Integration in Sweden : A qualitative study of immigrant women and their journey to integrate into the Swedish society.

Sammanfattning: 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.