"Jag kommer aldrig att tillhöra det här samhället-" : om invandrare, integration, folkhögskola

• Sweden as a multicultural society is the point of departure and the general aim is to deepen the understanding of how ethnical diversity is handled in the Swedish folk high school.I use the universalistic and particularistic perspectives to interpret and analyse underlying values in peoples way of experiencing and handling their lives. Further, I use theories about integration and segregation and also some concepts that emanate from the multicultural education research and anti-racist education research.The empirical data consist of 54 interviews with immigrant students and teachers at four different folk high schools. The data emanate from two different research projects. In the first project immigrants, who were studying in mixed groups, were interviewed. The other students interviewed studied in groups with only immigrant women. The immigrants were not a homogeneous group. They differed from each other concerning, for example, educational background. In the interpretation I have used a hermeneutic approach.The immigrants' experiences of their every day life is characterised by a strong segregation on social and political level. The immigrants, though, do not seem to conceive the situation as completely negative. Far from all consider all forms of integration to be necessary or even eligible. From this every day situation the immigrants enter the Swedish folk high school.There were two different ways of organising studies. If you interpret the experiences from an integration perspective you must prefer the mixed groups. This way of organising can lead to structural integration in the sense that immigrants, through their increasing competence in the Swedish language, can more easily have a share in the societal resources. However, these courses seem not to lead to integration on other levels. The education seems not succeed in relating to what is outside the schools context in the everyday life of the immigrants. If you summarise you must interpret the multicultural considerations as rare at the schools taking part in the two studies.With a starting-point in my results I can say that the Swedish integration policy is not enough to guarantee that all groups get access to the resources of the society. It is not enough that the intention exists in the laws, it must also function in practice. There has to be recognition.

Nyckelord

Invandrare

folkhögskola

integration

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

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