Constructions, Identifications and Ambivalence : the Encounter between Perceived and Lived Reality of Immigrated Women

Sammanfattning: This thesis aims to understand the encounter between the Swedish government’s constructions of immigrated women and the women’s own identifications. By merging post-structural ontology with feminist post-colonial ideas a theoretical framework was created to meet this aim. The government’s constructions were found through discourse analysis of governmental publications and interpellation debates while the immigrated women’s stories were captured through interviews. The findings show that the government homogenizes the immigrated woman and positions her as unemployed, excluded, caring, and dependent etc., while the women recognize themselves as among other things professionals and agents. However, while the government constructs a homogeneous image of the immigrated woman, the women express very diverse identities, and the differences are significant. Thus, there is a clear discrepancy in the perceived and lived reality of immigrated women in Sweden. This could lead to a reproduction of immigrated women as belonging to patriarchal structures, which attributes the women the problem. Accordingly, the women also become the targets for the suggested solutions.