Sweden to establish themselves in the Swedish society. The aim of the study is to see what discourses the Swedish government produces as a result of this new law. Interesting for the study is to see what happens in the implementation stage at a local level, in this case in the municipality of Örnsköldsvik. Theoretically and methodologically I emanate from critical discourse theory and institutional theory. Previous research about the production of knowledge and power that originate from a post colonial theory is central throughout the study. The key findings are that the discourses that are being produced as a result of this new law build much on previous discourses within the field of integration policy. The main discourses that are being produced and reproduced are a care providing discourse, a market discourse and a state controlling discourse. A momentous problem is however the presumption of “Us and Them” which is connected to institutional structures and leads to an unequal power relationship. / Maria Strandberg

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The purpose of this essay is to compare the integration policy between Socialdemokraterna, Moderaterna and Sverigedemokraterna with focus on labor-market integration, housing segregation and language knowledge. The international immigration has in recent years increased significantly and this has also enriched the receiving countries and still the numbers of extreme right parties have increased. In Sweden a racist populist party, Sverigedemokraterna, are only a few steps away from entering the parliament.</p><p> </p><p>The question in focus is: <em>What differences or similarities are there between the integration politics between Moderaterna, Socialdemokraterna and Sverigedemokraterna with focus on the areas housing, work and language? </em></p><p><em> </em></p><p>By applying the theoretical framework to the data, I have been able to present answers and build up an analysis. The study concludes that there are more similarities than differences in the integration policy between Moderaterna and Socialdemokraterna. Sverigedemokraterna on the other hand have very radical integration politics in comparison to the two other parties.</p>