Swedishness in Swedish Integration Policy - A Thesis Regarding the Function of Contemporary Swedish Integration Policy and the Articulation of a Hegemonic Discourse on Swedishness

Sammanfattning: This thesis is about Swedish integration policy. The thesis suggests that integration policy inexorably leads to the question of who is to be integrated into what and in that way it holds an immanent categorizing practice. The theoretical points of departure in this thesis proposes that Swedish integration policy, through this categorizing practice, has a productive function as it articulates a discourse on swedishness. The thesis uses the theoretical concepts of hegemony and dislocations in order to understand how a normal swedishness is articulated while other possibilities are dislocated. The thesis suggests that a Swedish subject is produced and positioned through such a discourse. The aim of this thesis is to understand how a hegemonic discourse on swedishness is articulated and how a Swedish subject is positioned and produced within the limits of this discourse. To illustrate how swedishness and a Swedish subject is put in a seemingly self-evident position, the thesis looks at the articulations of the hegemonic discourse on swedishness comparing the periods 1975-1982 on the one hand and 1997-2003 on the other. The periods are identified from the point of departure in which goals and guidelines have been formulated in Swedish integration policy. Two legislative bills are actual in this respect, one from 1975 and one from 1997/98 and are the empirical foundation for this thesis. In order to nuance the analysis and look more practically on Swedish integration policy, an analysis of social introduction material issued by the Swedish Board of Immigration/Integration and directed to newly arrived immigrants are made. Concluding, the thesis suggests that a hegemonic discourse on swedishness is articulated in a way that connects swedishness to a specific sort of responsibility and desired employment and that this has a disciplinary function in the reproduce of a class positioned Swedish subject.