Socio- Economic and Cultural integration of Arab immigrants in Sweden: Integration Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

In the last five years, Sweden is experiencing a sharp rise in the numbers of immigrants from all over the world especially from the countries where living conditions are deteriorating significantly like the countries of the MENA region i.e. (Middle East and North Africa).The newly arrived Arab immigrants, who decided to leave their countries regardless their reasons while looking for a better life in Sweden, face the challenges of cultural and socio-economic integration. Integration is a process which can be fulfilled in an effective manner under certain conditions. These conditions manifest essentially in a mutual understanding and effective communication to improve trust. The research questions of this thesis are: 1) What are the integration strategies provided by the Swedish government? Are they effective? 2) How do people from the Arab countries experience cultural differences between their home countries and the Swedish culture? How do they experience their integration in Sweden? 3) How should Sweden improve integration? The methodology applied in this thesis consists on the conduction of semi-structured interviews with some Arab immigrants and of a qualitative approach to analyze participants’ responses. The opinions of immigrants who have been interviewed depict that integration strategies in Sweden are effective but more consideration of intercultural communication and a focus on labour market integration can lead to improvement of the process of integration in the country.