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- Gustafson, Åsa, 1968-
(author)
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Sköra livsmönster : Om integrations- och normaliseringsprocesser bland bosniska flyktingar
- 2004
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this study is to illustrate and unfold the dynamic interaction between conditions of integration and patterns of integration, in other words the structural conditions related to processes of integration and normalization of every day life. This is done with concrete reference to Bosnian refugees living in Malmö and Umeå during 1996-1997, having received permanent permission to stay in Sweden during 1992-1995. How do refugees under different conditions arrange their lives, perceive their own life situation, manage the course of daily life and develop individual life patterns? The study shows that processes of integration and normalisation depend on and has an impact on involvement and participation in social, economic, political and cultural life in general. Background statistics, official documents and local daily press material together with intense interviews with Bosnian refugees and key-informants constitute the empirical base of the study. The theoretical base consists of a holistic perspective on integration, including aspects of ethnicity, culture and gender. The focus is on the double-sided processes of integration among refugees in relation to the established population. Refugees’ processes of integration and normalization are described and discussed with reference to patterns of living conditions, patterns of integration, patterns of action and patterns of attitudes. The general conclusion is that refugees’ life patterns are very fragile. Processes of integration and normalization depend on conditions of involvement and of participation as well as the openness of the society at large and specifically on how civil, political and social rights are supplied for. This in turn raises the question of the importance of not only formal but also substantial citizenship rights. Integration is also closely related to possible changes towards more flexible gendered spaces of action. The more equal gender relations in the family become the more it opens up for possibilities of integration and normalization for both women and men. Encompassing possibilities to integration into the society at large combined with increased potentials of altering conventional power relations between women and men are vital for the processes of integration and normalization among refugees.
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