Motstridigheter : Om upplevda integrationsproblem och formuleringen av svensk integrationspolicy

During 2014–2016, Sweden received almost 300,000 people seeking protection. Politically, this asylum reception has been presented as a “crisis”, and a threat to the welfare system as well as Swedish culture. At the same time, many argue that immigration contributes to society's prosperity, both culturally and economically. The aim of this ethnographic study is to examine how problems are formulated and handled within contemporary Swedish integration policy. The study includes formal political policy, as well as the policy produced within the Public Employment Office – the authority that manages the Swedish introduction programme for newly arrived migrants. The problems suggested by official policy actors are contrasted against newly arrived migrant’s problem representations, and the results show significant disparity in problem formulations as well as in understandings of integration as a phenomenon. It is argued that Swedish integration policy has become more conservative and protectionist over time