"Mer än ett SPRÅKcafé?: En kvalitativ studie om hur ett språkcafé kan fylla fler funktioner än enbart det uppenbara"

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to seek a better understanding of the meaning a language café that only welcomes women, can hold for the participants, who are all immigrant women, and through these narratives explore if the language café as a meeting place can promote integration and empowerment . Because of the global pandemic, caused by Covid-19, the language café temporarily closed which provided an opportunity to examine if the break affected the women in any way, with accordance to above questions. The study uses a qualitative method and the result is based on five semi-structured interviews with the women participating in the language café. The theory that is used to analyse the material is an integration model developed by Swedish sociologist José Alberto Diaz. The integration model gives an overview of the integration process immigrants go through in Sweden, divided into seven different dimensions. The result of the study suggests that the language café holds diverse meanings depending on who is asked. The study also found that the language café as a meeting place can work as a tool in a woman’s integration process, for example by helping her with the Swedish language, as well as empowering her, by giving her a meaningful context through women fellowship. Finally, the result showed that the pause did affect the women, for example in the way that some worried about losing the Swedish language and some missed the sense of belonging that the language café provided them. The conclusion of the study is that the language café is a very appreciated and important place for the women participating, and it is functioning in more ways than being only a place to practice Swedish.