At the core of lifeworld and system. A socio-legal study of civil society organizations’ role in refugee integration

Sammanfattning: The Swedish integration policies rely heavily on the establishment program, a measure taken as a consequence of the high unemployment rate among refugees after the “refugee crisis”. The establishment program aims to tackle the gap in access to the labour market between native-born and refugees through economic imperatives. Civil society organizations step in to provide programs that target refugee integration. This thesis in Sociology of Law implemented the Habermasian theories of civil society, lifeworld and system, and communicative action to scrutinize the role played by civil society in creating social integration of newly arrived refugees. The divergences between the objectives of law and the reality of the law create the space for civil society to enter the debate, which marked the starting point of this research. The aim of this thesis was achieved through the use of qualitative methods with a bottom-up perspective, including qualitative interviews with volunteers and professionals from civil society organizations, and participant observation during activities provided by civil society. Activities promoted by civil society organizations such as language skills, network, skills development, leisure activities, and mental health workshops have been considered as part of their strategy to create social integration of refugees and to bridge the gap between the objectives of the law and its reality in the lifeworld. Civil society is, thus, at the core of lifeworld and system and creates refugee integration through the activities offered.